YOU should never underestimate the power of the Dark Side, or the size of their wallet.

Economics students believe they have figured out how much it would cost to build the Death Star. And it’s no wonder the Emperor appears haggard.

Members of Lehigh University in Pennsylvania believe Darth Vader’s boss would have to shell out a whopping $8,100,000,000,000,000. Or roughly 13,000 times the world's gross domestic product (GDP) to build one today.

The economics team said they believe the Death Star to be made of steel and, based on reports it is 140km in diameter, came to the figure based on today’s steel prices.

“Scaling up to the Death Star, this is about 1.08x1015 tonnes of steel,” the student’s blog Centives said.

“Which seems like a colossal mass but we've calculated that from the iron in the earth, you could make just over 2 billion Death Stars.”

But Luke and those “loveable” Ewoks can rest assured knowing that it would take 833,315 years to produce enough steel to begin work on another Death Star, Centives wrote.


http://www.news.com.au/technology/lehigh-university-figure-out-how-much-it-costs-to-build-death-star/story-e6frfro0-1226275852491

 

-----signature-----

I guess this kills Newt's "Death Star" campaign plank.

 

-----signature-----

Yeah because calculating the cost of a planet destroying laser beam is extremely accurate.

Best thing to come out of a college in years!

Well, the Empire spanned the galaxy and had a tremendous amount of resources to pull. With advanced technology and slave or forced labor it's certainly doable (the steel aspect, not talking about the laser, lol).

 

-----signature-----

This.

 

-----signature-----

We already have lasers, and many of which that are capable of being used to drill into the earth. Its just a matter of figuring out how to up the scale to a point where it would quickly drill to the earth's core and set off a reaction.

I think instead of lasers though a particle cannon would work best, it would generate far more heat and burn through the crust much faster imo.

 

-----signature-----

They've gotten REALLY tired of rivet design over there at Lehigh. I can't say that I blame them.

Rho

 

-----signature-----