You could just say, “A lot of money,” but what fun would that be?
These guys figured it out, so here’s your answer:
The Death Star has a similar density in steel as a modern warship.
Exhibit A
Name: HMS Illustrious
Volume: 28,591.2 m3
Mass: 22,000 tonnes
Scaling up to the Death Star, this is about 1.08×1015 tonnes of steel. 1 with fifteen zeros.
Since the core of the earth consists of iron, this is where you would find enough iron to build the Death Star.
Exhibit B
Name: Death Star
Volume: 1,440,000 kilometres3
Mass: 1.08 x 1015tonnes
At today’s rate of steel production (1.3 billion tonnes annually), it would take 833,315 years to produce enough steel to begin work.
When you figure the cost of steel, today, the steel alone to build the Death Star would cost:
Ben Simpson says
Well, we better get to work.
Eric Dye says
Seriously.
Phillip Gibb says
wow. Might want to add a factor of 10 for the degree of difficulty – it would have to be built in space.
Eric Dye says
Nah. We’ll use the Force.
James Cooper says
Now that’s what Apple could do with all their spare cash…
Eric Dye says
LOL!