"So you want to build a Death Star?" Topic

"I'm very excited about seeing Rogue One: A Star Wars Story, which tells the tale summarised in the original Star Wars' opening crawl. This is the story of how the rebels stole the plans to the original "Death Star" – a space station the size of a small moon with a weapon powerful enough to destroy a planet.

If we could get our hands on those plans, could we build a similar fortress? I decided to try and work out some aspects of how a Death Star might actually work. In Star Wars lore, the 120km (75-mile) diameter space station was made from quadanium steel (a fictional metal alloy) and crewed by 2m Imperial personnel, including officers, Stormtroopers and TIE pilots.

So would it possible in the real world? Let's not worry about the vast quantities of raw materials required. For example, at current production rates of steel it would take 182 times the current age of the universe to accrue enough. I'm more concerned conceptually with how to power such a colossal battle station and how to generate gravity for everyone on board. It turns out our conventional technologies might not cut it…"
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Amicalement
Armand

Costs might be a bit prohibitive… ;)

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For the entrepreneous here is a cheaper alternative.

It's a brilliant jobs program, AND, if you keep it away from planets, moons, stars, and other gravitational bodies, can be made a lot lighter than you would think, since there's no gravity to worry about, structurally.

Of course, how it will stay together as it moves at sublight, and/or lightspeeds could be an issue, but perhaps they've got gravitational/inertial dampeners to deal with that.

I'd love to build a Death Star, but I can't get plans. Finding plans for a Death Star is notoriously difficult.

Semi-seriously--and semi-seriously is as much as anything in Star Wars deserves--it kinda made sense. Not the only time a technologically stagnant empire just opted for bigger and bigger, regardless of practicality and driven partly by megalomania.

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I tell ya' We're all worried about asteroid strikes, right? Weeelll… Who's worried about asteroids when ya' got a Death Star hanging in orbit!

(smile)

Amicalement
Armand

Semi-seriously--and semi-seriously is as much as anything in Star Wars deserves--it kinda made sense. Not the only time a technologically stagnant empire just opted for bigger and bigger, regardless of practicality and driven partly by megalomania.

The old WEG Star Wars RPG called this the 'Tarkin Doctrine'.

Tarkin lobbied for creation of the Death Star on the basis that most people (creatures) have no concept of numbers.

A thousand Star Destroyers carries no more weight that a hundred.

But if you build something thousands of time bigger than a Star Destroyer – that they can understand.

I'm more concerned conceptually with how to power such a colossal battle station and how to generate gravity for everyone on board. It turns out our conventional technologies might not cut it.

They use Kyber crystals. The name in other galaxies/universes could be dilithium, or unobtainium or pixie dust or magic beans. In star wars galaxy it also contains the force so can do magic.
They discount centrifugal force which would explain people falling off high places inside the ship. An alternative would be artificial gravity but that would be custom fitted to only work at certain places in the ship and would not explain people falling off high places into interior voids where there would be no need for artificial gravity. So no idea.