10 Things You Probably Didn't Know About The Death Star
2. Scientists Worked Out How To Build One
Given how much scientists love applying the rigours of the scientific method to the geekiest possible pop culture phenomena, it's inevitable that a bunch of them eventually tried to work out how to build a Death Star. What they found was rather unpromising for the wannabe galactic overlords of Earth.
Firstly, it would cost a lot of money. A LOT. More money than exists in all the economies of Earth. Students at Leigh University, basing their calculations on the Death Star's size and assumed steel content, came up with a figure of $8.1 quadrillion, which raises the question of whether 'quadrillion' is even a word. Compare this to a total world wealth of $200 trillion, which probably couldn't buy a Star Destroyer.
The amount of steel involved is another prohibitive problem, and while the Earth has enough iron (because a pretty heft percentage of the Earth's mass is made of it), the methods and rate of extraction are trickier to overcome. At the current rate of iron extraction, the Death Star would take about 800,000 years to build.
So if you want your own Death Star, start saving. And digging.