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A scientist thought about building the Death Star from the Star Wars movie.
STATES CHRONICLE – Many Star Wars fans were thrilled when seeing Rogue One: A Star Wars Story, but a scientist thought about the possibility of building the Death Star mentioned in the movie. This film tells the story of how the rebels succeeded in stealing the plans to the original Death Star. This represents a space station which has the size of a small moon, being equipped with a dangerous weapon bound to destroy a whole planet.
A scientist imagined having those plans to develop such a space station if it could be possible. In the movie, this was a 75-mile-diameter space station which was built out of quantum steel. Approximately two million Imperial personnel, including TIE Pilots, Stormtroopers and officers were on the spacecraft. Some are wondering if this would be possible in the real world.
To acquire such a significant quantity of steel, it would take us about 182 times the age of the universe to accumulate enough to develop the space station. What is even more complex, it’s the method which should be used to power an immense station and also generate gravity for the whole crew. Thus, we are aware of the fact that current technology might not help us.
If we were to make even more accurate calculations, let’s think about the International Space Station. It requires about 0.75 watts/ cubic meter. This power is provided by eight different solar arrays which are about 112 feet long and about 39 feet wide. Even if we had efficient solar panels able to cover the massive Death Star, we would still not be able to honor the ISS’s power demands per unit volume.
What is even more important it’s that power will diminish once we steer the space station away from the sun. To recreate the gravity on Earth, the space station will need to revolve every 3.5 minutes. If we were to pay attention to the lessons thought by ‘2001: A Space Odyssey’, we would understand that the ring-shape of the spacecraft played a significant role.
As one travel toward the center or the poles of the radius, it decreases, resulting in the vanishing of the artificial gravity. If gravity was to be built in this way on the Death Star, then this questions the spherical design of the ship. But what if this space station held an artificial star inside which could solve the problem of gravity? There are still a lot of details to be considered in case this type of machine would ever be build.
Image source: wikipedia
