What’s the Cost and Time Estimate for the Death Star in Star Wars?

For those who have seen Star Wars (which is everyone, no?), you will know that the ultimate device for destruction is the planet-sized Death Star. Spoiler alert: the first Death Star is destroyed at the end of the first film. But 2 films later, a new one is being constructed. Is this realistic? Does anyone care, it’s fucking Star Wars, it’s not a documentary (or is it…?). Well, for some reason, economics students at Lehigh University have determined the time and money it would take to built yourself a Death Star (via Crave). Sounds like a practical, real world application.

A few assumptions were made, as these things often require. First assumption: steel was the main material. Using an estimate of the Death Star’s size (the second assumption) of a 140 km diameter, it was estimated that 1,000,000,000,000 (1 quadrillion) tons of steel would be required. No big deal. However, if today’s steel production rates were assumed, this would take 800,000 years. I guess these are the benefits of droids? And in terms of money, it would set you back a cool $8,100,000,000,000,000. Maybe Darth Vader should start buying safes from people on eBay.