The Death Star is the flagship of the Empire in Star Wars. However, the question of what the superweapon actually cost is never raised. We clarify.
During the course of the original trilogy, the Empire builds not just one, but even two Death Stars. With the second, they manage to do it in no time, which causes discussions among fans.
But what does such a superweapon cost in our world? Students at Lehigh University in Pennsylvania dealt with this question a few years ago and approached it mathematically.
The result exceeds the financial standards of our Earth by far.
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What did the students find out? The costs for the Death Star mainly depend on the steel needed, which is made from iron.
If you take the diameter of the first Death Star, which is 120-140 kilometers, the students estimate that about 1.08 trillion tons of steel are needed.
They then calculated that for such an amount, around 852 trillion US dollars would be needed. Converted to euros, that amounts to about 724 trillion €. The calculation comes from 2012, and considering changing prices, it could be even more today.
In comparison: The total global gross domestic product amounted to about 117 trillion US dollars in 2025, according to Statista. The Death Star would require about 7,282 times that cost of 852 trillion.
By the way: There is comparatively little iron on the Earth’s surface that we could use for the construction of the Death Star. However, the Earth’s core supposedly has raw materials for 2 million Death Stars according to the investigation. Unfortunately, we have no access to that.
Since we would have to make do with the iron available to us, construction would take quite a long time: about 833,000 years. Even if you had the necessary funds, you would not witness the completion.
Taking all these factors into account, it is indeed surprising that the Empire was able to build two Death Stars in just a few years. The second one was even larger than the first. The planet destroyer is not the only overwhelming tool in the galaxy: 5 superweapons from Star Wars that are even more frightening than the Death Star
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