11 May 2018

Building the Death Star

Since being sworn in as President of the United States, Donald Trump has devoted considerable energy to reversing many of his predecessor in office Barack Obama's actions.

But perhaps the most surprising reversal might come from undoing a January 2013 action by President Obama to reject a popular petition for the U.S. to build a working Death Star. For an administration seeking to expand the military capabilities of the United States, where the President has proposed creating a "space force", the Trump White House might soon revisit what would be the nation's largest ever defense infrastructure construction project.

Advances in production technology and fabrication methods for space-based structures stand to make the project much more feasible and cost effective than in President Obama's day, as the following video demonstrating how a Death Star could be practically manufactured demonstrates (HT: Core77):

It's really not that much different from assembling an International Space Station. And it would certainly be a lot easier to see from the ground. For a nation whose private sector can launch a Tesla into space, how hard can it be for the government to do?

Yes, the second video is real!