Insane Plan of Engineers to Build a Death Star Instead of the ISS

The International Space Station has been orbiting Earth for 23 years. It's first module was launched back in 1998. Since then, the station has been repeatedly modernized, new modules have been added and it just kept being repaired. NASA has already invested over 400 million dollars in the development of the new ISS 2.0 project. But if we want to explore space not just in Earth's orbit but beyond, we need something new. Maybe not just the most advanced station but an entire mini planet with a scientific complex that can be placed anywhere in the solar system.

Today we will discuss what's the need to spin the Death Star, how much does the largest asteroid cost, and can we create an entire artificial planet?

Why do we need an entire mini Planet if we can just build a modern version of the ISS? Because that's what NASA is trying to do along with private companies such as nanoracks, Voyager space and Lockheed Martin. By 2027, they're planning to launch the private Star Lab space station into orbit. It will be not only a research lab but also a space Tourism Center in addition to the laboratory facility and Technical compartments, Star Lab will be equipped with a habitat module with 340 cubic meters of internal volume. This is three times less than the internal volume of the ISS. Despite its small size Star Lab can solve several problems faced by the International Space Station. The thing is that, the Star Lab habitat module is inflatable. It's made of layers of patented material that will help protect the station from cosmic radiation, damage and air leaks. Besides, Star Lab is not a government project but a private one, and that's another big plus. The point is that, nowadays the ISS is under threat, not only because it's obsolete, several countries are involved in its technical support. The USA, Japan, European countries, Canada and Russia, and if until 2022 the states managed to find agreement after the war Unleashed by President Vladimir Putin in Ukraine, this situation changed.

The thing is, that each space agency is responsible for the viability of its module each of them conducts regular inspections and maintenance to extend its module service life. NASA, jaxa and CSA have made their modules operational until 2028 and the Ross Cosmos module which maintains the ISS in orbit and literally keeps it from falling to Earth we'll only be able to remain functional until 2024, so the ISS will most likely have to be de-orbited several years ahead of schedule but Star Lab won't solve the main problem of the International Space Station. The absence of gravity we're used to here on Earth. Prolonged exposure to weightlessness is not only inconvenient but also dangerous, astronauts quickly lose calcium, resulting in bone density loss and an increased risk of fractures. Space agencies worldwide are investigating the short and long-term effects of zero gravity, and so far the results have been disappointing, but, what if we could build a space station with gravity? Then long-term space missions will become a reality and will be able to send astronauts to any place in our solar system. But it's not not so easy to create Gravity. The only way out is to build a planet-like station or even a mini Planet.

But how can that be done?

There are two ways we can create a planet. The first is to go through all the stages of natural formation from the protoplanetary disc to the mini copy of Earth, and the second way is to build a space station that looks like a planet, for example, our version of the Death Star. It's about 140 kilometers in diameter and its mass is about one quadrillion tons assuming it's made of steel, and even though the death star's mass is one million times less than the earth. It'll take a lot of time and resources to build it. For example, it took 3 years and 10 000 Builders to erect the Burj Khalifa skyscraper weighing only a mere million tons. But building a death star will still be easier than building an entire planet.

Aerospace engineer Mark Hensel in his article for the Journal of of the British interplanetary Society writes that one-tenth of Earth's mass is enough for us to create a full-fledged planet, and if we pack 700 quintillion tons of material into a moon-sized sphere, will get gravity just like on Earth. But how can we compress all this Mass into such a volume? For that to happen, hemp cells suggested using the sun's energy. If we deploy a nuclear fusion complex near our star it'll be possible to produce massive amounts of the heavy elements necessary to create the planet. Such a reactor would collect hydrogen from the sun's surface and use it to produce osmium, iridium and platinum. These elements heated to five and a half thousand degrees Celsius will be launched by the reactor into the required point of the solar system. There they'll Collide bind to one another and form the nucleus of the future Planet. When this Mass cools down to 1600 degrees Celsius, and can be covered with a silicon layer to form the crust, but where are we gonna get so much silicon and other resources.

Where Can we get resources for the entire planet?

To create the crust of an artificial Planet, we'll need around three quintillion tons of material. It's mostly oxygen, silicon and metals, and it'll take one quadrillion tons of steel to build the Death Star. Nowadays, the steel production on Earth is around 2 billion tons annually. So if we don't want to spend 800,000 years just mining resources we need to look for other sources of silicon and Metals. For example, asteroids, psyche, one of the most massive bodies in the asteroid belt holds 10,000 quadrillion dollar reserves of nickel and iron that should be enough to create more than one death star and Rocky asteroids can be a source of material for an artificial planet's crust. But for resource extraction, we'll need new technologies and Equipment adapted to work in Low Gravity environments is the result worth the effort.

Will an artificial Planet solve the problems faced by the ISS?

The main drawback of modern space stations is the absence of gravity, and the mini Earth will have no problem with that. But what about the Death Star? Its structure will have to be very different from the ones shown in the movies. Adam stelzner an American NASA engineer who works for the jet propulsion laboratory, believes that to create gravity, it'll be enough to play Place rockets in the orbit of the sphere. They'll spin the Death Star around its axix. Due to centrifugal force, it'll be possible to create Earth-like gravity inside. In addition the Rockets won't have to work continuously since there's no friction in space. Nothing will slow down the station's rotation. The spheres's internal structure will resemble an onion, the floors will be stacked in layers. It's best if we make floors located in the center of the sphere technical. The thing is that, their gravity will be much lower than that of the outer envelope, but, such a structure has one big disadvantage, "Instability". Steltzner believes that such a structure will need non-stop maintenance. For example, the crew will have to constantly clarify the exact orbital parameters of the station, and adjust them. It would be much easier to build a research complex on an artificial Planet. There would be no problem with stability or gravity, but, there is one drawback. Even if we build a fusion reactor near the Sun and find enough silicon for the crust, it would take at least 10,000 years to build a planet from scratch. Are you ready to wait that long? What if we find a way to build a planet faster? I think both at death star and the mini Earth would become not only scientific stations, but also popular tourist destinations.