Click HERE to see this thread with all of the graphics, features, and links.

How long does it take to build a death star?

Episode 3 plays 17 years before Episode 4 and in the very ending we see how the death star is build. ROTJ takes three years after ANH place (Am I right?) and there have already build a new intact death star, which is obvously much bigger than the first one. Is there a skip of time of more or less 14 years within ROTS?

Better blue prints? More reasons to build it? More people working on it? More experienced people working on it? And maybe the last part of it is hardest to build along with the engine. Seeing as ROTJ doesn't have the entire thing finished and it doesn't seem to fly.

I have no idea, but that is pretty much all I could come up with

well ive gotten estimates from three different contractors, the consensus seems to be that a fully functional DS with heated leather seats would take roughley 21 years to complete

What if the shit just didn't work?

After 3 years of building it, they might have found it to have several mistakes in it. So they needed to redesign it and make massive repairs.

+ The separatists were the ones who planned the things basic structures? After episode 3, there werent too many separatist scrientists to help with problems that might occur while reading their plans.

After all technical problems were solved, the thing would take about 3 years to build.

I agree with Sesse. If say..you are building a chair for the first time you tend to figure out what works and what doesn't it's almost guranteed that the second will be quicker and easier...also, they built the first one in secret and most likely without senate approval (He had just announced the Empire..it's a little early to be introducing a new planet killing super ball). So they had to sneak in supplies, workers, etc..whearas the Second was constructed with most likely the majority of the Imperial war machine working to get it going.

Have any of you seen Clerks? Remenber that theory that Kevin Smith mentions in the movie. About Independant contractors working on the Death Star? I guess they must have a time limit or contract to fulfill in a 3 year period.

What if they were building both at around the same time.
since the gap is about 20 years start building the 2nd one after 8 years of building the 1st one it would also explain why the death star in ROTJ was incomplete.

It took me 2 weeks, but that was only because, bits were missing, and I got glue everywere. LOL

I think it takes aprox 20 years.

Maybe it takes 3 years but they just got lazy?

Originally posted by Texansfan05
What if they were building both at around the same time.
since the gap is about 20 years start building the 2nd one after 8 years of building the 1st one it would also explain why the death star in ROTJ was incomplete.

I agree, as far as I know it's never mentioned when they started working on the second Death Star. Maybe they started building it a couple years after they started the first.

Yeah youve got to get a head start these days on the property ladder

I don't see why, since the second one would have an exhaust port like the first one, it would be easy again. If that were the case, then the whole space battle wouldn't be needed. They probably started it around ESB and captured Wookiees as slave labor, since they're strong, they can get it done a bit quickly.

I'm scared of heights

The exact mechanics, design, and amount of time it took develop and who came up with the idea of the death star are all very interesting, but not very important. The fact, that it would take the power of a small sun to power this thing points to the limitless possibilities in the star wars universe. But after all
"The power to destroy planets is insignificant when compared to the force."

Makes total sense now.

I doubt the blueprints thing would ever be a major problem. A contributing factor, yes, but a major one? No.

The major problem would be: The Senate.

When The Death Star is first made, The Senate is still intact. Only by Episode IV, when the Death STar is completed, can the Emperor keep the systems in line with fear, as Tarkin states. Until the Death Star is completed, The Emperor NEEDS The Senate to maintain control. First Death Star: Emperor + Senate call the shots and argue and bicker. Second Death Star = Emperor calls the shots DIRECTLY.

The two decades or so it takes for the first Death Star to be finished is totally believable. God knows how many protests and negativity was directed toward the project. It was probably put on hold many times due to the Civil War and the Senate alone. This is something I hope the TV show will touch upon.

Once the Death Star is completed, Emperor can do what he likes, nobody would dare oppose him. But until that moment, he has to put up with cutbacks, The Senate (which also aids the Alliance from within)

However, with the Second Death Star, The Empire is already a dictatorship. The Emperor can pour as much man power onto the project as he likes, as hard as he likes, has has total control by then, which is why the second one is fully operational in a fraction of the time.

Also note that The Emperor was sending Vader out to be the slave master, cracking the proverbial whip to get the second one done. He couldn't have pushed people around like that with the Senate intact. It all makes total sense. I used to think it was down to the blueprints and stuff, but it's really down to the resources The Emperor had at his disposal at the time of each project.

thats a pretty good reason superfly, i also like the idea that they started the second one a few years after the first....

No wonder they wanted to blow so much sh*t up with it.

It takes two decades to complete, after The Senates constant interferrance, but when it's complete, The Emperor would be like "OK, take this you sons of b*tches!"

If it took me two decades to finally get my dream project up and running after putting up with so much crap, I'd go on a planet destroying spree just like Empire and occasionally stopping every now and then to play some pool but with planets.

Except I doubt anyone knew of the Death Star's existence until around Alderaan's destruction...if this thing was big news I doubt people in ANH, such as Solo, Kenobi, the rebels on Yavin, etc...would've reacted in the way they had.."Look at the size of that thing", "That's no moon, it's a space station", "Destroying a planet would take more firepower than i've ever seen"...etc..etc..I just don't think anyone knew what it was until the Emperor destroyed Alderaan and then kindly told the senate to clean out their desks.

I personally think they were building them both at the same time, from RotS on. They just shifted focus after 20 years to completing the first one and show it's power then started on completing the second.

It's the "Contact" corollary. "Why build one when you can build two at twice the price?"

Yeah but they were a bunch of people who probably hadn't been to the capital territories in a while, if at all. Kenobi and Luke wouldn't know anything, while Han and Chewie may have heard whisperrings but never actually cared enough due to their dealings as smugglers in outer rim territories.

I mean, I'm sure SOMEONE in the Senate would have said "OK dude, WTF does that do?"

"I'm building a moon made of metal to keep all of the Gungans stored on it" wouldn't fly as an excuse.

The Senate obviously knew about the Battle Station anyway. Leia, a forerunner in the Senate itself, knows of the stations capabilities. I doubt it is a secret.

the death star wars there. The giant orb could have been finished for 10-15 years without the primary weapon being operational. They migth have to re-work the lazer several times.

Yeah, maybe it wasn't even supposed to BE a Death Star.

Maybe the Emperor originally intended to have a huge disco ball so he could boogey down with his bad self on Coruscant.

Then, when it's almost finished, he thinks "Dude, I'm gonna put a big f*cking laser on that thing instead, and blow sh*t up!"

We just don't know.

Evidently its taken 3 years between the movies in each saga, so it takes 3 years when you have protocol driods! lol jk

I don't get it..

Originally posted by Aulcarde
Evidently its taken 3 years between the movies in each saga, so it takes 3 years when you have protocol driods! lol jk

that makes no sense. luke would be 3 years old in ANH then ..

it took 19 years to build the first death star, and i'm guessing that the second was started about 5 years before ANH, so it was almost fully built in 10 years

Here is my thought...combining with EU...flame away:

In the book JEDI SEARCH it is revealed that the original prototype Death Star remained intact in a secret installation. That easily could be what we saw in ROTS.

Flash forward a few years while the first real Death Star was under construction, Palps has the same idea brought out in the film CONTACT: "Why build one when you can build two at twice the cost?" So begins the second, larger Death Star.

I would also agree that construction time varies on how many resources are put into timely construction and how advanced technology becomes.

Still, twenty years seems a bit lengthy to me.

No! EU! That doesn't count! Go away!

I think it works if it's the first real Death Star... They just managed to build the second one faster 'cause they kinda got the jist of the whole space station building the first time 'round.

Besides, in the opening crawl of Jedi it says:

Little does Luke know that the GALACTIC
EMPIRE has secretly begun construction on a
new armored space station even more powerful
than the first dreaded Death Star.

So that throws any idea that they begun building the second one at the same time out the window...

Yeah, I wish people would get this "Two Death Stars" idea out of their heads. It's so absurd.

Its so obvious from the dialogue that there is no backup plan. The Empire was so confident in the first one that they never thought they'd ever need a second. The dialogue between the Governors indicates it is the single, ultimate power in the universe, and the dialogue in ROTJ indicates that the second Death Star is being rushed out.

The Death Star was obviously not a very big secret. The Senate would know all about it. Why else would the Rebellion try and steal the damn plans? The whole point of destroying the Death Star is to stop the Emperor gaining total control - why else would the Senate and its members (Leia Organa, Bail, etc) even worry about the thing?

A death star takes a very long time to build...
I don't even think the empire could build an entire new death star in a matter of a few years...
Why would the empire just build one anyway?
They were probably planning on building many to gain better control of the galaxy...

How do you know a Death Star takes long to build?

How do you know the the typcal building time isn't a few years? It could have been.

I mean, the first one would be controversial in the Senate, taking a five year job and turning it into two decades. The second one, there is no Senate, so it gets built even quicker, despite the fact they are behind schedule with the second one. Emperor can push his men beyond acceptable working regimes, having them work around the clock until they drop dead, unlike the first one where workers have more rights and The Emperor has to get forms signed, laws passed and God knows what else to get the first one built.

They had a main structure built pretty quick in Episode III.

We can only hope the TV show sheds light on this.

who ever said they just completed it in before ep4?
they could have very well kept it secret until such time that they needed it. they probably just built it and let it sit on the back burner. secret weapon.

soon before ep4, the rebel alliance is causing problems, the emporer realises he's losing his grip, so he orders that the deathstar be put into commision. why would he have needed to use it beforehand? i think it was simply his trump card, and he held it until he needed it.

Yeah, that's another explanation.

There's loads of possibilities. I can't believe there are so many that think there were two Death Stars built together, when there obviously weren't. If in Episode III we saw two DS's being built, then fine, but as it stands, it was one after the other.

It's a big project, and amazingly important. We can't just come up with one reason and expect it to stand. It would be much more complicated than that. The Senate, Rebellion, the secrecy, the technical know how, must have all came into play concerning both.

And it's pretty idiotic to create 1 main reactor for a station that big. There should have been hundreds of little ones scattered accross the deathstar. And the exhaus shaft should have not been made straight. At least there should have been metal bars, that wouldn,t have allowed anything to pass through.


Man, 20 years of evelopment and still they screw it up...


+ Does it mean, that whenever the big main reactor needs maintanance, the whole station will be powered down?

Well...'main' reactor would imply that there are non-main reactors...I would assume that lights and what not are not tied into the super weapon aspect of the station but smaller more localized power stations.

How many licks does it take to get to the center of a tootsie pop? Same thing, we don't know.

Man, about the Main Reactor thing.

For The Emperor to orchestrate all of that political mumbo jumbo, and then to squander his lifes work on trying to get a Death Star operational, completely overlooking the fact that in order to get the turbolaser working, it would need the big ass reactor up and running too. Problem? The rest of the DS isn't even finished. Some on in Rebels, pick one of the huge holes and fire away. The Millenium Falcon flew in for crying out loud. Talk about shooting fish in a barrel.

Not only that, but Emperor had all his so called best troops defeated by teddy bears.

What the hell was The Emperor smoking on his last day?

you all ever tried building a moon-sized space station in the middle of space.? it's probably friggin' hard. i'm sure that after the first one got blown to bits, they at least knew how to build it this time, so it took a little less time. and instead of a tiny hole that leads to the center, they put a gaping hole in which a bunch of missile toting ships can fit through to blow it up. it makes perfect sense.

Originally posted by Red Superfly
Man, about the Main Reactor thing.

For The Emperor to orchestrate all of that political mumbo jumbo, and then to squander his lifes work on trying to get a Death Star operational, completely overlooking the fact that in order to get the turbolaser working, it would need the big ass reactor up and running too. Problem? The rest of the DS isn't even finished. Some on in Rebels, pick one of the huge holes and fire away. The Millenium Falcon flew in for crying out loud. Talk about shooting fish in a barrel.

Not only that, but Emperor had all his so called best troops defeated by teddy bears.

What the hell was The Emperor smoking on his last day?


LOL! Yeah..."An entire legion of my best troops!" First, a legion as far as 'earth' terms go is upwards of a thousand troops...Maybe the ones Palps was talking about were protecting the main entrance and the guys in charge of protecting the rear were the rejects we saw..yeah..I'll say that. Because i'm a Star Wars fan and justification is my way of life.

I don't really think that the death star is Palpy's life work. I think his life work was accomplished around Episode III, and then he was just like, "What next? Some oppression? Sounds good to me!"