NASA Engineer Schools You on How to Build a Death Star

Maybe building the Death Star from scratch wasn't the best idea after all.

According to Brian Muirhead, chief engineer at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, a Death Star shouldn't be constructed with parts launched off of a planet like it was in the Star Wars universe. Instead, one should be built using an asteroid.

An already-existing asteroid would provide "all the building blocks you would need to build your family Death Star," says Muirhead, in a Wired video that you can watch below. These building blocks include metals, organic compounds, and water.

Muirhead is currently working on an asteroid redirect mission, which will land on an asteroid, pick up a bolder from its surface, and put it in orbit around our moon. NASA will then go visit the bolder on a crewed mission to collect and bring back samples. The landing is scheduled for 2023.

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