NASA Says Use An Asteroid To Build A Death Star

Many Star Wars fans would agree that the most iconic space station in the fictional universe is the Death Star. The massive floating space station might look like a moon, but it is a fully functional platform for blowing up planets. NASA chief engineer Brian Muirhead says that the Empire went about making its Death Star the wrong way.

The way to make a massive Death Star isn't to build one from scratch as the Empire did. The way to build one according to Muirhead is to use an existing asteroid. The engineer figures that the asteroid would provide the metals and could provide needed organic compounds as well.

Things like water could be hidden inside too. Muirhead isn't completely out of his depth when talking about mining for materials on asteroids, he is working on a NASA mission called Asteroid Redirect Mission.

That mission will see NASA land a spacecraft on an asteroid, collect a chunk of that asteroid, and then place it in orbit around the moon. Then a crewed mission will go out and collect samples from that asteroid. It will be interesting to find out what the asteroid is hiding under its rocky surface.

SOURCE: Wired