The Death Star is one of the most iconic weapons
in cinema. A simply designed battle station the size
of a small moon, capable of destroying an entire planet. Welcome to Star Wars Explained, and 101 facts
about the Death Star. The following facts have all been taken from
canon sources. The Death Star cost over one trillion credits
to build. It was funded by Techno Union, Banking Clan,
Trade Federation and the Republic, so both sides of the Clone Wars. The Death Star began construction as a Republic
weapon, not Separatist. After Dooku brought the plans to Sidious,
Palpatine used them to instill fear that the Separatists were building a superweapon and
that the Republic needed to build a version of their own first. The original designs were developed by Geonosian
engineers thought to be captured along with Poggle the Lesser during the Second Battle
of Geonosis. Very few members of the Republic or Empire
knew of the weapon’s development. Those that did were known as the Strategic
Advisory Cell. They each signed the Official Secrets Act
to keep the project secret from the Jedi and the rest of the galaxy. Tiaan Jerjerrod was known for his work on
the second Death Star, but he also helped build the first. Construction of the Death Star began over
Geonosis. The first completed piece was the ring that
would become the prime meridian. The asteroids surrounding the planet were
mined for ores. The Geonosian battle droid factories were
converted to refineries. Poggle the Lesser negotiated his freedom in
exchange for the use of his worker drones on the project. Geonosians almost needed work to survive. They fought and killed each other over tasks
they found satisfying, a practice which was considered completely natural to them. Over the course of its construction, members
of the Strategic Advisory Cell wondered why Dooku never attacked the construction on Geonosis. Of course we know this is because he is simply
following his master’s orders. The full construction took about twenty three
years, although much of the delay was due to the loss of the superlaser’s chief researcher,
Galen Erso. Several outposts and supply depots were created
as checkpoints for materials to protect the true location of the Death Star’s construction. Orson Krennic managed the development of the
Death Star and its superweapon. Krennic’s official title was Director of
Advanced Weapons Research. The Death Star itself was guarded by four
star destroyers and eight frigates. After the Clone Wars, Wookiee slaves were
forced to build many Imperial machines of war, including the Death Star. At some point the project was moved away from
Geonosis. To protect their secret weapon, the Empire
killed all Geonosian life. Or so they thought. Scarif was another planet used as a construction
site for the Death Star. To protect the installation on Scarif’s
surface, an impenetrable deflector shield surrounded the entire planet. When the Republic became the Empire, the Imperial
Company was established. Its logo was not so subtly the Death Star. This isn’t an official rendering, just my
own interpretation based on its description in Catalyst. Every department of the battle station’s
development had a cover name and agency. The superlaser’s cover was Project Celestial
Power. Other names included Stellar Sphere, Mark
Omega, and Pax Aurora. Publicly, the Death Star was known as the
DS-1 platform. It was 120 kilometers in diameter. The Death Star’s hull was made of Quadanium
steel. Power was supplied to the station and superlaser
by numerous hypermatter reactors. It was armed with 15,000 turbolaser batteries. 768 tractor beams were spread across the equatorial
trench. The Millennium Falcon was pulled into docking
bay 327, so there were at least that many docking bays. The station was made up of 357 internal levels. Turbolifts carried personnel between said
layers, and could move both vertically and horizontally. Although it was never shown, the first Death
Star had a throne room for the Emperor just as the second did. The Death Star had a bar. A former Imperial lamented its poor lack of
drink choices. The garbage chutes were able to identify waste
and direct trash accordingly. Luke and company wind up in recyclables thanks
to their stormtrooper armor. The creature that lurked in that trash compactor
was called a dianoga. It’s currently unknown how it got there,
but it’s possible the Empire used the creatures to help break down garbage. Grilled dianoga was a breakfast dish served
at Maz Kanata’s castle. Although it’s never seen used in the film,
the Death Star does have a hyperdrive. I would be very interested to see what moving
something of that size through hyperspace would look like on screen. An emergency air dump guarded against any
biological attacks in the air filtration system. There was a water recycling facility that
generated artificial humidity for the entire station. Detention area AA-23 was reserved for political
prisoners such as Leia Organa. The RA-7 model protocol droid was used in
large numbers aboard the Death Star, earning them the nickname Death Star Droids
MSE-6 droids, also called Mouse Droids, were utilized to clean the floors, make basic repairs,
carry messages, and guide troops to their posts. The Death Star carried over two million personnel
of various combat capabilities. 342,953 of them were members of Imperial Navy/Army. 25,984 of them were stormtroopers. Both of those statistics are oddly specific
to me. The Empire doesn’t round, I guess. Stormtroopers played ball games in zero gravity
filtration systems, an act which was very much forbidden. The Death Star had elite naval troops called
Death Star Troopers that held various responsibilities including piloting the station, operating
the superlaser, and more. Imperial Weapons Technicians operated the
turbolasers and ion cannons of the Death Star. The most elite of them were involved in firing
the superlaser. They wore special helmets that were designed
to protect their eyes from the bright flashes of the superlaser and exploding planets. The superlaser’s design itself was inspired
by ancient Sith weapons and their use of giant kyber crystals. Original plans were for eight giant crystals
to create eight beams that would combine into one massive beam. One kyber crystal meant for the Death Star
was destroyed in the Clone Wars. A second was destroyed about five years prior
to the Battle of Yavin. Large kyber crystals were rumored to decorate
the various Jedi temples spread throughout the galaxy. The Death Star’s superlaser design was adapted
to allow for vast arrays of smaller crystals to be used in place of large ones. Kyber crystals were harvested from planets
like Ilum and Starkiller base, which may have actually been the same planet. The chief researcher behind the superlaser
was Galen Erso. Erso believed his work was to use kyber crystals
to provide inexpensive energy to developing worlds. When he learned that the Empire was attempting
to weaponize his work, he fled the Empire, delaying the project for years. After the loss of Erso, Krennic received a
demotion, and Moff Tarkin was assigned to oversee the rest of the project. A failed test of weaponizing kyber crystals
resulted in an explosion that destroyed an entire city, and the deaths of tens of thousands
of beings. The superlaser’s first successful test fire
took place near two black holes. This could be a nod to the Maw Installation
from Legends, which is where multiple Imperial superweapons were developed. That test superlaser was only two percent
the size of the final version. The superlaser required 24 hours to recharge. This was reduced to only three minutes in
the second Death Star. If the beams were not aligned perfectly the
crystals would overload and burn out causing dangerous levels of waste heat back into the
main reactor. The Death Star was a perfect representation
of what became known as the Tarkin Doctrine, a philosophy that affirmed that fear of annihilation
would keep the galaxy’s population under control. To demonstrate the power of the Death Star,
Tarkin ordered the deaths of two billion people in destruction of Alderaan. Alderaan’s destruction caused many systems
and even Imperials to join the Rebellion. The remains of Alderaan were sent to potentially
rebellious worlds to scare them back in line. The Death Star’s defenses were not capable
of effectively tracking starfighters, because they were not expected to be any threat to
the station. The trench that led to the thermal exhaust
port ran from north to south, and was not the equatorial trench, which is a common misconception. The thermal exhaust port sat near the north
pole of the station. The weakness of the thermal exhaust port was
removed for the second Death Star by using millions of millimeter wide openings in place
of one larger opening. The Death Star’s destruction resulted in
the loss of many high ranking Imperials, including of course Grand Moff Tarkin, but more tragically
Wullf Yularen, who fans of the Clone Wars might recognize. Although the Death Star could carry over two
million people, it would appear it was not fully staffed at the Battle of Yavin. The total loss of life from the attacks on
both Death Stars was tallied at nearly one and a half million, so the first Death Star
likely carried about 750,000 people at the time of its destruction. After the destruction of the Death Star and
without the Imperial Senate to maintain control, the Rebel and pirate raids became more prevalent
throughout the galaxy. About four years after the Battle of Yavin,
remains of the Death Star were given to the survivors of Alderaan to build a new home. Research gathered from the development of
the Death Star as well as the Death Star II was used to build Starkiller Base, the similar
superweapon of the First Order, over three decades after the Battle of Yavin I’m shifting gears for the final facts,
and we’ll now be talking more general behind the scenes trivia rather than in-universe
facts. Luke mentions a prison transfer from cell
block 1138, which is an easter egg referencing George Lucas’s first movie. Princess Leia’s cell, 2187, is referenced
by Finn’s designation in The Force Awakens, FN-2187. The tractor beam unit shut down by Obi-Wan
Kenobi was Tractor Beam 12. The only written English can be seen on the
Death Star in the original, non-Special Edition version of that scene in A New Hope. In early designs of the Death Star, the superlaser
was positioned on the equator. Although it was later moved to the northern
hemisphere, the animated plans shown prior to the Battle of Yavin still show the superlaser
in its original spot the trash in the trash compactor was real,
Apparently, the smell was so grotesque that Mark Hamill actually burst a blood vessel
in his face because he was trying to hold his breath as much as possible
Mark Hamill and Carrie Fisher performed that iconic swing across the mechanical abyss of
the Death Star without any help from professional stunt doubles
The Death Star explosions featured in the special edition of A New Hope and in Return
of the Jedi are rendered with a Praxis effect, wherein a flat ring of matter erupts from
the explosion The buzzing sound counting down to the Death
Star firing its superlaser (pause) comes from the Flash Gordon serials, which heavily influenced
the original Star Wars trilogy. In 1981, following the Voyager spacecraft's
flight past Saturn, scientists noticed a resemblance between one of the planet's moons, Mimas,
and the Death Star In 2012–13, a proposal on the White House's
website urging the United States government to build a real Death Star as an economic
stimulus and job creation measure gained more than 30,000 signatures, enough to qualify
for an official response. The White House response also stated "the
Administration does not support blowing up planets," and questioned funding a weapon
"with a fundamental flaw that can be exploited by a one-man starship" as reasons for denying
the petition. The cost of building a real Death Star has
been estimated at $850 quadrillion by the Lehigh University, or about 13,000 times the
amount of money and resources on Earth. The International Business Times cited a Centives
economics blog calculation that, at current rates of steel production, the Death Star
would not be ready for more than 833,000 years. The Death Star placed ninth in a 2008 20th
Century Fox poll of the most popular movie weapons
The Death Star assault scene was modeled after the World War II film The Dam Busters, in
which Royal Air Force Lancaster bombers fly along heavily defended reservoirs and aim
bouncing bombs at dams. Some of the dialogue in The Dam Busters is
even repeated in the Star Wars climax. Gilbert Taylor, who worked on Star Wars, also
filmed the special effects sequences in The Dam Busters. The trench run was also partially inspired
by the climax of the film 633 Squadron, in which fight planes attack a German plant by
flying down a narrow fjord to drop special bombs at a precise point, while avoiding anti-aircraft
guns and German fighters. Colin Cantwell made the first prototype models
for George Lucas, including the X-Wing, Y-Wing, Tie Fighter, Star Destroyer, Landspeeder,
Sandcrawler, Millennium Falcon, T-16 Skyhopper, and of course the Death Star. The Death Star was originally meant to be
a perfect sphere, but the material used to make the model was notorious for shrinking. So when the two hemispheres were brought together
they didn’t quite match up. Colin asked George Lucas what he thought of
having a trench in the middle, and the idea was approved, saving hours of painstaking
work fixing the mismatched halves. There you go! 101 facts all about the Death Star right before
Rogue One! If you’re not sick of hearing about it yet
I’ve got some other videos on the Death Star you could check out! Also let me know if you enjoyed this video
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