Open Source Death Star Kickstarter Might Actually Work

Andy Chalk

One Flag, One Fleet, One Cat
Nov 12, 2002
45,698
1
0
Open Source Death Star Kickstarter Might Actually Work


The U.S. government refuses to build a Death Star, so the internet is taking it to Kickstarter.

Back in January, the U.S. government said "thanks but no thanks [http://www.escapistmagazine.com/news/view/121500-White-House-Rejects-Death-Star-Petition]" to a petition calling upon it to begin construction of a Death Star. Exorbitant cost notwithstanding, the Obama Administration apparently has a policy of not blowing up other planets. But while that may have been the end of the matter a few years ago, this is the era of empowered consumers, and that means it's time to do some crowdfunding!

The Open Souce Death Star Kickstarter has a goal of £20,000,000 - that's a little over $31 million - and before you ask, no, that's not actually the construction budget. The initial goal will fund the development of more detailed construction plans (a preliminary design is up on the Kickstarter page) and the cost of some chicken wire to cover the exhaust port; the first (and only) stretch goal of £543,000,000,000,000,00 ($850,000,000,000,000,000) will cover the full expense of building the thing. To keep costs as low as possible, the entire project will make use of open source hardware and software.

The only real risk to the Kickstarter, according to its creator, is the power of the Force, while the primary challenge is to ensure everyone knows that this is actually a joke. To get that point across, the funding goal has been set high enough to make success "almost impossible." Almost.

As amusing as this Kickstarter is, what makes it really interesting is that people seem determined to actually make it happen. Several comments point out that it's easy to donate the maximum of £5000 because the money isn't taken unless and until the Kickstarter is successful, and at that rate only 4000 backers are needed to push it over the top. At last check the Open Source Death Star Kickstarter had attracted a little shy of £200,000 in three days and had 52 days left on the clock.

Can it happen? Will it happen? What happens if it does? Failure is likely but the dream of success is tantalizing - and don't forget that a man once asked, "What good are snub fighters going to be against that?" We all know how that worked out.

Source: Kickstarter [http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/461687407/kickstarter-open-source-death-star]


Permalink
 

Broken Orange

God Among Men
Apr 14, 2009
2,367
0
0
At least we won't have the blood of many Bothan spies on our hands to get these blue prints.
 

Fappy

\[T]/
Jan 4, 2010
12,010
0
41
Country
United States
I don't know... even if it is a joke I'd feel paranoid about having thousands of dollars from my checking account connected to this >.>
 

The Goat Tsar

New member
Mar 17, 2010
224
0
0
Somebody needs to call the world's craziest millionaires and billionaires. We need their help.
 

Lvl 64 Klutz

Crowsplosion!
Apr 8, 2008
2,338
0
0
Man, all this talk about monetary cost is entirely missing the point. There simply aren't enough raw materials on the planet Earth to build the Death Star.
 

Zipa

batlh bIHeghjaj.
Dec 19, 2010
1,489
0
0
I wonder what brand of paint thinner these people are huffing. Even if this was possible am I the only one who thinks it is a fucken stupid idea being as we only actually have 1 planet that we can/do live on?
 

Space Jawa

New member
Feb 2, 2010
551
0
0
If this actually gets anywhere, we may need to start a counter-kickstarter designed to produce a heavily modified YT-1300 Light Freighter and a few squadrons of X-Wings that can be sent on a mission to destroy it should it be used for nefarious purposes.
 

Imperioratorex Caprae

Henchgoat Emperor
May 15, 2010
5,499
0
0
If I were to fund this, and the likelihood is on the extreme end of "not very", I would only do so in exchange for a hyper-capable TIE-Fighter which would have to be fully developed (probably crowdfunded too). Also I don't know if I'd trust anyone with this project anyway, too much power to sit in one Grand Moff's hands...
 

Yvressian

New member
Jul 19, 2008
20
0
0
I'm a bit frightened that it's supposed to be all open source. Does that mean the Death Star will use Linux?

sudo blowupalderaan
 

Rellik San

New member
Feb 3, 2011
609
0
0
It's no coincidence the Kickstarter is in the British currency; LONG LIVE THE EMPIRE! *imperial march plays*
 

Azuaron

New member
Mar 17, 2010
621
0
0
Lvl 64 Klutz said:
Man, all this talk about monetary cost is entirely missing the point. There simply aren't enough raw materials on the planet Earth to build the Death Star.
And that's why we start mining other planets/moons/asteroids. That's part of the cost.
 

Entitled

New member
Aug 27, 2012
1,254
0
0
rhizhim said:
they already have £191,745.

who the fuck does that?
People who casually promise $5000 each, knowing that they won't have to pay anyways.
 

Webb Myers

New member
May 17, 2010
76
0
0
Maybe they would have more success if they called it a "Peace Moon [http://darthsanddroids.net/episodes/0497.html]".
 

Terminate421

New member
Jul 21, 2010
5,773
0
0
Space Jawa said:
If this actually gets anywhere, we may need to start a counter-kickstarter designed to produce a heavily modified YT-1300 Light Freighter and a few squadrons of X-Wings that can be sent on a mission to destroy it should it be used for nefarious purposes.
We also need Mark Hamill and Harrison Ford to be their training pilots.
 

Nieroshai

New member
Aug 20, 2009
2,940
0
0
When countries are going bankrupt, I just can't stand for people actually putting money to this idea. It will seriously never happen with today's technology, so unless the kickstarter is to invent turbolasers and gravity panels and ion propulsion, money towards completing a blueprint is pointless.
 

Mojo

New member
Jun 2, 2011
325
0
0
Space Jawa said:
If this actually gets anywhere, we may need to start a counter-kickstarter designed to produce a heavily modified YT-1300 Light Freighter and a few squadrons of X-Wings that can be sent on a mission to destroy it should it be used for nefarious purposes.
We might also need to start to train shooting womp rats in our T-16s and hope they forget to fix that one flaw.
 

dfphetteplace

New member
Nov 29, 2009
1,090
0
0
Even if we had enough money for it, we don't have the resources. The amount of steel it would take certainly doesn't exist on earth, and since we have even tried to mine an asteroid yet, it seems like that would be out of the question for at least a few more years or decades.
 

Adam Jensen_v1legacy

I never asked for this
Sep 8, 2011
6,651
0
0
I can't believe someone was dumb enough to donate to that. Even if it is a joke and it will never reach it's goal it's still horrible that they managed to get more than $200,000. They should donate all the money to a charity.
 

Ukomba

New member
Oct 14, 2010
1,528
0
0
This is nice and all, but all the assumptions hit the same problem. The T206 Honus Wagner Base Ball card is worth about 2.8 million dollars. Lets say someone found out how they could rule the world if they could collect 500 of them. so 2.8 * 500 right? No, first, as you start buying the cards up the value of the remaining ones will greatly increase. Second, only 60 to 200 cards were ever distributed so it doesn't matter how much money you have, you can never reach 500.

You'd need a planet cracking super laser to get the materials needed for a death star.