--- title: Star Wars: How NASA Would Build a Death Star description: A NASA scientist says the best way to build a Death Star, is to make one out of an asteroid. canonical: https://time.com/4145093/star-wars-nasa-death-star/ author: Alexandra Sifferlin article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2015-12-10T21:13:15.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-02-22T13:17:16.792Z article:section: Science og:title: Star Wars: How NASA Would Build a Death Star og:description: A NASA scientist says the best way to build a Death Star, is to make one out of an asteroid. og:url: https://time.com/4145093/star-wars-nasa-death-star/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltde093bcdab65f2d0/6988d9b9bc6cfc69913e2a3c/time-logo.jpg?branch=production og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 675 og:image:alt: TIME og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Star Wars: How NASA Would Build a Death Star twitter:description: A NASA scientist says the best way to build a Death Star, is to make one out of an asteroid. twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltde093bcdab65f2d0/6988d9b9bc6cfc69913e2a3c/time-logo.jpg?branch=production --- # This Is How NASA Would Build a Death Star by [Alexandra Sifferlin](https://time.com/author/alexandra-sifferlin/) ## Alexandra Sifferlin Dec 10, 2015 9:13 PM UTC by [Alexandra Sifferlin](https://time.com/author/alexandra-sifferlin/) ## Alexandra Sifferlin Dec 10, 2015 9:13 PM UTC A NASA scientist says the best way to build a Death Star is to [make one out of an asteroid](http://www.wired.com/2015/12/nasa-death-star-asteroid/). Brian Muirhead, chief engineer at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory, told WIRED that an asteroid makes an ideal building block for a Death Star, the planet-destroying space station in the original _Star Wars_ trilogy. Why? Because it would provide metals, organic compounds and water. “All the building blocks you would need to build your family Death Star,” he says. Muirhead is working on a Asteroid Redirect Mission for NASA. The plan isn’t to create a Death Star (as far as we know) but for the team to land on an asteroid, pick up a boulder from the surface and put it in orbit around the moon. A crew would go then go to it and collect samples. \[[WIRED](http://www.wired.com/2015/12/nasa-death-star-asteroid/)\] ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/4145093/star-wars-nasa-death-star/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/4145093/star-wars-nasa-death-star/"},"headline":"This Is How NASA Would Build a Death Star","datePublished":"2015-12-10T21:13:15.000Z","dateModified":"2026-02-22T13:17:16.792Z","description":"Step 1. Find an asteroid","url":"https://time.com/4145093/star-wars-nasa-death-star/","keywords":["Space","NASA","Star Wars topic","asteroid"],"thumbnailUrl":"","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Alexandra Sifferlin","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/alexandra-sifferlin/"}],"articleSection":"Science","image":[],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/section/science/","name":"Science"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"/tag/space/","name":"Space"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/4145093/star-wars-nasa-death-star/","name":"This Is How NASA Would Build a Death Star"}}]}] ```