• Question: Is it possible to build a ship from Star Wars using resources from our planet if there was need for it? (Like an X-Wing or Imperial Star Destroyer or anything really)

    Asked by anon-201682 to Sophia, Sarah, Meirin, George, Emily, Andy on 14 Mar 2019.
    • Photo: Meirin Oan Evans

      Meirin Oan Evans answered on 14 Mar 2019:

      I’m not sure about a ship from Star Wars, but interesting science fiction has preceded science fact in the past. For example, the sci-fi author Arthur C Clarke wrote about driverless cars in 1976!

    • Photo: Sarah O'Sullivan

      Sarah O'Sullivan answered on 14 Mar 2019:

      I think we could maybe make the hulls so the shapes of the ships but I’m not sure we have the right designs for engines etc to make them moveable and efficient. That said, I’ve never seen Star Wars properly so I could be really wrong!

    • Photo: Emily Lewis

      Emily Lewis answered on 21 Mar 2019:

      I reckon we could definitely build something like an X-Wing for flying around in our atmosphere, there are already some pretty funky fighter jet designs (check out the USAs X-planes).
      The problem comes from rocket engines I think. They are efficient and work in the vacuum of space BUT they eat up fuel really quickly and they place lots of stress on your spacecraft. So we would have to come back down to refuel very often, and we would need a material that could stand up to repeated tensile stresses and pressures when you want to change direction.
      However there are some other suggested propulsion techniques under development. I think the technology is nearly there, so really it’s just a matter of time…

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