How to assemble a death star according to the instructions. Is it possible to build a Death Star? Science fiction and reality of space stations. Underground cities, like in "The Matrix"

They allowed our family to become a close-knit and very attentive team for a long number of evenings. From the outside, it probably seemed like we were assembling at least an atomic bomb. In fact, we just bought a cool construction set, which was supposed to eventually appear before our eyes in the form of that very “Death Star”. Here's our experience.

I don’t think it’s worth reminding once again that mom, dad and our child are prominent fans of the Star Wars franchise. And so, when we had a unique opportunity to combine business with pleasure, we immediately took advantage of it. Lego Star Wars, Death Star has in its set mini-men, figures, and individual accessories. Every detail has its place. For example, Luke Skywalker and Han Solo are mini-heroes who are difficult to confuse with someone else. There are 24 of all figures, but the total number of parts is 3803 pieces. Can you imagine it? At the very start of the assembly, it was difficult to determine who was more delighted: the child or the parents. But then everything didn’t go so smoothly.

Despite the fact that Lego Star Wars, Death Star is intended for ages 12+, it would be worth setting a restriction for those with weak nerves. The box with the designer weighed 8 kg. The instructions are a full-fledged A3 album, which is a good time for graduates of the MBA Academy to study.
The first recommendation: after you open the inner boxes and start opening numerous bags, do not confuse the contents. We recommend stocking up on regular kitchen trays, in which you carefully place the insides of the mini-kits one by one. You can only throw individual parts of the little men into one common container.

The process has begun: Lego “Star Wars”, “Death Star” and death on the weekend

Experienced collectors online say that the Death Star can be assembled in a couple of hours. For the three of us it took Friday night and all weekend. So next piece of advice: get someone to cook your food.

Easiest to set Lego Star Wars, Death Star It is the main characters who are going to do it, since attaching the head to the body and finding the arms and legs is the easiest thing in this painstaking work. We advise you to start from this. Next, you should continue working with the base. The soil of the circle on which the star will “grow” must be built step by step; do not try to jump over any process, otherwise you will get confused and completely lose Ariadne’s thread. Carry out everything according to the numbering in the instructions in the pictures, as well as the described recommendations.

When you reach the level of the second tier, switch back to collecting mini-figures. This is a personal wish, because the same type of work in the format of creating a large building can quickly get boring and you will abandon the whole thing altogether. And this is not good, because the set is really very cool.

Lego "Star Wars", "Death Star" - has no unnecessary parts. This is not a joke, I assure you. My wife tried to argue with me, but we still added the extra parts through trial and error. Therefore, if at least one brick remains, it’s a lost cause. Do not forget that this model of the designer was developed by a whole team of highly specialized engineers who created a projection in proportions and scales as similar as possible to the real ones. For this reason, do not try to screw bolts into places where they do not fit, and create interfloor ceilings according to your own observations. This trick doesn't work here.

The process was tiring: Lego Star Wars, the Death Star and its shine

The most interesting thing begins at the stage when almost all sectors of the figure are created, and the assembly of weapons begins. This is approximately page 75 of the instructions. Do not sculpt the machine gun onto the Zvezda right away, assemble it separately, inspect it or don’t forget anything, since there are a huge number of small parts here, and only then put it in its place. Approach the issue of hanging cables (ropes) very carefully and patiently, because they require decent perseverance.

After all this work done, building the roof of the first floor in Lego Star Wars, Death Star will seem something painfully funny to you. But once the roof is in place, you can get seriously closer to the end. Assemble a piece of the roof over each sector separately, and only when the triangle is ready, attach it to the overall figure. It's easier and faster, especially when you're working with a group of gatherers.

Next, we begin to throw everything in the same way as filling the first floor, only over the finished floor. At this stage, the work should go quickly, because you already have experience and add impatience to see the final result. Also create the most bulky parts of the second floor, such as stairs or weapons, to the side and attach them only at the finish.

The final floor of Lego Star Wars, the Death Stars, will be your dessert and pure pleasure. And the yellow rays of the plate are just a gift for the anniversary. But in order not to spoil too much, we still recommend that you personally go through all the stages and difficulties of this beautiful, rare set. We remind you that some special fans even stretch out the pleasure for months, turning working with the designer into an entire art with detailed photo reports on the Internet. How do you plan to assemble your Death Star?

Journalists from the Hi-News resource asked themselves the question: is it possible, with current human technology, to bring into reality at least any of the space stations widely represented in films and books? We found it interesting, and we invite you to familiarize yourself with it.

Giant space stations the size of the Moon. Huge ring-shaped stations circling in the orbit of alien worlds. Massive cities drifting in the atmosphere of alien planets. Today we will look at all these concepts and find out how feasible they are. Commenting on this or that idea will be Cindy Du, a researcher and doctoral student at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, a person who frankly believes that the Mars One project is doomed to failure from the very beginning, and a scientist who has written a serious scientific paper that addresses issues related to our possible future life in space.

According to Du, if we're talking about any possibility of human life in space, we need to consider the habitat, what we want from it, and how big it will be. It is these three criteria that can indicate the possibility or impossibility of the whole undertaking. Therefore, let’s look at several options for space housing that science fiction offers us, and find out how realistic and rational their use is.

Mobile space station like the Death Star

Almost every science fiction movie fan knows what the Death Star is. This is such a large gray and round space station from the Star Wars movie epic, which looks very much like the Moon. This is an intergalactic planet destroyer, which is essentially itself an artificial planet made of steel and inhabited by stormtroopers.

Can we really build such an artificial planet and roam the expanses of the galaxy on it? In theory - yes. This alone will require an incredible amount of human and financial resources.

“A station the size of the Death Star would require a colossal supply of materials for construction,” says Du.

The issue of building the Death Star was even raised by the White House after the society sent a petition for consideration. The official response from the authorities was that $852 quadrillion would be required for steel alone for construction.

Let's assume that money is not an issue and the Death Star was actually built. What's next? And then good old physics comes into play. And this will indeed prove to be a problem.

“Possibility of propulsion of the Death Star through space will require an unprecedented amount of energy,” - Du continues.

“The mass of the station will be equivalent to the mass of Deimos, one of the satellites of Mars. Humanity simply does not have the capabilities and necessary technologies to build an engine capable of moving such giants.”

Orbital station "Deep Space 9"

So, we found out that the Death Star is too big (at least in today's opinion) for travel in space. Perhaps some smaller space station, such as Deep Space 9, where the events of the Star Trek series (1993-1999) take place, will help us. In this series, the station is located in orbit of the fictional planet Bajor and is an excellent habitat and a real galactic trading center.

“Again, a lot of resources will be required to build such a station,” - says Du.

“The main question is this: should we deliver the necessary material to the planet in whose orbit the future station will be located, or should we extract the necessary resources directly on the spot, say, on some asteroid or satellite of one of the local planets?”

Du says it now costs about $20,000 to deliver each kilogram of payload into space into low Earth orbit. Given this, it would most likely make more sense to send some kind of robotic spacecraft to mine one of the local asteroids than to deliver the necessary material from Earth to the site.

Another issue that will require a mandatory solution will, of course, be the issue of life support. In the same Star Trek, the Deep Space 9 station was not completely autonomous. It was a galactic trading center, with new supplies brought in by various merchants as well as shipments from the planet Bajor. According to Du, the construction of such space stations for habitation will in any case require periodic food supply missions.

“A station of this size would most likely operate through the creation and combination of biological media (such as growing algae for nutrition) and life support systems based on chemical engineering processes, such as on the ISS,” - explains Du.

“These systems will not be completely autonomous. They will require periodic maintenance, replenishment of water, oxygen, supply of new spare parts, and so on.”

Mars station, like in the movie "Mission to Mars"

There is a lot of real fantasy nonsense in this film. Tornado on Mars? Mystical alien obelisks? But what is most confusing is the fact described in the film that on Mars it is very easy to set up a home and provide yourself with supplies of water and oxygen. Left alone on Mars, actor Don Cheadle's character explains that he was able to survive on the Red Planet by creating a small vegetable garden.

“In theory, it is indeed possible to create a Martian greenhouse. However, growing plants has a number of features. And if we compare the labor costs of growing plants on Mars and the cost of delivering ready-made products from Earth to the Red Planet, then it will be easier and cheaper to deliver ready-made and packaged products, supplementing supplies with only a portion of grown crops that have a very high degree of productivity. Moreover, you will need to choose plants with a minimum ripening cycle. For example, various salad crops,” explained Cindy Doo.

Despite Cheadle's belief that there are close connections between plants and humans, in the harsh climate of Mars, plants and humans will find themselves in an unnatural environment. We should also not forget about such an aspect as differences in the intensity of photosynthesis of agricultural crops. Growing plants will require complex closed systems to control the environment. And this is a very serious task, since in this case people and plants will have to share a single atmosphere. Solving this problem in practice will require the use of insulated greenhouses for growth, but this in turn will increase the overall cost.

Growing plants may be a good idea, but it's better to stock up on extra provisions to take with you before your one-way flight.

Cloud City. A city floating in the planet's atmosphere

Lando Calrissian's famous "city in the clouds" from Star Wars seems like a pretty interesting idea for science fiction. However, could planets with a very dense atmosphere but a harsh surface be a suitable platform for the survival and even prosperity of humanity? Experts from NASA believe that this is indeed possible. And the most suitable candidate for the role of such a planet in the solar system is Venus.

The Langley Research Center studied this idea at one time and is still working on spacecraft concepts that could send humans to the upper atmosphere of Venus. Building a giant station the size of a city will be a very difficult task, almost impossible, but finding an answer to the question of how to keep a spacecraft in the upper atmosphere may be even more difficult.

“Reentry is one of the most difficult tests during space flight,” - says Du.

“You can’t even imagine what “7 minutes of horror” Curiosity had to endure when landing on Mars. And keeping a giant residential station in the upper atmosphere will be much more difficult. When you enter the atmosphere at a speed of several thousand kilometers per second, you will need to activate the braking and stabilization systems of the vehicle in the atmosphere in a matter of minutes. Otherwise you will just crash.”

One of the advantages of Calrissian's flying city is constant access to clean and fresh air, which can be completely forgotten if we are talking about real conditions and, in particular, the conditions of Venus. In addition, special spacesuits will have to be developed, wearing which people will be able to go down and replenish supplies of materials on the hellish surface of this planet. Du has a few ideas about this:

“For atmospheric habitation, depending on the location chosen, you can, for example, clean it around the station (on Venus you can process CO 2 into O 2, for example), or you can send robotic miners to the surface using a cable, for example , for the extraction of minerals and their subsequent delivery back to the station. In the conditions of Venus, this will again be an extremely difficult task.”

The giant spaceship "Axiom" from "WALL-E"

The touching sci-fi cartoon "WALL-E" offers a relatively realistic version of humanity's exodus from Earth. While robots are trying to clean the surface of the Earth from the debris accumulated on it, people fly away from the system into deep space on a giant spaceship. Sounds quite realistic, right? We've already learned how to make spaceships, so let's just make them bigger!

In fact, this idea is, according to Du, almost the most unrealistic of the list proposed in this article.

“The cartoon shows that the Axiom ship is in very deep space. Therefore, most likely, he most likely does not have access to any external resources that may be required to maintain life on the ship. For example, since the ship will be located far from our Sun or any other source of solar energy, it will most likely be powered by a nuclear reactor. The population of the ship is several thousand people. They all need to eat, drink, and breathe air. All these resources need to be taken from somewhere, and also not to forget about recycling the waste that will certainly accumulate with the use of these resources.”

“Even if you use some kind of ultra-high-tech biological life support system, being in a space environment that is unable to provide the required amount of energy to the spacecraft will mean that all these life support systems will not be able to support the biological processes on board. In short, the option with a giant spaceship looks the most fantastic.”

Ring world. "Elysium"

Ring worlds, as seen in the sci-fi action movie Elysium or the video game Halo, are perhaps some of the most interesting ideas for future space stations. In Elysium, the station is close to Earth and, if you ignore its size, has a certain degree of realism. However, the biggest problem here is its “openness,” which is pure fantasy in appearance alone.

“Perhaps the most controversial issue about Elysium is its openness to the space environment,” explains Du.

“The film shows a spaceship just landing on a lawn after arriving from outer space. There are no docking gates or anything like that. But such a station must be completely isolated from the external environment. Otherwise, the atmosphere here won't last long. Perhaps the open areas of the station could be protected by some kind of invisible field that would allow sunlight to penetrate inside and support life in the plants and trees planted there. But for now this is just fantasy. There are no such technologies."

The very idea of ​​a station in the shape of rings is wonderful, but so far unrealizable.

Underground cities, like in "The Matrix"

The Matrix trilogy actually takes place on Earth. However, the surface of the planet is inhabited by killer robots, and therefore our home looks like an alien and very inhospitable world. To survive, people had to go underground, closer to the core of the planet, where everything is still warm and safer. The main problem in such real-life circumstances, besides, of course, the difficulty of transporting the equipment that will be required to create an underground colony, will be maintaining contact with the rest of humanity. Du explains this complexity using the example of Mars:

“Underground colonies may encounter problems communicating with each other. Communication between underground colonies on Mars and Earth will require the creation of separate powerful communication lines and orbital satellites that will serve as a bridge for transmitting messages between the two planets. If a permanent communication line is required, then in this case it will be necessary to use at least one additional satellite, which will be located in the orbit of the Sun. It will receive the signal and send it to Earth when our planet and Mars are on opposite sides of the star.”

Terraformed asteroid, as in the novel "2312"

In the novel by Kim Stanley Robinson, people terraformed an asteroid and built a kind of terrarium on it, in which artificial gravity is created due to centripetal force.

NASA expert Al Globus says that the most important thing will be to resolve the issue of the asteroid's airtightness, given that most of them appear to be essentially large pieces of various space "junk". In addition, the expert says that asteroids are very difficult to rotate, and changing the center of its gravity will require some effort in adjusting its course.

“However, building a space station on an asteroid is indeed possible. It will only be necessary to find the largest and most suitable flying piece of rock,” says Du.

"What's interesting is that NASA is planning something similar with its Asteroid Redirect Mission."

“One of the tasks is to select the most suitable asteroid with the desired structure, shape and orbit. There were concepts according to which the issue of placing an asteroid between Earth and Mars was considered. The behavior of the asteroids in this case changed in such a way that they would act as transporters between the two planets. The additional mass around the asteroid, in turn, provided protection from the effects of cosmic radiation."

“The main task associated with this concept would be to move an asteroid potentially suitable for habitation into a certain orbit (this would require technologies that we do not currently possess), as well as the extraction and processing of minerals on this asteroid. We don’t have any experience in this yet either.”

“The size and density of such a facility is more suitable for sending a team of 4-6 people there, rather than building something at the level of a colony. And NASA is now preparing for this.”

Size: 410x420x90mm

Age: from 12 years old

Number of details: 3803

Vendor code: LEGO 10188

Year of issue: 2008

Update your LEGO Star Wars toy collection with the new functional and action-packed LEGO Death Star building set. You can assemble this mother ship from the Star Wars movie of the same name using instructions from Lego 10188. The model has many moving parts. The huge decks of the Death Star contain a control room and rotating turrets with a turbo laser installation. In addition, there is a high-tech Starfighter ship, a starship beam control room, a room with the Emperor's throne, a spaceship storage unit, a laser cannon launch site, an Imperial conference room, a droid maintenance facility and a powerful Death star super laser...

Expand the already enormous capabilities of the Death Star in your combat operations, rationally using all its many functions, facing danger from a crushing compactor, and a duel with Darth Vader to decide the future fate of the galaxy!

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