X

This guy just built a working miniature Death Star

The latest creation from a German laser hobbyist on YouTube threatens to create a terrible disturbance in the Force.

Eric Mack Contributing Editor
Eric Mack has been a CNET contributor since 2011. Eric and his family live 100% energy and water independent on his off-grid compound in the New Mexico desert. Eric uses his passion for writing about energy, renewables, science and climate to bring educational content to life on topics around the solar panel and deregulated energy industries. Eric helps consumers by demystifying solar, battery, renewable energy, energy choice concepts, and also reviews solar installers. Previously, Eric covered space, science, climate change and all things futuristic. His encrypted email for tips is ericcmack@protonmail.com.
Expertise Solar, solar storage, space, science, climate change, deregulated energy, DIY solar panels, DIY off-grid life projects. CNET's "Living off the Grid" series. https://www.cnet.com/feature/home/energy-and-utilities/living-off-the-grid/ Credentials
  • Finalist for the Nesta Tipping Point prize and a degree in broadcast journalism from the University of Missouri-Columbia.
Eric Mack
2 min read
death-stat.jpg
Enlarge Image
death-stat.jpg

A homemade planet destroyer.

Video screenshot by Eric Mack/CNET

It could be that the Death Star, of Star Wars fame, doesn't only exist in a galaxy far, far away.

German inventor and laser fanatic Patrick Priebe equipped a large, disco-ball-size model of the Galactic Empire's planet eraser with enough laser power to actually do some real damage while also intensifying Sith-fueled nightmares worldwide.

Priebe isn't a newcomer to the destructive power of lasers. Earlier this year the YouTuber worked up a real-life Iron Man laser glove, which itself seemed kind of like a reworking of another earlier project, his James Bond laser-shooting wristwatch.

But this latest homemade masterpiece ups the ante with an array of 14 adjustable lasers that Priebe focuses on the same point to deliver 84 watts of burning energy. In the demonstration below, this scale model of the galaxy's most feared weapon not only sets paper on fire and singes wood and plastic, it also cuts through a thin sheet of steel.

Droolworthy Star Wars vintage toys up for auction (pictures)

See all photos

The most impressive display, though, comes toward the end of his longer test video, when Priebe focuses his homemade weapon on a small rock, causing it to spark as he chants, "Please don't explode, please don't explode" on the video, posted Thursday.

Clearly, Priebe has not yet fully embraced the power of the dark side, but given his aptitude with lasers and fascination with the Empire's weaponry, that's probably a good thing for the rest of us on Earth -- and Alderaan.

And needless to say, please don't try this at home, whatever planet that might be.