Web designer Ryszard Gold, with assistance from friend Jayson Joynt, asked one day while watching the Death Star battle in A New Hope, “What would it cost to build that damn thing?”

So he set himself up some parameters and decided that in today’s U.S. dollars, it would cost $15,602,022,489,829,821,422,840,226 and 94 cents.

Over on his website (which you can visit here) he has a more detailed analysis of how he got his numbers and has a downloadable spreadsheet so that any hobbyists or Star Wars nerds that want to can take a look at the raw data.  He’s also taking requests on how to refine the formula.

He also does a pretty good job in putting that number into perspective.