T H E F O R C E D E L I V E R S

From there it grew into something more. We wondered what else could be shipped throughout the galaxy, and at what price? To get there we needed to run a few calculations to get accurate* shipping costs, because, believe it or

not, UPS doesn’t ship to Tatooine... yet.

It started with a simple questionHow much would it cost to ship R2-D2 to Obi-Wan Kenobi on Tatooine?

TWEET IT

The Galactic Shipping Cost Formula

1 L i g h t Ye a r––

Fu r t h e st U PS Un i t e d St a t e s d o m e st i c S h i p p i n g D i s t a n cex

U PS p e r- p o u n d s h i p p i n g ra t e=

Co st Pe r L i g h t Ye a r (C P LY )

TWEET IT

If it has an impact on the fate of a galaxy far, far away, then that’s what we’re shipping. From lightsabers, to moon-sized space stations, we’re boxing up and sending out the things the Rebel Alliance and Galactic

Empire just couldn’t do without. Can we really ship a Death Star, you ask? Careful; we find your lack of faith disturbing...

What Are We Shipping?

TWEET IT

23 metric tons / 50,700 lbsWEIGHT:

35m x 27m x 10mBOX SIZE:

MILLENNIUM FALCON

Take one scruffy-looking nerf herder, one walking carpet and one illegally modified Corellian Freighter capable of astonishing speed, and you’ve got the makings for a Kessel run that spans fewer than

twelve parsecs. Never mind that parsecs are a measure of distance not time, because in hyperspace, time is fluid.

TWEET IT

136.08 kg / 1000 lbsWEIGHT:

2.3m x 1m x 1mBOX SIZE:

HAN SOLO IN CARBONITE

If only there were such thing as a smuggler with the integrity to freeze himself in carbonite when he defaults on debts, it would save the Hutt Cartel a great deal of hassle. But then, what would Boba Fett do with his time? Regardless of how it came to be, the block of frozen carbonite that encased the hibernating

figure of Han Solo became a priceless work of art that, according to legend, was extemporaneously dubbed, Man in Carbonite by Boba Fett who then delivered the piece to Jabba the Hutt.

TWEET IT

32 kg / 70.4 lbsWEIGHT:

.96m x .5m x .5mBOX SIZE:

R2-D2

Whether you need help piloting your X-Wing, breaking into an Imperial communications network, or just escaping execution at the Great Pit of

Carcoon, then this IS the droid you’re looking for. R2D2 is a resourceful little 32 kilogram, .96 meter combat veteran who served the republic side-by-side

with some of most pivotal role players in the Rebel Alliance.

Beep

Fweeeet

Woooo

TWEET IT

Pro Tip:R2D2 can be unpredictable at times. Consider tracking your package to ensure it reaches Obiwan in time.

TWEET IT

1 Kilo / 2.2 lbs.WEIGHT:

30cm x 5cm x 5cmBOX SIZE:

JEDI LIGHTSABER

The Jedi Order adopted the use of lightsabers from the Sith during the Great Hyperspace War some 5000 years before the construction of the first Death Star. Eventually, self-construction

of the Jedi lightsaber became the culminating achievement of a Padawan’s training.

TWEET IT

KYLO REN’S LIGHTSABER

Like the typical Jedi lightsaber, Kylo Ren’s lightsaber is one he built on his own. Although Ren is not a Sith Lord, he is a loosely trained force-sensitive who harbors strong loyalties to the dark side. Therefore, the construction of his

lightsaber follows certain Sith conventions. In particular, Ren’s lightsaber uses the red crystals that project a harsh crimson blade. What is unique about this

weapon’s construction is that it employs a shorter blade at the hilt, perpendicular to the main blade that acts as a crossguard.

1.25 Kilo / 2.75 lbs.WEIGHT:

30cm x 15cm x 5cmBOX SIZE:

TWEET IT

High energy and density sufficient enough to generate a gravitational field equal to that of a celestial body several times larger in size.

Basic physics just won’t cut it here.

WEIGHT:The only box big enough to contain The Death Star is

the hyperspace field that it generates for itself to enable faster-than-light space travel. But just for kicks let’s say 160km X 160km X 160km which would have a

total volume of 1603 = 4,096,000 cubic kilometers. That’s a lot of packing peanuts.

BOX SIZE:

THE DEATH STAR

No, it’s not a moon. Yes, it’s a space station–more specifically a moon-sized imperial battle station, 160 kilometers in diameter, armed with thousands of turbolasers,

ion cannons, laser cannons, and tractor beam emplacements, as well as a realspace propulsion ion drive and a hyperdrive field generator both linked together into a single

navigational matrix. And let’s not forget about the planet-destroying superlaser. Only the empire would be sinister enough to conceive of such a weapon, and to also devote the

time, labor and resources to building it.

TWEET IT

Pro Tip:When calculating shipping costs and transit times, remember that a parsec is a unit of distance not time.

TWEET IT

What does it cost to ship these items from New York, New York to Los Angeles, California?

U.S. Domestic Shipping

N/A

$137,397

$2,710

$214

$38

$39

The Death Star is large enough that you’d need to calculate domestic shipping to send droid parts from one side of the space station to the other. It would cost about a hundred galactic credits to ship two kilos of parts in a small box, and the package would take a day or two to arrive.

Did you Know?

TWEET IT

Lightsaber construction was a highly meditative exercise that involved use of the force to tune the resonance of the crystals to the individual Jedi. The fact that lightsabers were typically constructed by the Jedi who would be using it, made them priceless items. It’s unlikely that they would be the kind of item to

be shipped in the same way as a consumer product. Because lightsabers would have been highly prized, powerful, and dangerous weapons, if there ever were a need to ship one, it would probably be best to use a personal

courier rather than a shipping company that just delivers boxes.

JEDI LIGHTSABER

$598.052 Trillion USDThat’s 7.68 times the total global gdp for earth in 2014

DISTANCE: 34,482 light years CPLY: $17.590 Billion

TWEET IT

Kylo Ren’s lightsaber is probably useless in the hands of anyone else, and it’s unlikely that he’d ship it to anywhere in the galaxy. He’d just carry it with him to any planet where there’s work to be done. Lightsabers are more than

just weapons. They’re emblems that reflect both the skill and character of their maker. Ren’s blade ironically follows that convention as well. He’s known as a somewhat ragged character, and the fact that the blades of his lightsaber funnel and flicker like fire toward the ends, is emblematic on levels that would be dangerous to point

out to him personally. Characteristics of his blade suggest either an unstable power source, or a force containment field that is weaker than the ones created by formally trained Jedi Knights and Sith Lords.

KYLO REN’S LIGHTSABER

$747.564 Trillion USDThat’s 15.36 times the total global gdp for earth in 2014

DISTANCE: 34,482 light years CPLY: $21.987 Billion

TWEET IT

Alderaan is near Coruscant among the star systems in the galactic core– approximately 34,000 light years from Tatooine.

Beep

Fweeeet

Woooo

R2-D2

$20.38 Quadrillion USDThat’s 261 times the total global gdp for earth in 2014

DISTANCE: 34,000 light years CPLY: $599.651 Billion

TWEET IT

The distance between Cloud City, above the planet Bespin, which is where Man in Carbonite was created, in the outer rim of the galactic south, is mapped at about half the

distance between Tatooine and the galactic capital, Coruscant. However, there are no direct hyperlanes between those systems. Shipping between the two would involve a lot

of hopping between solar systems, always needing to reconfigure the navigational computer at each stop. That could increase both time and cost.

HAN SOLO IN CARBONITE

$135.921 Quadrillion USDThat’s 2792 times the total global gdp for earth in 2014

DISTANCE: 17,000 light years CPLY: $7.995 Trillion

TWEET IT

Let’s say for example we want to ship — *cough* smuggle *cough*— the Falcon somewhere like back to Tatooine from Coruscant to eliminate the possibility of skirmishes along the way. How

much would it cost? Coruscant and Tatooine are key points along the famous Corellian Run Hyperlane. After plugging known information into a few basic geometric, and trigonometric

navigational calculations and cross-referencing an old hyperlane map, we arrive at an estimated distance of about 34,482 light years or 10.5 parsecs.

MILLENNIUM FALCON

$13.978 Quintillion USDThat’s 179,504 times the total global gdp for earth in 2014

DISTANCE: 34,482 light years CPLY: $405.364 Trillion

TWEET IT

Shipping Cost to the Outer Planets: Let’s just say the total monetary value of the planet Alderaan (since that’s the price that was paid).

THE DEATH STAR

TWEET IT

*Long ago in a galaxy far, far away, domestic shipping rates were calculated at a maximum per-pound rate of $2.71 based on a UPS domestic shipping chart

and hypothetical circumstances that were established for the sake of this entertainment piece. Actual pricing indexes for shipping will vary according to a

complex assortment of factors that have almost nothing to do with force sensitivity or inter-galactic power struggles. As such, this piece should not be

treated as an accurate tool for estimating shipping costs on Earth nor within the Star Wars universe.

However, if a business you are, and if important are processes of warehousing, weighing, measuring and shipping cargo, and if important to your bottom line

is accuracy, efficiency and timeliness, then contact the experts at qmiservices.net you must.

Sources:http://www.ups.com/media/en/daily_rates.pdfhttp://starwars.wikia.com/http://databank.worldbank.org/data/download/GDP.pdf