Star Wars fans have crowdsourcing fever once again. Following the crowdsourced version of the original 1977 film, fans are combining forces once again – or is there only one force?
This time it’s to construct a real-life version of Han Solo’s Millennium Falcon spacecraft.
This intraplanetary crowdsourcing initiative is known as the Full Scale Millennium Falcon Project and was conceived by Chris Lee, a US fan in Nashville, Tennessee. His idea is to use the Internet to recruit volunteers to build the entire ship – minus the engine!
Model makers and anyone with appropriate skills are invited to get in touch via the project’s website to start a conversation about how to contribute.
Taking Shape
Some parts have already been built including two of its laser guns, and the craft’s console.
Lee has purchased an 88-acre (35-hectare) plot of land in Tennessee where the life-size reproduction will be located.
As well as being a place to live out science fiction-based fantasies, Lee also hopes it can offer some educational value as he discussed in an interview with the BBC:
“The master plan for the land would be to develop it into a creative retreat…a place where a school could send kids and say ‘let’s go spend a week at this retreat and learn how to weld, and by the way there’s a spaceship out there that they’re working on that’s pretty awesome and we can contribute to.’”
Star Wars fans who want to be a part of this crowdsourcing initiative can register at the website, where there’s also plenty of information about progress and details of what is needed.