OFFICIAL WHITE HOUSE
RESPONSE TO
Secure resources and funding, and begin construction of a Death Star by 2016.
This Isn't the Petition Response You're Looking For
By Paul Shawcross
The Administration shares your desire for job
creation and a strong national defense, but a Death Star isn't on the horizon. Here are a few reasons:
·
The construction of the Death Star has been
estimated to cost more than
$850,000,000,000,000,000. We're working hard to reduce the deficit, not expand
it.
·
The Administration does not support blowing up
planets.
·
Why would we spend countless taxpayer dollars on a
Death Star with a fundamental flaw that can be exploited by a one-man starship?
However, look carefully (here's how) and you'll
notice something already floating in the sky -- that's no Moon, it's a Space
Station! Yes, we already have a giant, football field-sized International Space
Station in orbit around the Earth that's helping us
learn how humans can live and thrive in space for long durations. The Space
Station has six astronauts -- American, Russian, and Canadian -- living in it
right now, conducting research, learning how to live and work in space over
long periods of time, routinely welcoming visiting spacecraft and repairing
onboard garbage mashers, etc. We've also got two robot science labs -- one wielding a laser -- roving around Mars, looking at whether life ever existed on the
Red Planet.
Keep in mind, space is no longer just
government-only. Private American companies, through NASA's Commercial Crew and Cargo
Program Office (C3PO), are ferrying cargo -- and
soon, crew -- to space for NASA, and are pursuing human missions to the Moon this decade.
Even though the United States doesn't have anything
that can do the Kessel Run in less than 12 parsecs,
we've got two spacecraft leaving the Solar System and we're building a probe that will fly to the
exterior layers of the Sun. We are discovering hundreds of new
planets in other star systems and
building a much more powerful successor to the Hubble
Space Telescope that will see back to the early days of the
universe.
We don't have a Death Star, but we do have floating robot
assistants on the Space Station, a President who knows
his way around a light saber and advanced (marshmallow)
cannon, and the Defense Advanced Research Projects
Agency, which is supporting research on building Luke's arm, floating droids, and quadruped walkers.
We are living in the future! Enjoy it. Or better
yet, help build it by pursuing a career in a science, technology, engineering
or math-related field. The President has held the first-ever White House science fairs and Astronomy Night on the
South Lawn because he knows these domains are critical
to our country's future, and to ensuring the United States continues leading
the world in doing big things.
If you do pursue a career in a science, technology,
engineering or math-related field, the Force will be with us! Remember, the
Death Star's power to destroy a planet, or even a whole star system, is
insignificant next to the power of the Force.
Paul Shawcross
is Chief of the Science and Space Branch at the White House Office of
Management and Budget
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