Posted on 01/11/2013 7:29:13 PM PST by mnehring
Official White House Response to Secure resources and funding, and begin construction of a Death Star by 2016.
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:
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
Will someone please let me know when the grownups take over the government again?
Sponsoring FReepers are contributing
$10 Each time a New Monthly Donor signs up!
Get more bang for your FR buck!
Click Here To Sign Up Now!
I've carefully recalculated the costs and found that it can be constructed for less than $100.
I agree with your sentiment in general, but I have to admit this is one of the very few things this administration has done that I approve of.
Pro:
They answered the petition.
They showed a sense of humor.
When was the last time they did that? I don’t recall them EVER showing a sense of humor before. Their idea of humor thus far has been to ridicule conservatives in lame and unfunny ways.
“Even though the United States doesn’t have anything that can do the Kessel Run in less than 12 parsecs”,
That right there.. is for the win!!!
(Finally something good from this administration)
All right, all right.....it’s kind of funny. Would have been more amusing as a Big Bang episode and not coming out of the administration; but it is funny.....
They’re right about the design flaw.
What a bunch of Hopeless Situation Warriors.
That was actually pretty dang funny.
And I am sure the $850,000,000,000,000,000 price for the Death Star, given the proclivities of this administration, was calculated using union labor.
We could knock an order of magnitude off that price if we build it in a right to work state.
I was unaware they responded to any petition with a certain number of signatures.
When the Emirate of Uranus starts their stellar jihad Obama will regret this.
He should also be aware that Death Star 2 fixed the exhaust port problem. Can’t he use Wookiepedia? What a dipstick.
Meant to ping you as well.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.