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Read Now: Official White House Response To Petition To Build A Death Star
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The U.S. Government has recently instituted a process by which citizens can officially petition the White House on any issue that they feel is important via the internet, thanks to a program called We the People. Any petition that receives 25,000 signatures within a certain time frame will receive an official response from the White House.

Now, this is a great way for ordinary people to bring their everyday issues to the forefront and is a great example of what technology can do right. However, it’s also the internet, which means there are going to be a lot of goofy petitions started. This brings us to a petition that was started requesting the government to “secure resources and funding, and begin construction of a Death Star by 2016″!

Again, this being the internet, the petition easily passed the threshold needed for an official response, which has now been released. Written by Paul Shawcross, Chief of the Science and Space Branch at the White House Office of Management and Budget, the response explains the reasons why building a Death Star is totally impractical. Aside from the $850 quadrillion price tag, the White House finally took a firm stance on the all-important “blowing up planets” issue.

Anyway, it’s all a good bit of fun so give it a read here below.

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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1 Comment »

  1. An absolutely stupendous response! Yes, the force WILL be with us!

    Comment by Jerome Charles — January 11, 2013 @ 11:34 pm

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