If only Newt Gingrich had been elected instead of that socialist, Muslim, Kenyan, Marxist, Nazi Obama we could be building our very own Star Wars style Death Star.
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
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
Tell us what you
think about this response and We the People.
