One of the (many) cool things Obama has done since he became POTUS is allow anyone to submit a petition to the White House. If you manage to get 25,000 people to sign your petition, you are guaranteed a formal response from the Obama Administration. There are petitions from nutjobs in Texas who want to secede from the United States. There are petitions to deport Piers Morgan back to the United Kingdom. Basically if you can get enough people to sign it, the White House will respond.
So, of course, someone created a petition to try to convince the U.S. government to Secure resources and funding, and begin construction of a Death Star by 2016. And of course the petition managed to garner enough supporters, because there are a lot of Star Wars fans in the United States.
The Official White House Response is amazing. It’s titled “This Isn’t the Petition Response You’re Looking For” and includes a note that, “The Administration does not support blowing up planets.”
Paul Shawcross, the Chief of the Science and Space Branch at the White House Office of Management and Budget, goes on to detail some of the incredible things NASA is doing right now, including floating robots (Holy crap!) and the Commercial Crew and Cargo Program Office. (C3PO!?!)
