Fin qua niente di troppo strano. Di petizioni assurde, anche ufficiali, ce ne sono a bizzeffe.

Fantastica e celere è stata invece la risposta ufficiale (paragonabile ad un comunicato stampa del Quirinale italiano) dell’amministrazione Obama di cui riporto l’esatto testo.

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 Housescience 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

 

Tasso di nerdosità decisamente alto per un responso ufficiale, confesso che se ci fosse stato il tasto NT sul portale della Casa Bianca se lo sarebbe meritato tutto.

Ma a parte questo un encomio enorme allo staff del presidente Obama, che con una mossa del genere fa capire al mondo intero  – e all’opposizione – quanto sia efficace la comunicazione dinamica e non “burocratese” sul web, quanto siano bravi loro nell’attuarla e quanta pubblicità positiva e simpatie (voti) si porta dietro con uno sforzo minimo. Epic Win.

Pare quindi infine che la costruzione della piccola, letale, luna artificiale americana non avverrà per “piccoli” problemi di budget. Da notare che anche se, ipoteticamente, si fosse realizzata, i problemi non sarebbero stati pochi… a partire dall’arduo compito di non trasformarla in un immondezzaio.

• This Isn’t the Petition Response You’re Looking For (whitehouse.gov)
• Be Proud of This Technological Terror You Could Construct (deathstarpr.com)