• 'Star Wars' X-wing fighters claim victory over Death Star on Kickstarter

    Kickstarter

    Supporters of the Kickstarter campaign to build a fleet of X-wing fighters raised $721,036, while a competing campaign to design a Death Star battle station raised 328,613 British pounds, or just under $500,000. None of the supporters had to pay up, however, because the campaigns finished up far short of their funding goals.

    By Alan Boyle, Science Editor, NBC News


    Sorry, "Star Wars" fans: A real-life Death Star and the X-wing fighters to bring it down won't be built anytime soon. First the White House snubbed a petition calling on the government to build the Death Star. Now two Kickstarter projects aimed at building a fully operational battle station as well as an X-wing fleet have fallen far short of their multimillion-dollar funding goals.

    That means nobody is out any money, which probably comes as a huge relief to those who pledged their backing to the joke projects.

    Both the Galactic Empire and the Rebel Alliance have something to brag about: The Death Star project, associated with Nick Petkovich's Gnut.co.uk in Britain, won pledges from 2,388 backers amounting to £328,613, or just under a half-million dollars. The X-wing fund-raiser, created by Simon Kwan in Shanghai, had fewer backers but raised more money — $721,036, to be exact.

    "While we didn't meet meet our funding goal, we soundly beat the amount raised by the Empire for their Death Star!" Kwan wrote. "Take THAT, Dark Side ;-P"

    The final tallies when the campaigns concluded on April Fools' Day would send most Kickstarter project creators over the moon, but the way Kickstarter's fund-raising system works, the creators can't cash in on those pledges unless the project goal is met. The goals were set high on purpose — about $30 million for the Death Star, and $11 million for the X-wing fighter fleet — so that backers could get in on the joke while staying off the hook for the money.

    Even if they raised $30 million, that sum wouldn't even be enough to buy just the protective covers for a real-life Death Star's thermal exhaust ports, or a single sub-light propulsion thrust engine for an X-wing fighter. In the real world, the cost of building the comparatively puny, 450-ton International Space Station has been estimated at upwards of $100 billion. The estimated development cost for NASA's next-generation launch system is in the neighborhood of $35 billion. And for that price, you don't even get laser cannons.

    A while back, college students calculated that it'd cost $852 quadrillion just to buy the steel for an armed and fully operational Death Star. Transterrestrial Musings' Rand Simberg says that estimate is grossly inflated — but in any case, Darth Vader would find the lack of Kickstarter funds disturbing.

    More about futuristic spaceships:

    Alan Boyle is NBCNews.com's science editor. Connect with the Cosmic Log community by "liking" the log's Facebook page, following @b0yle on Twitter and adding the Cosmic Log page to your Google+ presence. To keep up with Cosmic Log as well as NBCNews.com's other stories about science and space, sign up for the Tech & Science newsletter, delivered to your email in-box every weekday. You can also check out "The Case for Pluto," my book about the controversial dwarf planet and the search for new worlds.

  • Open-source Death Star revived on Kickstarter after White House snub

    20th Century Fox

    Can the open-source community build a fully operational Death Star battle station?

    By Alan Boyle, Science Editor, NBC News

    The White House may have turned down the idea of building a real-life Death Star, but now it's the open-source community's turn. A Kickstarter crowd-funding project calls for raising £20 million ($31 million) to design a battle station worthy of Darth Vader. So far, more than £20,000 ($31,000) has been pledged. The funding deadline? April Fool's Day.

    The $31 million would go toward fleshing out the project's initial schematic — basically, a round circle — and buying "enough chicken wire to protect reactor exhaust ports." As any "Star Wars" fan knows, those ports were the Achilles' heel of the fictional Death Star, giving Luke Skywalker the opportunity to blow the darn thing up long ago in a galaxy far away.

    The stretch goal would be to raise the $850 quadrillion (£543 quadrillion) that would be required for actual construction. A recent estimate claimed that's how much it'd cost just to buy the steel for a Death Star, but that figure has recently come under question. In any case, this project would keep the costs low by using open-source hardware and software.

    If the pledges don't amount to £20 million by April 1 (heh, heh), the project will fizzle out — and no one will be obliged to pay up. Makes you wonder how much would have been raised if the goal was $20,000 instead.

    The creator of the project describes himself as a resident of Leicestershire in Britain, and he's associated with a website registered to Nick Petkovich. Efforts to contact the project manager weren't immediately successful — but based on the Kickstarter description, he's not planning to roll up his sleeves anytime soon. 

    Project risks? "The only risk is the power of the Force." Challenges? "The main challenge is assuring Kickstarter that this is a joke, and not a serious project. As proof, the goal has been set high enough to make successful funding almost impossible."

    Hmm. I can think of at least three replies to that:

    What's your take? Do feel free to add your comments below. But do, or do not. There is no "try."

    More about science-fiction construction projects:

    Tip o' the Log to TechCrunch.

    Alan Boyle is NBCNews.com's science editor. Connect with the Cosmic Log community by "liking" the log's Facebook page, following @b0yle on Twitter and adding the Cosmic Log page to your Google+ presence. To keep up with Cosmic Log as well as NBCNews.com's other stories about science and space, sign up for the Tech & Science newsletter, delivered to your email in-box every weekday. You can also check out "The Case for Pluto," my book about the controversial dwarf planet and the search for new worlds.

  • Cultural Star Wars: 'Jabba's Palace' Lego toy sparks protest from Turks

    Lego

    Lego says its "Jabba's Palace" construction set is modeled after the villain's lair in the "Star Wars" saga. A Turkish group in Austria, however, says the structure looks too similar to Istanbul's Hagia Sophia monument.

    By Alan Boyle, Science Editor, NBC News


    A Turkish cultural center in Austria has stirred up an international tiff over a "Star Wars" Lego toy: specifically, a model of Jabba the Hutt's domed palace that the Turks say looks too much like Istanbul's sacred Hagia Sophia monument.

    "The missiles, guns and weapons ... in the Lego castle are questionable for the Turkish Cultural Community of Austria, even 'educational explosives,'" the center said on its German-language website. The center said a complaint was lodged with Lego, and it reserved the right to file hate-crime complaints with German and Austrian authorities as well.

    In response, Lego said that "Jabba's Palace" wasn't modeled after any mosque or other holy place, but after, um, Jabba's palace.

    "The model in question is not based on any real building, rather depicts a fictional scene of Jabba’s Palace on the planet Tatooine from 'Star Wars Episode IV: A New Hope,'" Michael McNally, brand relations director for Lego Systems, said in an email. "As is the case in all Lego sets related to the Star Wars property, Lego designers reproduce all structures, vehicles and characters based on the way they appear in the films. The company regrets that the group has misinterpreted what the Lego Star Wars set depicts."

    McNally told NBC News that "the set has not been withdrawn from stores."

    Jabba the Terrorist?
    The cultural center in Vienna said the issue arose when a father lodged a complaint about the construction set, which his son received as a Christmas gift. The dad took the toy back to the store, and the center said it contacted Lego about what it saw as "educationally and culturally objectionable defects."

    "The terrorist Jabba the Hutt likes to smoke hookah and kills his victims," the center said. "It is clear that the figure of the ugly villain Jabba and the whole scene serves up racial prejudice and vulgar insinuations against Orientals and Asians as sneaky and criminal personalities. ..."

    What does Jabba's palace have to do with the Turks? In an annotated set of pictures, the center drew a parallel between the dome of Jabba's house and the dome of the Hagia Sophia, a 1,500-year-old monument that has served as a church and a mosque but is now used as a cultural museum. The tower rising beside Jabba's palace? To the Austrian Turks, that looks like a Muslim minaret.

    Turkischegemeinde.at

    The Turkish Cultural Community of Austria put together a detailed comparison of the "Star Wars" play set and the Hagia Sophia monument.

    UNESCO

    The centuries-old Hagia Sofia is one of Turkey's most famous monuments.

    May 1, 2008: NBC's Lester Holt joins TODAY's Matt Lauer on his "Where in the World" tour and takes a trip through Turkey, visiting such colorful locations as Bodrum, Cappadocia and Ephesus.

    As you might expect, the controversy sparked a storm of Hothian proportions on the Internet. The idea that a Lego toy could offend Asians or Muslims seemed so out of the blue that some commentators suspected it was an elaborate spoof. "A very successful one, well done to the author, you've had half the world's press swallowing it," Forbes contributor Tim Worstall wrote.

    5,000 emails received
    A spokesman for the cultural community, Ata Sel, told NBC News that this is not a spoof. He said the center has received about 5,000 emails so far about its stand. "We did get a lot of racist emails," he said, "but a lot of emails say we are right."

    He hasn't yet heard back from Lego officially, but he has seen the company's response in news reports — and he doesn't like it. "This answer we cannot accept," he said. "Lego wants to make war respectable by producing games for children."

    Instead of helping children build a "Star Wars" world, "Lego should show how to construct a peaceful world," Ata Sel said. "Lego is a big firm, with responsibilities."

    It's not so unusual for folks to take umbrage at "Star Wars" and its characters: Over the years, the fictional universe has weathered claims of anti-Semitism and anti-Japanese sentiment as well as complaints about racial stereotyping by Jar Jar Binks. Do you think the latest protest by the Austrian Turks has a valid point, or is this controversy as silly as Jar Jar's accent? Feel free to weigh in with your comments below.

    More about Lego offerings ... and 'Star Wars':

    Alan Boyle is NBCNews.com's science editor. Connect with the Cosmic Log community by "liking" the log's Facebook page, following @b0yle on Twitter and adding the Cosmic Log page to your Google+ presence. To keep up with Cosmic Log as well as NBCNews.com's other stories about science and space, sign up for the Tech & Science newsletter, delivered to your email in-box every weekday. You can also check out "The Case for Pluto," my book about the controversial dwarf planet and the search for new worlds.

  • Get a reality check on the Millennium Falcon's jump to hyperspace

    University of Leicester

    This is how Han Solo's jump to hyperspace is typically portrayed in the "Star Wars" movies....

    By Alan Boyle, Science Editor, NBC News

    In the "Star Wars" saga, the Millennium Falcon's jump to hyperspace is totally fictional — but if it could happen, some enterprising physics students in Britain say that it wouldn't look anything like the stretched-out beams of light shown on the movie screen. Instead, Han Solo would see a disc of bright light right in the middle of his windshield, representing the blue-shifted afterglow of the big bang. He'd also get a killer jolt of X-rays.

    Those are the claims laid out in a paper on relativistic optics written by four physics students at the University of Leicester: Riley Connors, Katie Dexter, Joshua Argyle and Cameron Scoular. The paper is published in the university's Journal of Physics Special Topics.

    The journal features scientific investigations into some of the more, um, unusual questions of physics. For example, could Batman really use his bat-cape to glide through the skies? (Yes, but the landing would almost certainly kill him.) Could James really use a flock of seagulls to carry a Giant Peach across the ocean, as described in Roald Dahl's classic children's book? (Maybe, but it would require 2,425,907 birds.)

    The journal's aim is to give physics students in the last year of their four-year master's program some experience in writing scientific papers, while having a little fun in the process.

    "A lot of the papers published in the journal are on subjects that are amusing, topical or a bit off-the-wall," University of Leicester physicist Mervyn Roy said today in a news release. "Our fourth-years are nothing if not creative! But to be a research physicist — in industry or academia — you need to show some imagination, to think outside the box, and this is certainly something that the module allows our students to practice."

    University of Leicester

    ... But this is what Han Solo should actually see, based on calculations carried out by students at the University of Leicester.

    In the case of the Millennium Falcon, the students point out that as the spaceship approached the speed of light, all the radiation coming from in front of the ship would be shifted increasingly toward the blue side of the spectrum due to the Doppler effect. Visible light from the stars would be seen as X-rays. Meanwhile, the cosmic microwave background radiation that permeated the universe in the wake of the big bang would be shifted into the visible-light spectrum, producing that bright disc of light.

    "If the Millennium Falcon existed and really could travel that fast, sunglasses would certainly be advisable," Connors said. "On top of this, the ship would need something to protect the crew from harmful X-ray radiation."

    The students calculated that the stellar X-rays would exert enormous pressure on the Millennium Falcon, comparable to that felt at the bottom of the Pacific Ocean. That would push back on the ship, forcing it to slow down. Han Solo would thus have to bring even more energy to bear to make the jump to hyperspace.

    Actually, Albert Einstein's theory of relativity dictates that Han would need an infinite amount of energy to accelerate to the speed of light — but we're talking science fiction here.

    The students' paper doesn't provide a blueprint for a real-life Millennium Falcon; however, it could give filmmakers something to think about as they ramp up for the recently announced "Star Wars" sequels. "Perhaps Disney should take the physical implications of such high-speed travel into account in their forthcoming films," Dexter said.

    More faster-than-light reality checks:

    Alan Boyle is NBCNews.com's science editor. Connect with the Cosmic Log community by "liking" the log's Facebook page, following @b0yle on Twitter and adding the Cosmic Log page to your Google+ presence. To keep up with Cosmic Log as well as NBCNews.com's other stories about science and space, sign up for the Tech & Science newsletter, delivered to your email in-box every weekday. You can also check out "The Case for Pluto," my book about the controversial dwarf planet and the search for new worlds.

  • White House: Thumbs down on Death Star, thumbs up on space

    20th Century Fox

    The Death Star was a fearsome battle station in the Star Wars saga - but purely fictional.

    By Alan Boyle, Science Editor, NBC News

    The White House says building a Death Star would be an out-of-this-galaxy waste of money — not only because it's against government policy to blow up planets, but also because the United States already has access to a space station as well as a laser-wielding space robot.

    Today's official statement on the Death Star issue, titled "This Isn't the Petition Response You're Looking For," was written by Paul Shawcross, chief of the science and space branch at the White House Office of Management and Budget. It comes in response to a "We the People" petition that called on the federal government to start building a "Star Wars"-style Death Star battle station by 2016.

    "By focusing our defense resources into a space-superiority platform and weapon system such as a Death Star, the government can spur job creation in the fields of construction, engineering, space exploration, and more, and strengthen our national defense," the petition read.

    The petition garnered more than 25,000 online signatures within a month, partly due to a signing campaign that went viral on 4chan, Reddit and Twitter. Under the Obama administration's rules for the "We the People" program, that required the White House to come up with a reply.

    Shawcross and his colleagues clearly rose to the challenge, with an essay that should satisfy the policy geeks as well as the "Star Wars" geeks. Here's the full text:

    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."

    Update for 9:35 p.m. ET Jan. 11: The White House statement quickly sparked a Twitter response from Darth Vader himself: "A serious mistake, Mr. President. You can never have enough planet-sized lasers."

    Update for 1:40 a.m. ET Jan. 12: NASA may brag about the space station and its laser-equipped Curiosity rover, but that's not enough, Death Star PR says in a Twitter update: "Until you put the laser and the space station together and start blowing up planets, you're not doing enough Science." 

    Other spaced-out petitions:

    Alan Boyle is NBCNews.com's science editor. Connect with the Cosmic Log community by "liking" the log's Facebook page, following @b0yle on Twitter and adding the Cosmic Log page to your Google+ presence. To keep up with Cosmic Log as well as NBCNews.com's other stories about science and space, sign up for the Tech & Science newsletter, delivered to your email in-box every weekday. You can also check out "The Case for Pluto," my book about the controversial dwarf planet and the search for new worlds.

  • It's a trap! Petition to build Death Star will spark White House response

    20th Century Fox

    Let's face it: Funding a Death Star would push the federal budget off the fiscal cliff and into a fiscal Death Valley.

    By Alan Boyle, Science Editor, NBC News

    The 25,000-plus signers of a "We the People" petition calling on the federal government to start building a Death Star by 2016 must be feeling as peppy as the Rebel Alliance, now that they've put their plea over the threshold that will trigger a response from the White House.

    Campaigns on 4chan, Reddit and Twitter helped put it over the top with a day to spare. This means someone at the White House will have to take a good look at the Death Star issue and draw up a response (unless officials decide it would be improper to speak out on something that's more appropriately addressed by, say, the Defense Department, NASA or Lord Vader).

    The rationale for securing the funding and resources to start construction was laid out in the petition, created on Nov. 14 by John D. of Longmont, Colo: "By focusing our defense resources into a space-superiority platform and weapon system such as a Death Star, the government can spur job creation in the fields of construction, engineering, space exploration, and more, and strengthen our national defense."

    Building the kind of moon-sized Death Star portrayed in the "Star Wars" saga would be a heck of a stimulus program, however. Earlier this year, Centives calculated the cost of the steel alone at $852 quadrillion, or roughly 13,000 times the world's gross domestic product. At the current rate of production, it would take more than 833,000 years to produce enough steel to begin work.

    I'm afraid the White House's political deflector shield will be quite operational when that petition arrives.

    Administration officials have had a lot of practice dealing with "We the People" petitions that address far-out topics like the Death Star: Last year, for instance, two petitions calling for full disclosure on extraterrestrial visitations reached the standard requiring a response, and the White House's Office of Science and Technology Policy rose to the challenge.

    "The U.S. government has no evidence that any life exists outside our planet, or that an extraterrestrial presence has contacted or engaged any member of the human race," OSTP's Phil Larson reported on the WhiteHouse.gov website. "In addition, there is no credible information to suggest that any evidence is being hidden from the public’s eye."

    I'm hoping that the Death Star petition will provide an opportunity for Larson and his colleagues to come up with a pithier, more creative response ... maybe something that will satisfy the fanboys. Here are a few examples that have popped up over the past few days:

    Which "Star Wars" cliches would be most fitting for the task? Try to think of some suggestions you can leave in the comment space below. On second thought, try not. Do, or do not. There is no "try."

    More on the Death Star and other petitions:

    Alan Boyle is NBCNews.com's science editor. Connect with the Cosmic Log community by "liking" the log's Facebook page, following @b0yle on Twitter and adding the Cosmic Log page to your Google+ presence. To keep up with Cosmic Log as well as NBCNews.com's other stories about science and space, sign up for the Tech & Science newsletter, delivered to your email in-box every weekday. You can also check out "The Case for Pluto," my book about the controversial dwarf planet and the search for new worlds.