NASA is dead.  Jedi killed it.

Used to be, growing geeks wanted to go to Space Camp.  To fly rockets, to mimic operating a shuttle, to #$^ing be an astronaut.  It was engineering and space heaven.  Based on an idea tossed out by rocket god Wernher von Braun and given life in 1982 by a state agency, it was all about to know what it’s like to train like an astronaut.

"We have band camp, football, cheerleading; why don't we have a science camp?" [von Braun]

At space camp, kids (9 and up) and adults ('You're never to old to go to Space Camp, dude') learn the holy trio of space, aviation and robotics.  And now... you can learn to be a Jedi instead. 

Seriously.  They have the Jedi Experience as a Space Camp program.

Jedi Experience focuses on the principles and moral codes surrounding the training of a Jedi. It is an educational look into the scientific, technological, historical and cultural trappings of the Star Wars universe, with real world parallels.

I love science, and I love the Star Wars universe.  But movies aren't science.  Covering candy with a venere of 'space' doesn't make it engineering.

And when being an astronaut isn't cool enough on its own, we've lost the space race.

Alex

Tuesdays at The Satellite Diaries and Friday at The Daytime Astronomer (twitter @skyday)