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Obama administration 'considering' building a Death Star: Petition forces White House to assess the feasibility of moon-sized weapon Online petition signed by 27,000 calls on U.S. to begin building by 2016 Huge space station was the Galactic Empire's ultimate weapon in Star Wars It was capable of destroying entire planets with a single energy beam blast Petition says construction will create jobs and strengthen national defence By Damien Gayle PUBLISHED: 14:03, 14 December 2012 The Obama administration is 'considering' building a Death Star after an online petition reached the 25,000 signatures it needed to be accepted by the White House. The online petition, which calls for the U.S. government to 'secure resources and funding, and begin construction of a Death Star by 2016' now has more than 27,000 signatures. First seen in the sci-fi classic Star Wars, the Death Star is a spherical, moon-sized space station that is capable of destroying entire planets with a single energy beam blast. The Galactic Empire's ultimate weapon: Now the White House is 'considering' building its own Death Star after an online petition calling for its construction passed 25,000 signatures within 30 days Commanded by Grand Moff Tarkin, played in Star Wars by Peter Cushing, it is the Galactic Empire's ultimate weapon, and is used to obliterate Princess Leia's home planet of Alderaan. The petition on the White House's We The People website for the U.S. to build its own Death Star was started by a Colorado man identified only as John D. A statement reads: '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 We The People website claims that any petition which attracts 25,000 signatures within 30 days will be guaranteed as assessment by White House staff. 'If a petition gets enough support, White House staff will review it, ensure it’s sent to the appropriate policy experts, and issue an official response,' it says. Students from Lehigh University of Pennsylvania in February calculated that, in today's economy, it would cost $852quadrillion to build a 140m diameter Death Star. At current production rates, it would take 833,315 years to mine enough steel to begin work on such a weapon, they estimated. The Galactic Empire's Death Star was eventually destroyed by Luke Skywalker leading a squadron of fighter pilots from the Rebel Alliance.