Path: utzoo!utgpu!attcan!uunet!husc6!cfa!wyatt
From: wyatt@cfa.harvard.EDU (Bill Wyatt)
Newsgroups: sci.space.shuttle
Subject: 12 parsecs (was: Shuttle orbiter-naming competition)
Message-ID: <1067@cfa.cfa.harvard.EDU>
Date: 27 Jul 88 18:44:21 GMT
References: <11378@ames.arc.nasa.gov> <44700004@pyr1.cs.ucl.ac.uk> <12413@ames.arc.nasa.gov>
Organization: Harvard-Smithsonian Ctr. for Astrophysics
Lines: 22

> >> > And we could do the Launch to LEO in under 12 parsecs!
> >> ....I hate to say it, but last time I looked, 'parsec' was a unit of length,
> >> specifically 3.26 light years. B-)
> >
> >Tell that to George Lucas.  He used it this way first.
> 
> One more note: to paraphrase, Sagan said that Lucas should have hired some
> out of work astronomer (any one of them) to get the interpretation
> correct.

The way I heard this, Lucas knew full well that a parsec is a measure of
distance, not time. He was trying, unsuccessfully, to have Han Solo make
an outrageous statement to Obi-wan and Luke thus showing what hicks
they were (at least concerning space travel). It didn't some off right,
and turned into a howler of a mistake.
-- 

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