Earn Your Death Star Degree

Science Fiction meets science fact at this interactive Star Wars exhibit.

The future always seems so far away. What's the big hold-up with our jet-packs, people? Boba Fett has been blasting off since long ago, yet we're still walking around like a bunch of land-loving chumps. Santa Ana's Discovery Science Center feels our pain; they hope to hold us over with their latest exhibit, Star Wars: Where Science Meets Imagination, a high tech respite from our present-day woes.

Over 80 props, models and costumes from Lucas Arts' twin trilogies seek to set the stage for our earthly transition to real-life future tech. Once you've checked them out, the Discovery Science Center invites you to hit their robot lab and put your programming chops to the test; hands-on experiments let you tinker with your own pile of parts and see what you come up with. Then simulate a future city with an augmented-reality Jawa town that needs your help getting set up. And hop into a personal hovercraft to see what it's like steering an actual X-34, as long as you don't try to speed off with it and sell it back to Jabba the Hutt.

If the in-house experiments, authentic Darth Vader and Princess Leia outfits and landspeeder aren't enough pull you in, there's one more thing to consider. Bring your friend Mr. Lincoln with you and make the jump to lightspeed in a life-size replica of the Millenium Falcon cockpit for just five bucks more; that's the best fuel economy you'll find on this side of the Alderaan system. Also, you might just learn something!

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