April 23, 2015 - Mouser Electronics, Inc., the global authorized distributor with the newest semiconductors and electronic components, has partnered with celebrity engineer Grant Imahara to kick off their new Space Exploration Series and Space Challenge. This series includes a debate on the age-old question that has been waged for decades - "Which reigns supreme: Star Wars or Star Trek?"

Grant posed the question during a recent video interview with five influential leaders in space exploration, filmed aboard the set of the webseries Star Trek Continues. Now it's up to the engineering community and the general public to voice their opinions through a new poll available on the Mouser.com website.

Who will prevail - the Galactic Empire or the United Federation of Planets? Whether your weapon of choice is a lightsaber or phaser, or if you prefer to render your foe helpless with "The Force" or the "Vulcan Neck Pinch," the fate of the universe now rests in your hands. This Mouser video production was taped on the set of the award-winning Star Trek Continues webseries aboard the set of the legendary Starship Enterprise.

The new Star Wars versus Star Trek Poll, now accessible through the Mouser.com website, is a fun way for the engineering community and the general public to delve into the Space Exploration Series presented as part of the Empowering Innovation Together™ program. This educational program allows engineers to connect with Grant and Mouser through innovation and creativity that defines engineering design.

In the video Grant asks the leaders at Mars One, Bobak Ferdowsi (known as "Mohawk guy"), executives from Teledyne Brown Engineering and Astrobotic Technology, and Mouser's own President and CEO Glenn Smith, which they feel reigns supreme: Star Wars or Star Trek.  

"To me, Star Trek came first, but it was Star Wars where I really saw space in a movie theater for the first time," remarked Glenn Smith as he sat aboard the Enterprise's bridge. "I can't really choose between the two of them; I just have to have both."

This mixed view held true with many of the space exploration leaders, but the one thread that seemed to come through from leaders such as Systems Engineer and Mars expert Bobak Ferdowsi, as well as John Horack, VP of Space Systems from Teledyne Brown Engineering, was placing Star Trek on a higher pedestal when it came to the true vision of what space exploration is all about. To them, Star Trek was "the future they wanted to be a part of," showing a "compelling view of how humanity could go into space and the reasons we go into space today."

"It really is a hard choice to make," says Grant Imahara. "Even though many may think I'm biased toward Star Wars since I worked on R2‑D2 as a model maker with George Lucas' Industrial Light and Magic, I see a co-existence here. I feel both Star Wars and Star Trek have their place in the overall universe, and each in its own right has inspired many engineers to push that technology envelope and advance us to where we are in many of our space programs today."

So the choice is yours. Which fandom will prevail? Go to the poll on Mouser.com to vote on which universe reigns supreme - Star Wars or Star Trek. Those that vote will see the results of the poll and have the opportunity to share the poll via social media.

To watch the video interview, visit http://www.mouser.com/empowering-innovation or visit Mouser's YouTube channel at https://youtu.be/28JMK9E6Vt0.

The new Space Exploration Series is part of the Empowering Innovation Together program - a way that Mouser and Grant Imahara are connecting engineers through innovation and creativity that defines engineering design. In addition to the Star Wars versus Star Trek poll, the series will also be supported with new Innovation Hub technical articles and videos, and a new Innovation Spotlight webisode video that will feature leading space industry innovators as seen in the video interview with Grant.

There will also be a new Space Challenge sponsored by both Mouser and Astrobotic Technology, asking "What technology, whether real or envisioned by you, do you feel represents today's world?" Share your idea, and get the opportunity to immortalize it and send mail to the moon as part of Astrobotic's first MoonMail™ program. To learn more visit the Empowering Innovation Challenge website.

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About Mouser
Mouser Electronics, a subsidiary of TTI, Inc., is part of Warren Buffett's Berkshire Hathaway family of companies. Mouser is an award-winning authorized semiconductor and electronic component distributor, focused on the rapid introduction of new products and technologies to electronic design engineers and buyers. Mouser.com features more than 4 million products online from more than 500 manufacturers. Mouser publishes multiple catalogs per year providing designers with up-to-date data on the components now available for the next generation of electronic devices. Mouser ships globally to over 500,000 customers in 170 countries from its 492,000 sq. ft. state-of-the-art facility south of Dallas, Texas. For more information, visit www.mouser.com.

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