Love it when the real world is inspired by sci-fi…
I worked at NASA for a while and they almost universally LOVED all sci-fi. I saw Chebacca coffee mugs, tie-fighter models, and heard all sorts of ridiculously cool conversations comparing projects to Star Wars scenes. “Remember when that robot fixed Luke Skywalkers hand? That’s what we want robonaut to do on the ISS. Can you illustrate that up?”
it was especially cool was when they made this ISS drone camera based on the Luke’s light sabre training droid
Works the other way too - this realworld NASA Lowey sketch of an EVA vehicle MUST have inspires Return of the Jedi Lightspeeders!
Also, I also visited some tank factories for a project. Seeing shiny just welded tanks before the paint and surface gear gets attached look just like your visiting some kind of terminator factory… the shapes are very futuristic - angular and sleek and especially stiking when they are shiny metal. Must have inspired some kind of Sci-fi!
