Starship Enterprise could be a reality by 2032, engineer says

An ambitious engineer is delighting Trekkies everywhere with detailed plans for a full-size, functional Starship Enterprise that he believes could be up and running in 20 years. With his just-launched website, Build The Enterprise, site curator BTE Dan is lobbying hard for an ion-powered Enterprise that could be built with current technology. "Star Trek" fans can drool longingly over ship specs or this 3-D animated video which dissects the 0.3 mile saucer section of the Enterprise to reveal a rotating-magnet gravity wheel. BTE is trying to convince Congress to beam the funds to NASA, even going so far as to suggest budget and tax revisions to make it happen. "The only obstacles to us doing it are the limitations we place on our collective imagination," he enthused.

msn article

This is way cool, IMO.

My first thoughts are, would they build it on Earth and it could fly into space or would they build these in space?

Do you think we'll, or our children will ever see these?

reply to post by elevatedone


To build them in space they would first have to be able to inhabitate space for however long the construction of atleast one if not a whole lot more of these takes.

Kind of a chicken/egg scenario.

reply to post by fairguy


eggxellent point

Seriously though... who's to say that the ability and facilities are not already there? There have been
a lot of space missions.

Definitely something to look forward to!! I'm excited about it anyway. Where do we sign up?

reply to post by elevatedone


LMAO...Ion drive. Why stop with an ion drive? If Tachyons are proved reality instead of theoretical, you can make a faster than light engine if you could figure out how to harness it and create a "warp" bubble around the ship. Ofcourse you have no way of steering that thing or knowing where the hell you're going or how you're going to get back and if you did get back you would return thousands of years into our future and everyone you ever knew would be dead for thousands of years. You would basically be Christopher Columbus in space and watch out for black holes.

You could end up on the otherside of the universe with no idea where the hell you were at and the stars wouldn't even be remotely familiar.

This is cool and all but I see a problem with too much material that really is not needed for the design.

Lets face it. Currently it costs alot of money to launch any materials into space. I see any spaceship being as being as cheap as can be built without wasteful use of materials. Why make it look like the Enterprise if the cost will go up dramatically? We live in an age where people complain about 15-16 billion dollars are spent on the space program. The private investing people really are not moving along at a pace to do anything that significant for a very, very long time.

I like the idea and the attitude to get it done, but we also are limited by economics.

We have to be realistic here.

I am not trying to be a buz kill, this is just how I see the situation.

Although this is one way that Nasa could win my full support back with.

are we eventually going to build everything from pop culture?
is the Enterprise going to be escorted by a couple X-wings?

if we are going to become a space dwelling race we might as well go out and bring these technologies to all humans or rather have everyone doing something constructive for the mission..

reply to post by elevatedone


The plan would be to build them in space.

This Enterprise would be built entirely in space, have a rotating gravity section inside of the saucer, and be similar in size with the same look as the USS Enterprise that we know from Star Trek

www.universetoday.com...

They should have started these projects many years ago.
And don't start by saying there wasn't any money?
Instead of spending money to find better ways to explore space, mankind is using it for war, media and other un-interesting, non-educational stuff, in 'helping our evolution'.

He's putting a few carts before their respective horses.

First - we need a viable "black/void-dock" ship yard. All one needs to do is look at the construction of the International Space Station to see how ... lacking... we are in our abilities to construct things in space.

We may have what it takes to build something that looks -like- the Enterprise... but getting it into orbit and putting it together is a completely different story.

Further, many elements of the Enterprise design make little sense from a structural standpoint. Current structures are designed to be more homogenous with organic blending to improve strength and aerodynamic properties (would be somewhat beneficial even to celestial craft due to the influence of various particle winds and the potential of upper atmospheric maneuvers). I would expect our first space craft designs to look closer to something akin to the Covenant in the Halo universe (or Mon Calamari designs from Star wars).

The best drive system we have right now is VASMIR. Ion should be passed all together. It's just not a realistic propulsion system for a manned ship - much less a manned ship you want to be performing dynamic missions. Ion works great when you can plot an efficient set of vectors and let the engine burn for maximum efficiency... but they are not good for "squirrel!" moments - which is what a Research/Discovery ship is going to be doing... a lot of "squirrel!" followed by pursuit of said squirrel.

I think the better idea would be to start getting this consortium together to start laying the ground-work for practical surface-to-orbit infrastructure along with integrated orbital manufacturing processes (to minimize what must be carried up there).

Then we can start talking about building ships - whatever they may look like (hell, make an Executor Class SSD for all I care... it's just that if you build it in the middle of Death Valley... you're going to look at it, look up at the space it should be in, and go "#!"

Betting these ships have existed for decades. Thank the military cabal for hiding it from you.

Originally posted by liejunkie01
Lets face it. Currently it costs alot of money to launch any materials into space. I see any spaceship being as being as cheap as can be built without wasteful use of materials.

I like the idea and the attitude to get it done, but we also are limited by economics.

Bullets are a wasteful use of materials.

reply to post by intergalactic fire

Bullets are a wasteful use of materials.

I am all for bringing the troops home and spend the money on the space program.

It is unfortunate that the situation is what it is, but I really do not see it changing anytime soon. War is big business and the one's who make the decisions like big business. Money makes those kinds of decisions.

I say really before we go that deep into space, lets fix the friggin roads and bring the infrastructure up to a standard we can be proud of. But that is my opinion.

reply to post by elevatedone


That's cool, but is the Death Star going to be next?

I still want to sign up ...
and be the FIRST PURPLE CHITEN in SPAAAAAACCCEEE....

Nah, I think a Battlestar would be cooler to make. Complete with the Egyptian motif.
That way we can colonize the recently discovered earth-like planets. Minus the Cylons of course.
We can even have CERN Labs cook us up a singularity to power the thing. Now that would be nifty.

reply to post by liejunkie01

I am all for bringing the troops home and spend the money on the space program.

We should not had send them away in the first place. Maybe someday history will learn.

I say really before we go that deep into space, lets fix the friggin roads and bring the infrastructure up to a standard we can be proud of. But that is my opinion

.
My opinion is that the people in the lower and lowest class(the ones that everyone always seems to forget),
don't really care about how the roads look like, or if there should be a tree or a bench in that park.

How can you be proud of a 'up to standard' infrastructure, when on the next corner there is someone dying from hunger and a tribe being killed for no other reasons than power?

IMO Lets start tomorrow and get of this friggin' planet.

reply to post by intergalactic fire


The many people whose lives have been saved by bullets may disagree with you.

reply to post by elevatedone


While I'm a huge fan for the need to push propulsion and all other technology to get us into space, sorry but despite Mr. Scot being awed by ion propulsion in the dreadful ST-TOS episode "Spock's Brain" we can and are working on much better. We have used ion propulsion and its fabulous for things like long range solar probes because of its fuel efficiency, ion propulsion was understood in the 1960's. Well understood. Oh Scotty, how you disappointed me in that awful episode...

Originally posted by OccamsRazor04
reply to post by intergalactic fire

 

The many people whose lives have been saved by bullets may disagree with you.

Make the calculation. How many people have been saved by bullets and how many have died by it.
And those that have been saved did they had to kill anything in order to be saved?

those who dissagree that it do more good than bad.

But that's not the topic.
I don't care which design they choose from what film, enterprise or a deathstar operated by a HAL 2012, i just want to go climb the mountains on Mars

reply to post by elevatedone

Fairly crazy. I'm pretty sure that a PRACTICAL spaceship would look nothing like that. Someone in the comment section mentioned that there's no ablation shield. Just one example.

I think he's way wrong that this could be done by 2032. The technology might be there, but there's so much else you have to consider. I literally want to scream when I consider all of the numerous problems that would crop up during its development, and this is not even at the point where it's flying. Once it's flying you have even more problems that stem from life in space and other issues. It's so ridiculous!!!! I think the purpose of this is to get people thinking.

Freeman Dyson said we could have a manned spaceship at saturn by 1970. So...

I could be a very rich man in 20 years. But...

Probably not.