Starship Enterprise could be a reality by 2032, engineer says

Originally posted by Cassius666
The major advances in regards to star to star travel science has done so far is figuring out why it is impossible for humans, or in fact anyone who does not have a lifespan of several million years.

science... it's good for something afterall

consciousness is obviously not in the realm of the laws of physics, otherwise everything including inanimate objects would be questioning its own existence... Life let alone conscious beings are quite rare in the universe as we know it.

scientist say things like mind over matter does not exist, such things are a fantasy in the realm of flying spaghetti monsters... yet since the advent of the wheel (and quite possibly before) we have been doing this mind over matter everyday upon thousands of years by now only just in a slower process. (all material possessions are from raw elements and minerals.

who are scientist to say that star travel is physical?

...linear thinking is an addiction

reply to post by namehere


You have been watching too many science fiction movies. If everything is as they say it is and nothing is close to earth, there is no way anyone will survive a length of time to get anywhere with our present and near future capabilities...... After screwing up this planet, do we deserve to go out and find another?.

Hi OP, to answer the question, I don't believe our children will see this in their lifetimes either.

As much as I would like to believe this, 20yrs is a stretch, 80 - 100 years maybe we could get a small craft to Mars / Venus and return safely.

Just the R&D on complex navigation systems alone would take 20+ years I dare say. Then assuming concurrent R&D activities of materials selection to build, proving the ability to build (human vs machine), proving life support systems (all complex), survivability / habitats (food, water, health), robust propulsion (primary, secondary & backup), life boats, protection (main spaceframe / structural not wepons), Training (generations of it) & Testing... the list goes on and on... Then through a couple of production failures in this - back to the drawing board for re testing....

I don't think anyone is denying it can't be done, just everyone needs to want that common goal. Something which I don't believe we can get our heads around in the next 20yrs alone.

Then there is time - just to get anywhere near our gas giants like Saturn or Jupiter at anything less than near c speeds will take many many years then double that to get to Uranus. This is assuming we can get close to Voyager(s) 1 & 2 speeds of 56,000k's per hour. Which was only possible to an apprent rare alignment of planets that happens every 175 years* or so not via our then advanced propulsion systems. It ultimately makes for a compelling decision - effort vs reward. Unless we can get to the mind blowing 1/4 of light speed milestone say 75000 km per second (300,000 kms per second for c) evening getting to know our solar systems will be quite the task.

I would love nothing more to believe we could be a space fairing race, where day trips to Saturn were possible, but I think machines will have that luxury before humans. I really hope I am wrong.

Building something like the enterprise to go to the moon or mars at best in 20yrs seems a little.... rich.

* taken from Bill Brysons - A short history of nearly Everything. (a good read - a little dated though)

Pic from the site....


Ahh...I'm thinking a little further into the future. It would be nice though..

This could would be a very big and awesome step for us. Well let's say we start mining asteroids in the next 5 years give or take then we start building more stuff in space I don't see why we could not build a space ship like star trek someday soon closer to my kids life span.

reply to post by joecool9887


Yes, indeed!!!:

Well let's say we start mining asteroids in the next 5 years give or take....

'ONE' the very many steps, we must take, in space....!!!

Yessss Starterk marathion

reply to post by one_small_step


I believe we will see it(the ship) but we may not hit the speeds like light speeds for a long time. But we could still build a ship and travel at very fast speeds. Light speeds will take time and lots of it. We may even come up ways to travel through space faster over time and once space is mapped it will be much safer. Like I said this won't happen over night but we can do it.

the enterprise is a great example of sci fi ships vs reality

nobody would ever design a ship that had to withstand serious acceleration with two gigantic and skinny support for the engines. the stress they would suffer would surly make the engineers rethink the design

any ship that had to suffer huge rates of acceleration would be spherical or elliptical.

oh wait, he's just talking about putting around, not warp drive

nevermind, lol

reply to post by Propulsion


That is not a very good representation, sorry....of the "re-fit" Constitution class Starship....a few errors....though, the "space doors" that pointed to the bottom of the Saucer Section (or, "Primary Hull") location? Almost correct....there are some major CARGO areas located there. Of course, the Primary Hull also does have landing gear that can extend....so, these areas can be confused for 'cargo' hatches.

Other aspects of the image were.....well....sorry to say....wrong! The "elevators" (They are Turbo-lifts) part was excruciatingly wrong...and the "Gravity Wheel"??

Ummmmm...no, the "artificial" gravity is incorporated into the decks, at every level, and can be controlled individually, from whichever station (AND the Bridge, ultimately) that has jurisdiction....and 'ultimate' control, over every aspect of the Ship.....

reply to post by syrinx high priest


The "warp nacelles" ARE re-enforced to the struts that attach them to the main structure of the spacecraft.

RECALL that the "Impulse engines" have nothing to do with the "Warp Nacelles". Oh, and....IF you can "accelerate" a spaceship and do NO HARM to the occupants (controlling "gravity, as a "MUST" there)...well then this can be applied to the ENTIRE STRUCTURE.....

....and PART of the concept of "Warp Drive" is that the Warp Nacelles must have a bit of "space"....( lol )....a bit of an area to generate their "Warp Field". I mean, this is so "obvious"!!!!

ok, so maybe they can make the hotel look just like the fictional Enterprise so they can raise enough money to build an actual "star ship". Either way, we'll get the Enterprise!!

You know, after reading some posts here, I think if a bunch of you guys got together you could build a better craft than our government has. Well, that's only after everyone gets done with all the nitpicking and gets started working on something.

Let the poor folk have this planet, let them get back to their roots. I'll work hard to move away from here, hopefully the next planet won't suffer from unproductive people creating debt by which the rich gain greed

Some trekkies wet dream, if we ever get to the point of inter-stellar travel it's going to be controlled by computers and the away team would be drones. Relativity (the stress of coming back to a foreign planet and everyone you did know dead) and long exposure to zero gravity would make it not suitable for humans

reply to post by ProudBird


and do NO HARM to the occupants (controlling "gravity, as a "MUST" there)

You'd have to have a gravity field to stop the zero gravity playing havoc with the skeleton but have you considered inertia dampeners?

At first I was excited, and then I realised something.

He wants to put two flying nuclear reactors in space, and he wants to house one of them on the long rear section where the Enterprise's warp nacelles were. You know, that part of the ship that was usually the first to get blown apart in the TV show, when the shields failed? What could possibly go wrong with that idea?

I don't want to dampen his enthusiasm too much, but he is going to need to look for a more stable power source for his ion engines. A giant, two-node, flying nuclear bomb isn't a vehicle that I'm going to want to set foot on, personally.

According to some scientist we should have been at this level long time ago. I believe our current way of life such as: Disinformation, slavery (yes slavery still exist), money system, judicial system etc prevents it. We will destroy ourselves before we become a type 1 civilization.

This is flat stupid. Technology is just a manipulation, there are likely millions of manipulations to reach the heavens. What is stupid is to think that man will ever do to really cool stuff in space! For one, common folk will never be able to achieve this, unless there gifted. Look at the world you live in. Nothing, I repeat nothing public ally has been done in the realm of space travel. This is without shadow of a doubt a slave race. I'm inclined to believe in certain circles Star Trek was just programming of a paradigm that has already played out 859 times over They have whatever technology they desire at this point. I for one would never hop on a US government sponsored space ship ie the Enterprise. I would most like be duped into hoping on the Gravitron, getting spun around in some re-education chamber then be subjected to butt rape for 40 days and 40 nights. Only to be released as a Astronaut.

This is crazy but awesome. Now if only they could somehow find a way to retrofit it with a modified Alcubierre Drive that manipulates space-time holographically, and also perhaps a quantum teleporter that is scaled up by many orders of magnitude.