Engineer wants to build the USS Enterprise for $1 trillion

Tugar · May 2012

No, this is no joke. I actually like the idea. Makes more sense than the ISS does now.

http://www.gizmag.com/engineer-proposes-uss-enterprise/22532/

evil_genius_180 · May 2012

I'll say this; He's definitely put some serious thought into it. He's even figured out where in the spaceframe the real world components would go.

I say build it. Get some of those fat cat billionaires with no way to possibly spend all of the money they have to each donate a decent amount to the project. (one could probably raise $1 trillion pretty quickly that way) It could even be an international project, which would bring more money and go towards uniting the nations of the world.

Randal R · May 2012

If civilization does not crumble, and we find alternative fuels , this might actually happen one day.

A museum in space called USS Enterprise.

IRML · May 2012

it won't happen, even if they get the money, for the simple reason that there are much more logical designs than the enterprise to match that spec

Chris2005 · May 2012

Instead of building a vehicle for space in the shape of the Enterprise, when it really won't function like the Enterprise, but just take on the appearance, a private company or something should make a full scale museum in the shape of the Enterprise, either Connie or Connie Refit... in which the interior is designed as if it were really real... sort of like an attraction that Trek fans and others can go to, the saucer section and warp nacelles might need pillar supports... but that'd be awesome... I know one guy plans on doing that with the Titanic... aka Titanic II, but maybe it's just me... I think it would really be cool...

andar_b · May 2012

Dude... that WOULD be spectacular, but everyone would have a favorite to see like the Galaxy-class or the Soverign. Perhaps not the most utilitarian design, but it would inspire at least every Trekkie on earth, I'm sure. Unfortunately, it would probably suffer the same fate as the Star Trek Experience in Vegas, which was really fun when I went but just wasn't lucrative enough to persist.

Chris2005 · May 2012

andar_b wrote: »

Dude... that WOULD be spectacular, but everyone would have a favorite to see like the Galaxy-class or the Soverign. Perhaps not the most utilitarian design, but it would inspire at least every Trekkie on earth, I'm sure. Unfortunately, it would probably suffer the same fate as the Star Trek Experience in Vegas, which was really fun when I went but just wasn't lucrative enough to persist.

I'd love to see all the main Federation canon ships in full scale, Connie, Connie Refit, Oberth, Miranda, Galaxy, Sovereign, and so on... but I think the best we could do in this day and age, economically is the smaller vessels.

Yea, I so wanted to go to that, but then heard it was closed, and I was like :argh: lol

IRML · May 2012

Chris2005 wrote: »

Instead of building a vehicle for space in the shape of the Enterprise, when it really won't function like the Enterprise, but just take on the appearance, a private company or something should make a full scale museum in the shape of the Enterprise, either Connie or Connie Refit... in which the interior is designed as if it were really real... sort of like an attraction that Trek fans and others can go to, the saucer section and warp nacelles might need pillar supports... but that'd be awesome...

they had plans for this in vegas but it never saw the light of day, you might be able to find some articles about it on the net, I remember seeing concepts posted here years ago

andar_b · May 2012

Yea, I so wanted to go to that, but then heard it was closed, and I was like lol

I was fortunate enough to get a chance to visit the first incarnation of the Experience. It was a bit corny, which is to be expected, but overall it was a blast for a long-time Nexgen fan. I know it's little consolation, but it was actually quite well executed. Passengers were escorted into a set of waiting lines like you'd expect for a normal ride, when suddenly the lights blinked out, there was a cold blast of air and twinkling lights like stars, then the transporter room 'materialized' around us. We got to walk through the Ent-D corridors (well done, except for the glaring anachronism of beige plastic EXIT signs) and to the Bridge, where Riker appeared on the viewscreen to tell us why we were there. Fast forward to an XXL troop shuttle that seated about 15(?). The graphics and the motion-simulation were spot on, in my opinion, but my mom got motion sickness from it. Firefight with some Klingons and a time-travel warp to us flying over modern Vegas and crashing through the marquee of the Hilton, and landing in a maintenance room. It was great fun, the sort of fun I doubt we'll see from JJ Trek.

biotech · May 2012

Just how much damage would a thing that size do if it crashed down from orbit?

Schimpfy · May 2012

IRML wrote: »

they had plans for this in vegas but it never saw the light of day, you might be able to find some articles about it on the net, I remember seeing concepts posted here years ago

Yeah, it was for a competition for the spot that became the current Freemont Street. Mike and Denise Okuda posted THIS LINK about it.

The Star Trek Experience was pretty cool, too. Got to go to that in '05. My buddy almost got mauled by a 6 1/2' tall Klingon woman.

IRML · May 2012

biotech wrote: »

Just how much damage would a thing that size do if it crashed down from orbit?

not much, it'd still burn up like normal satellites do, maybe there would be bigger pieces left over

fluxfire · May 2012

I like the idea of a mobile space station... Granted having in the shape of the ENT is a bit out there.

wamatt · May 2012

i think if every treckie out there pay $10 they would have a bunch of money money to start with

___________________________________________________________________________________________________
marvel heroes addict

MadKoiFish · May 2012

Then they claim unfeasible and disappear.
Sorry some of the logic on that page has me WTFing. Serious Ion drives? Does he even know it takes months to accelerate anything with those on small probe based ships? Hell is the Prometheus project still going? That would be earths first REAL ion driven space craft. Not a automated probe sent to comets.
That spinning wheel in the hull would alone cause a buttload of "steering" that they would have to constantly counter with thrust.

Just a total lack of thought into the real workings, of how it would all relate, and of how lightly things were researched. It is like it was planned based off FOX news articles. Vs looking at the scientific research papers or engineering examples.

It is a cool idea to spur on exploration or to just DO something. But I as much as anything is better than nothing at this point in regards to space would not put anything towards this project. Privately funding a project to create a orbiting transit vehicle that is to live PERMANENTLY in space though, that is a goal to fund and push for. Water jackets in the core could protect from solar flares and much has been developed in magnetic fields and plain old fabric armor.

Even this is a wishy washy dream at least until we get a base and mining on the moon. If you did it NOW you would have to pay for or develop a transit vehicle to get all the components up then structure them to sustain under gravity and launch stress. Which just adds costs in materials weight and design.

Develop a moon base and manufacturing systems then think about large cruisers and transport/explorer ships.

ISS is much more than what the media make it out as.

evil_genius_180 · May 2012

To be honest, I've been wondering since this was first posted if this guy is really an engineer. He claims to be, but also won't give his real name. So, there's now way to verify if he actually is an engineer or just a wacko. I'm not an engineer by any means and a lot of what he proposes seems far-fetched to me based on my (very) limited knowledge of engineering. Plus, his site has NO technical schematics showing how anything would really work, just a side view of the Enterprise with arrows pointing to various parts with "this goes here" text. Hell, I can whip one of those up right now, that doesn't mean squat. He could be anybody, even just some overzealous fanboy with absolutely nothing better to do with his time. After all, most anybody can create a website these days. (just my $0.02 on the matter)

Coolhand · May 2012

whatever the profession, this is clearly not an engineers solution to the problem of space exploration. its like an idea a not-too-bright 8 year old would come up with.

Falin · May 2012

Coolhand wrote: »

whatever the profession, this is clearly not an engineers solution to the problem of space exploration. its like an idea a not-too-bright 8 year old would come up with.

Yup, hell i'm not an an engineer and i can come up basic design drawings for something better suited for space travel. form has to follow function in space.

evil_genius_180 · May 2012

Coolhand wrote: »

whatever the profession, this is clearly not an engineers solution to the problem of space exploration. its like an idea a not-too-bright 8 year old would come up with.

Yeah, exactly. Heck, for all we know, he is a child. Not necessarily 8, but he could be under 18 years old. (and he might not even be a "he"

)

Skaro · June 2012

This idea seems to bank more on "rule of cool" instead of practicality.

Hundred · June 2012

Ummm... I like Star Trek, really I do. But this is foolishness, we could do so much more with that money down here on Earth. I mean a trillion dollars??? All to build something that may not work. And if it does, at our current level of technology, when it comes to propelling the thing through space, we wouldn't get too far anyway. And to build a trillion dollar indoor trekkie theme park? Come on now? If they really want to explore space, they need to come up with a much more contemporary design. Which I'm sure would be a lot cheaper.

Douvie · June 2012

Hey but you can't knock the idea. And really the movies are just imagination. Has any of you considered what would happen, say you were flying the SPACE SHUTTLE at 0.25 light speed , and a drop of paint happen to be floating in your way? The result of that collision would disintegrate the space shuttle. The math has been done. So it is not just getting up to light speed (which would require 1000 times more energy than the earth has provided in 16 000 years), and the braking would require the same amount of energy, but no shield has been able to be designed to work yet - which also would require the same amount of energy.

This ship the guy is proposing to build would never leave space dock - in it would be so full of holes by the end of 20 years. I wouldn't travel in it.

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Engineer wants to build the USS Enterprise for $1 trillion

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Engineer wants to build the USS Enterprise for $1 trillion

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