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Playinghardball

(11,665 posts)
Wed Aug 29, 2012, 12:31 PM Aug 2012

Engineer proposes $1 trillion USS Enterprise



An anonymous electrical and systems engineer going only by the moniker BTE-Dan has posted surprisingly detailed plans for a full-scale, functioning Starship Enterprise that he claims could be built in 20 years. Though it may be tempting to scoff at such lofty ambition, the Build the Enterprise website (up all of one week) includes specifications, costs, mission plan and funding strategies, all suggesting that a serious amount of thought has gone into creating a real world counterpart to the icon spaceship of the TV and movie series, Star Trek.

>snip<
Though similar in scale and appearance to the USS Enterprise ("it ends up that this ship configuration is quite functional," Dan writes), the "Gen1 Enterprise" would be functionally very different. Firstly, the main nuclear-powered ion engine (boasting 1.5 GW of power) would strictly limit the Enterprise to intra-solar system missions, being incapable of anything approaching faster-than-light speeds. However, Dan claims that the Gen1 would be capable of reaching Mars from Earth within ninety days, and reaching the Moon in three. Comparatively rudimentary compared to the NCC-1701 portrayed on screen, Dan's Gen1 proposal is somewhat analogous to the real world "Tricorder" we looked at last month, being one imaginary technology scaled back to meet present day technological possibilities - though obviously this is a rather more ambitious scheme.





Dan claims that the Gen1 would have ample living space and could generate gravity of 1 g. This would be created by a rotating magnetically-suspended gravity wheel housed within the Enterprise's familiar saucer-shaped section. A counter-rotating ring is also proposed in order to prevent the body of the ship rotating. Dan suggests that the second ring might be filled with water, propellant, or other materials that would be needed aboard ship.

http://www.gizmag.com/engineer-proposes-uss-enterprise/22532/
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Engineer proposes $1 trillion USS Enterprise (Original Post) Playinghardball Aug 2012 OP
Perchance to dream... hifiguy Aug 2012 #1
They're going to have to wait for Zefram Cochrane to invent the warp drive in 2063. HopeHoops Aug 2012 #2
 

HopeHoops

(47,675 posts)
2. They're going to have to wait for Zefram Cochrane to invent the warp drive in 2063.
Wed Aug 29, 2012, 01:36 PM
Aug 2012

It's a nice idea, but the Enterprise has never been a practical design. Even with warp drive, it would spin around in a belly dive of circles. The thrust needs three engines equal in balance to the ballast of the ship. I love the SF part of it, but the physics just doesn't work. And as for the transporter, you're not going to get ME into one of those things!!! And don't even get me STARTED on phasers - they fucking EAT batteries.



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