By Nancy Atkinson
Universe Today
In Star Trek lore, the first Starship Enterprise will be built
by the year 2245. But today, an engineer has proposed — and outlined in
meticulous detail — building a full-sized, ion-powered version of the
Enterprise complete with 1G of gravity on board, and says it could be
done with current technology, within 20 years.
"We have the
technological reach to build the first generation of the spaceship known as the USS Enterprise — so let's do it," writes the curator of the
Build The Enterprise website, who goes by the name of BTE Dan.
This "Gen1" Enterprise could get to Mars in 90 days, to the moon in
three, and "could hop from planet to planet dropping off robotic probes
of all sorts en masse — rovers, special-built planes and satellites,”
BTE Dan says.
Complete with conceptual designs, ship specs, a funding schedule and almost every other imaginable detail, the
BTE website
was launched just this week and covers almost every aspect of how the
project could be done. 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 classic
"Star Trek."
“It ends up that this ship configuration is quite functional,” writes
BTE Dan, even though his design moves a few parts around for better
performance with today’s
technology.
This version of the Enterprise would be three things in one: a
spaceship, a space station and a spaceport. A thousand people can be on
board at once — either as crew members or as adventurous visitors.
While the ship will not travel at warp speed, with an ion propulsion
engine powered by a 1.5GW nuclear reactor, it can travel at a constant
acceleration so that the ship can easily get to key points of interest
in our solar system. Three additional nuclear reactors would create all
of the electricity needed for operation of the ship.
The saucer section would be a 0.3-mile-diameter (536-meter-diameter)
rotating, magnetically suspended gravity wheel that would create 1G of
gravity.
The first assignments for the Enterprise would have the ship serving
as a space station and spaceport, but then go on to missions to the
moon, Mars, Venus, various asteroids and even Europa, where the ship's
laser would be used not for combat but for cutting through the moon's
icy crust to enable a probe to descend to the ocean below.
Of course, like all spaceships today, the big "if" for such an effort
would be getting Congress to provide NASA the funding to do a huge
20-year project. But BTE Dan has that all worked out, and between tax
increases and spreading out budget cuts to areas like defense, health
and human services, housing and urban development, education and energy,
the cuts to areas of discretionary spending are not large, and the tax
increases could be small.
"These changes to spending and taxes will not sink the republic," says the
website.
"In fact, these will barely be noticed. It’s amazing that a program as
fantastic as the building a fleet of USS Enterprise spaceships can be
done with so little impact."
BTE Dan adds that "the only obstacles to us doing it are the
limitations we place on our collective imagination." His proposal says
that NASA could still receive funding for the science, astronomy and
robotic missions it currently undertakes.
But he proposes not just one Enterprise-class ship, but multiple
ships, one of which can be built every 33 years — once per generation —
giving three new ships per century. "Each will be more advanced than the
prior one. Older ships can be continually upgraded over several
generations until they are eventually decommissioned."
BTE Dan, who did not respond to emails, lists himself as a systems
engineer and electrical engineer who has worked at a Fortune 500 company
for the past 30 years.
The website includes a
blog,
a forum and a Q&A section, where BTE Dan answers the question,
"What if someone can prove that building the Gen1 Enterprise is beyond
our technological reach?"
Answer: "If someone can convince me that it is not technically
possible (ignoring political and funding issues), then I will state on
the BuildTheEnterprise site that I have been found to be wrong. In that
case, building the first Enterprise will have to wait for, say, another
half century. But I don’t think that anyone will be able to convince me
it can’t be done. My position is that we can — and should — immediately
start working on it.”
For the complete space nerd experience, check out
Build The Enterprise.
And for another great
sci fi read:
What's Wrong with Today's Sci Fi
