5

Website Wants To Build The Enterprise In Real Life

Date: May 18, 2012 | Author: David Wharton | Category: Sci-Fi In Real Life

The future of space exploration is definitely in question these days. NASA is having its budget sliced down to the bone. Privately funded spaceflight is promising, but still has many hurdles yet to surmount. In spite of a state of affairs that could easily generate cynicism in many a space devotee, there’s at least one group who is meeting the challenge by dreaming big…some might say ridiculously so. The folks behind the aptly named BuildTheEnterprise.org, you see, want to build an honest-to-gosh, real-life version of the U.S.S. Enterprise, and they want to do it over the next 20 years.

Now, some of the more skeptical amongst us might point out some of the obvious obstacles to a working Enterprise: the lack of warp-drive technology, for instance, or most of the other technologies that allowed the Enterprise to boldly go where no one yadda yadda yadda. The BTE folks seem aware of that, and are instead proposing the Enterprise’s iconic design as a starting point, then equipping the theoretical vessel with existing, or at least hypothetically possible, tech. We might not have warp drive, for instance, but we might conceivably be able to build ion propulsion engines powered by nuclear reactors. We might not be able to create artificial gravity as snazzy as Star Trek, but we already know how to simulate gravity through rotation. They even have a first mission in mind for the Enterprise: finally putting some humans on Mars.

It’s all a bit pie-in-the-sky, of course, but it’s a fascinating thought experiment if nothing else. We will probably never see warp drive in our lifetimes, if at all (unless the Singularity has a few surprises for us), but there are space-exploration technologies just waiting to be developed further, lacking only the passion and funding to make it happen. BuildTheEnterprise still has a steep climb ahead of it when it comes to the funding, but you have to admire their passion. And hey, to paraphrase Doc Brown, if you’re going to build a space craft, why not do it with some style?

Related Articles

Comments

  • http://twitter.com/amayzen139 amayzen.com

    There’s science fantasy (usually called “science fiction”), which, like sword and sorcery fantasy, is a thoroughly entertaining genre, and then there is science fact. Some people need to learn the difference.
    One of the most unrealistic aspects of most so-called science fiction dealing with human space flight is financial. The next time you see a film in which the characters of the story are zooming around the Galaxy in an enormous lavish spacecraft, ask yourself: Where did the resources come from to build this thing?
    In real life, even if the technology existed, it would cost billions and billions, probably trillions of dollars to construct just one Enterprise.
    The exploration of space using human-occupied rocket ships, as envisioned by NASA and Hitler’s favorite rocket scientist Wernher von Braun, was never financially feasible and was basically just one huge decades-long psyop.

  • Valin Cross

    Of course one of the main obstacles is financial!! That’s where the phrase “Privately Funded” comes into play!! BUT!! I for one would absolutely LOVE to see a real life StarShip Enterprise be constructed!! And if you think about it, some of the technology we have today is a direct result of someone watching the Original Star Trek series and saying “WHY NOT?” when they got old enough to where their inspirations could actually take form and come to fruition!! The tech is there, waiting to be discovered by the right people!! It’s there waiting for us to catch up to it!!! We already have primitive plasma shielding made possible by nuclear reaction!! It’s in it’s infancy!! But it’s GROWING!!! As do all things!! So……
    “WHY NOT?!?!?!?” Why sit back and say “we can’t do that!!” instead of saying “Hell Yeah!!!! Give it a shot!!”
    Hopes for the future!!

    • Mr_Katanga

      In the future, use of CAPS and multiple question/exclamation marks will be punishable by death.

  • Tim’s Film Reviews

    Not good enough, it needs to be a working enterprise! haha :D

  • http://www.facebook.com/michael.clarke.9235 Michael Clarke

    unfortunately we are conditioned to live in a materialistic world, and so investment in research goes primarily into entertainment. Such a shame we can’t look at the bigger picture in anything and work towards grander goals. We ruin the planet, forests, animals and whole ecosystems because of our selfish need to breed and expand. The problem isn’t investment but the conditioning we receive.