Starship Enterprise could be a reality by 2032, engineer says

reply to post by intergalactic fire

Make the calculation. How many people have been saved by bullets and how many have died by it.
And those that have been saved did they had to kill anything in order to be saved?

A quick question... how do you propose groups of people like Nazi-led Germany be dealt with, then?

A bullet is a thing. A tool. Steel is a waste of material. It's been used to kill people for centuries.

When I load a firearm - you can rest assured that I will never level it at you without justification or to satisfy my own ambitions of power. Other people are not so disciplined - and those are the people I will more than happily put bullets in; because the society you and I both enjoy cannot survive so long as those types of individuals are allowed to utilize the advantages afforded by economics and technology to subject others.

I don't care which design they choose from what film, enterprise or a deathstar operated by a HAL 2012, i just want to go climb the mountains on Mars

That might be a bit longer in the making. A space ship to get to mars is only half the equation... a space ship to get you off of mars is a little more involved of an affair. One must escape Mars' considerably stronger gravitational field (compared to the moon) and atmosphere. You're looking at a mini-shuttle necessary to get you back to your ship (unless it's rated for atmospheric performance... in which case it can't be an oxygen-breathing engine that it utilizes).

I would like to look into developing a VASMIR-type engine that can be used in three modes - having an ionization, heating, and compression phase powerful enough to work in an atmosphere; an exospheric mode (where a gas stock must be used) and a Hydrogen-Beryllium injection system with a magnetic deflection unit capable of inducing hydrogen-beryllium fusion via pulsed compression with directional release (a military application - similar to "afterburn" for high-impulse maneuvers).

The concept is derived from plasma-focus fusion.

Of course... the key obstacle to long-term space operations rests in the difficulty of simulating gravity. We evolved to function with gravity... we encounter complications when working without it. We need to be able to produce a gravitational field at will or to emulate a similar universal attractor.

I see spinning space ships as a begrudgingly accepted compromise on the issue.

The first step in building the Enterprise in orbit, would be developing efficient anti-gravity shuttlecraft. This design from Area 51 should ferry technicians between ground and orbit nicely. And I believe they are small enough, to fit several into the Enterprise shuttlecraft hangar deck when it's finished. They could then be used by the crew to land on the Moon, Mars, etc.

I wouldn't mind being aboard, but with a blue shirt. I guess the red shirt ensigns will be the 99%.

reply to post by Atlantican


The 'red shirts' should be NASA-GM Robonauts, since we all know... the 'red shirts' are disposable entities.

reply to post by liejunkie01


Build it out of asteroids in lunar orbit. Using remotely operated semi-autonomous robots. Why there is no self replicating robot factory on the moon is something that I find it curious.

There is nothing impeding us for having a telepresence on the moon surface and continuing the work of the Lunokhod 2, if matter had continued to evolve as normal we would have already a moon settlement ready for human habitation by now....

It is not even as costly as the maned missions and continuous sending of probes. Send a package that can remotely operated from Earth and build the probes locally, even if it takes years.

This is one of those things that keeps me wandering about the reality and seriousness of the space program.

so cool. It is not realistic but still. Nice.

The gravity flywheel is just insane. I can't imagine that being built.

Still though I would take a trip up to a life sized Constitution class and like spend my vacation there. Why don't we build a hotel in orbit? We could make it like space ship, just not a functional one.

Like a resort of theme park. I say the first space tourism should be in a mock ship /Hotel. Preferably a constitution class. They could make a smaller Galaxy class, but Most would want to "visit Spock".

The design is not efficient and a real spaceship will look nothing like an Enterprise. That said, I support them in their dream.

At least when it comes to travel and colonisation of our solar system, the technology is there or could be realisticaly developed in near future. Even money is not an issue, less than 1% of global GDP would be enough. The biggest problem is simply lack of a will to do it.

You know, I'm a firm believer that this will never take place, that this world wouldn't even last long enough to SEE 2032. I WISH we could. I would love to be traveling space, visiting other planets, discovering new and exciting things, technologically, astronomically, chemically, etc. Being able to travel the galaxy would be amazing, to say the least.

But, realistically, as others have pointed out, economically this can't be done right now. Unfortunately, most of you are correct. We waste too much. If more people focused on education and sciences instead of media, drugs, war and religion, we could be exploring the galaxy by now.

However, don't think that this can be done so easily. You can petition and protest all you want to bring our troops home, for example, even if they're out their for no reason or actually out there defending our homeland, you have to convince the other side to put down guns.

Radical Islamic regime won't rest until Israel is blown off the map, and everyone worships Allah - wait, they don't really care about that, they just care if you are under Sharia Law or not.

Seriously. So many problems exist in the world today. If you guys want to be traveling space, or letting your children or your children's children have the joy of doing so, start working toward a better world today.

I got so excited reading this. It's completely unrealistic but just the idea of that happening, being a part of it...making history in the 21st century. Wow. Sign me up, Scotty.

Originally posted by lonewolf19792000
reply to post by elevatedone

 

LMAO...Ion drive. Why stop with an ion drive? If Tachyons are proved reality instead of theoretical, you can make a faster than light engine if you could figure out how to harness it and create a "warp" bubble around the ship. Ofcourse you have no way of steering that thing or knowing where the hell you're going or how you're going to get back and if you did get back you would return thousands of years into our future and everyone you ever knew would be dead for thousands of years. You would basically be Christopher Columbus in space and watch out for black holes.

You could end up on the otherside of the universe with no idea where the hell you were at and the stars wouldn't even be remotely familiar.

edit on 13-5-2012 by lonewolf19792000 because: (no reason given)

Ironic, not to say hypocritical, of you to call upon proven science vs theory to ridicule someone (ion drive proponents). How's the unproven, iron age supersticious woo you champion daily working out? Want to discuss objective, scientific fact and principles while blindly accepting faith-based religion? Want to have your cake and eat it too and not get called on it? Good luck on that.

reply to post by elevatedone


It's exciting to wonder at what technology is coming in the next 50-100 years. Although I get abit sad about it because there will be so much our generation miss out on seeing. Although the last 50-100 yrs has been amazing it will be the following that will be so much more amazing.

Another problem we have to get past is the ridiculous amount of military spending many governments spend every year!

If we moved that funding to science and technology that benefits all of us and not just the military then we would already be seeing amazing things.. I hope that changes in the future.

Although it's funny to mention Star Trek, there are already many things that we were seeing from the very first series that back then were science fiction but are now true science and technology.

Hand held computers or tablet PC's / iPad. Cell phones and communication devices, even the beginnings of teleportation.

The list goes on!

This goes even further back, just look at some of the most famous sci-fi writers of the 20th century.

I watched an awesome doco lastnight about Isaac Asimov and his writings. It's amazing to see his imagination coming to life less than 100 years later. The same goes for many other writers before and after his generation.

Life immitates art - I never realised how true that actually was untill I sat back and looked at it in more detail

This is one small clip from an 8 part series that was really worth watching -



1 Mary Shelley 9 November 2011
2 Philip K. Dick 16 November 2011
3 H.G. Wells 23 November 2011
4 Arthur C. Clarke 30 November 2011
5 Isaac Asimov 15 February 2012
6 Jules Verne 22 February 2012
7 Robert Heinlein 29 February 2012
8 George Lucas 7 March 2012

They originally aired on the Sci channel last year but should still be available online (I hope) and for anyone in Australia they air on SBS every Sunday night at 8:30 EST.

Prophets of Science Fiction

SBS Documentary

Sci Channel Synopsis


What once was just imagination is now real; what was once the distant future is now around the corner. The 'Science Fiction' of the past has now simply become 'Science'. And the science of the future was strangely prophesied by a group of visionaries whose dreams once may have deemed them renegades and 'mad scientists,' have become reality!

It's an exciting time

Wonderful idea.

Wont happen in my lifetime.

The political will is not there and the current tech (publicly available) is lacking.

The cost would be mindbendingly huge for little (monetary) profit.

As things are large-scale manned space flight will never happen unless we discover oil on Mars
Then the corporations will be falling over themselves to claim it.

reply to post by ShayneJUK

The cost would be mindbendingly huge for little (monetary) profit.

That exact frame of thinking is what holds us back - I know what you mean though and it's the leaders and the "rich" that have that mindset...

It's sad and it holds us back.

It seems as though greed and power is more important than human progress and techno evolution.


The subcontious hunger for war and military is another massive problem, the leaders and policy feel or want us to feel as though we need military or war to settle dispute when really we don't need it at all.

It's something that has been with us since we first walked this Earth, there has always been war and fighting but you would think by now that we would see that we do not need war or violence.

The public is starting to wake up to this but it is slow and painful to watch how long it actually takes and the governments and people that make profit from such as defence contractors don't want us to realise that.

It's all profit and greed! It's sickening!

reply to post by lonewolf19792000

You could end up on the otherside of the universe with no idea where the hell you were at and the stars wouldn't even be remotely familiar.

To infinity and beyond!

Beam me up Scotty - they will build it in Space.

reply to post by Larryman


Very interesting idea about the shuttle bay...

Which got me thinking.. which part would you build first?

Yes, you could start by building the shuttle bay using craft that can enter it.. But why not make the shuttle bay itself the craft that needs to get into space in the first place? A bit like the shuttle. You could make it so that it can carry an initial payload to 'get things off the ground'...

Once the shuttle bay is in orbit, you can then use smaller craft to ferry parts to the bay in order to build the ship around an exisiting chamber full of tools, equipment and parts.

We all know that the disc of the Enterprise can seperate itself from the main hull and engines, so why not make every part capable of doing the same thing? With an 'operational' shuttle bay that can dock/undock with the main ship, you'd never really have to worry about what sorts of loads you could carry. It's also an excellent alternative option of a life craft in case of emergency.

You can't start building the bridge and hope the rest fits around it, you need a solid foundation in order to get the rest up around it.

So, you've got your newly built shuttle bay flying into orbit carrying whatever it can and then work begins.
The next stage would be to build a section of the ship that the shuttle bay actually docks with, leaving the flight capabilites built into the shuttle bay.
Once the docking bay for the shuttle bay has been built, you can then get on with the rest of it, like the main disc or engine room etc..

Let's also make sure there's enough life boats and each section of the hull reaches above E deck..

Blimey, kinda reminding myself of a short story I once wrote here on ATS about a jonah who was left on a remote planet after his shipmates disconnected his room from the ship whilst he slept..

Oh, and i'll be around about 70 ish by the time this Enterprise event happens.. if i make it that long..

As very cool as it sounds, and it sounds very cool...i would prefer we attempted to reach our closest star first in as little time as possible before building the star ship enterprise, seems like a grand project to jump right in to before we have much of the basics down, the controlled nuclear explosions method is supposedly the best we have for propulsion.

reply to post by Extralien


I would guess that several of the Area 51 anti-gravity saucers working together could lift a completed shuttlebay to orbit. Then it could be used as you described - as a beginning portion to build the remainder of the Enterprise around.

My interest would be getting the saucer technology out for public service. I'll be pushing 80, by 2032. So... I wont be using the Enterprise.

Originally posted by Aim64C

A bullet is a thing. A tool. Steel is a waste of material. It's been used to kill people for centuries.
.

but only the casing is made of steel, the bullet is made of lead
...so technically, the steel can be recycled when you make reloads

Originally posted by BIHOTZ
so cool. It is not realistic but still. Nice.

The gravity flywheel is just insane. I can't imagine that being built.

Still though I would take a trip up to a life sized Constitution class and like spend my vacation there. Why don't we build a hotel in orbit? We could make it like space ship, just not a functional one.

Like a resort of theme park. I say the first space tourism should be in a mock ship /Hotel. Preferably a constitution class. They could make a smaller Galaxy class, but Most would want to "visit Spock".

edit on 14-5-2012 by BIHOTZ because: (no reason given)

That could quickly raise the funds needed to build the exploration vessel.
The 1% would trip over one another to be the "first visitor" to the hotel and finally shell out some of that hoarded $

www.space.com...

We built the Enterprise.

Sorry its not the one you all think of but it is the first.