Starship Enterprise could be a reality by 2032, engineer says

The major advances in regards to star to star travel science has done so far is figuring out why it is impossible for humans, or in fact anyone who does not have a lifespan of several million years.

Not sure if this has been a consideration but what the amount of raw materials and resources required to construct such a ship? Doesn't the planet contain only a finite amount of resources and wouldn't they be lost from the planet for good?

Take water for example; transport some off the planet and how does it get replenished? I don't think it does, it's gone for good.

A better solution would be to capture asteroids, meteors, space rocks, etc to harvest the raw resources needed to build such things.

This would be a monumental atchevment if our goverment approved the funding! A full sized star ship capable of artifical gravity and interstelar travel its every aerospace and scifi fans dream. It would proabily look similar to the X304 from stargate. And proabily around the same size. It would be very very expencive to build a ship of any kind as large as the starship enterprize. In fact the X304 is one of the smallest starships in the stargate franchise very powerefull and advanced but small compared to enemy vessels and other ships in the seires. FYY earth has a hard time getting the funds to build navy aircraft carrers and they are the largest ships we have. Unless anyone knows of any that are bigger.

Cool idea but:

I always thought the star trek design of ships was rather weak time to get with the 21st century.

Love space scifi quite a shame that the space program has all but ended here people imagined the 21st century in a variety of ways yet to be realized.

Think it is quite a shame where man took one giant leap forward 60 years ago only to revert back to the stone age so to speak.

Maybe we should have a reason to build this thing before we build it. As far as I'm concerned it's just an empty black abyss.

Originally posted by SaturnFX

Originally posted by longjohnbritches
reply to post by SaturnFX

 

Hi sat
What I have always thought sensible is to send supplies to the moon.
Ones that could be used to build environments, space ships and fuel for them.
Then if and when you can get folks up there to assemble it (them) you would be ahead of the game.
Launching a heavy long distance craft from the moon would be way better than from earth.
This could be done on a trim budget and also provide for advances in technology and JOBS.
A REAL reason for NASA
cheers ljb

Problem is gravity again.
long term moon habitation would weaken a person tremendously just as one issue.
Also there is a distance problem. takes a few days to get to the moon, which is a pain.

I think geosynchronous orbit is the sweet spot overall for construction. Also, the issue is where do we build it.
Which is the key...before we go on building big ships, we need to build a construction station. horse before cart. If this was a dream to make a massive spinning building platform, that would be ideal.
But nope..the idea is to make a spaceship that doesn't actually do anything practical.

Tax money for this design and idea, no..but for the concept of finally getting serious about space inhabitation, most definately.

The moon will more than likely consist of a few mining colonys with no permanent residents..just year long workers (in the short term, until we can sort out some artificial gravity).

Interesting fact.
they have been studying jellyfish for the answers of how they handle gravity so well. to them its just like being in water.

i always believed that we won't really be able to live in space that most likely it would be robots or cyborgs. its only a matter of time before its a reality. 60 years max

And wasn't going to the moon basically useless? It brought about many great technology and boosted the morale of the west.

This will never be approved by NASA or any government.
They don't want competition.
This turf is for the Elite only, for the rest of us PISTON ENGINE is good enough.

to put a project such as this over what needs to be done HERE ON EARTH, is imaginative,yes, but very very foolish.

Why not just research teleportation or stargates.much faster and you can bring....well anything that fits in the portal ! Here's another idea: why don't we stop destroying the rock we're already on. We are looking for another planet because we can't take care of this one. Sounds like we are running from our problems. I say we are still not ready for this very big responsibility of visiting other planets. We can't even visit another country without making it worst.

encrypted-tbn1.google.com...:ANd9GcShDTwOVHU2S6Tor7X1qCvb9rlnB7fIGcqDhk5RRW7sv0Dm9ohT

Weren't we suppose to be sky high in flying cars by now...?

I hate to pop everybodys bubble, but you need to check out ion engines before you get so excited. They work, but something this size would take years, if not decades to get fast enough to leave earths orbit. They accelerate VERY SLOWLY!!!!

reply to post by elevatedone


I always love to read news like that.IF it happens in the next 20 years,hopefully i will be alive to see it.

I guess next question is:Where do i sign up?

ETA:I'm sending the article to all my trekkie friends.

Originally posted by longjohnbritches
Why have warp speed. You would crash into things like space junk if you hang out in the confines of the suns gravity.

Agreed.
Battlestar Galactica's jump drives are far more practical...ship might have a top speed of about 20mph, but you can jump to the other side of the galaxy in a flash...perfect.

No need for spinning gravity wheels.

It is well known that frogs can be levitated by very intense static (not oscillating) magnetic fields. The magnetic field results in the molecule aligning, however if the field is not strong enough the molecules will lose alignment quickly. It is the alignment that makes the levitation work.

Artificial Gravity could be created by using oscillating magnetic fields.
Matter (including water in our bodies) have a delay before the molecules react to fields.
This delay can be used so that the alignment of the water molecule and the field create a temporary push/pull on the molecule. If timed correctly, then as the molecule finally reacts and spins into alignment, then the phase of the wave changes and once again the molecule will realign after another period equivalent to the period of the wave. Since the molecule is (by act of match of frequency to the delay of the molecule) always opposing the current phase of the magnetic field, the result is push/pull on the molecules. The frequency needs to be within a range, such that not so fast that the molecule hasn't had time to realign to the field, and not so slow that thermal and other effects result in the molecule losing alignment.

If the above worked, then could put 'artificial gravity' coils in the floor and ceiling of the space ship.

(Could also put inside car seats and when the car suddenly stops in a car crash, the coils create artificial gravity that is very strong and equivalent to the sudden rapid deceleration as the car hits the wall, the result would be that your body is also decelerated matching the cars deceleration and thus your body is not slammed up against the window). This would also allow jet fighter pilots to be able to handle 100Gs instead of losing consciousness at 10Gs.

realistically production of said ship should be on the moon, the moon could be mined for resources which could be refined into parts for the ship. not only that but with a much lower gravity and no pesky atmosphere a take off would be much easier.

reply to post by elevatedone


Sorry OP, not going to happen. Too many issues to even get into in order to make take this seriously. It would take resources that make the Manhattan project look like a kids clubhouse.

Plus, why bother? Plenty of work to do here on this planet before we head out into the beyond. I mean come one, we have idiots that still live in mud huts and carry baskets on their heads (haven't hard of the wheel I guess) while at the sme time we have a country that has been on the moon. Too much discrepancy to correct before building the "starship enterprise". What a joke.

reply to post by ozig1


One day......the "first" place to assemble a "StarShip" (realistically) will be in LEO ('Low Earth Orbit'). NOT in the gravity well that is inherent for a surface construction.....though, Lunar Orbit might be an alternative......lesser gravity well than the Earth's (though, not by much....AND, if technology advances sufficiently, little matter, the difference).

As already noted, the "fictional" (and original" "Starship Enterprise" was built in LEO, commissioned in 2245.

Later, per the "obvious" progression of the Human species in our own Solar System....Mars is the next most habitable (besides Earth) planet....and, thus....the Utopia Planitia Fleet Yards, in LMO ('Low Mars Orbit').

The U.S.S. Enterprise, registration NCC 1701-D was (will be) constructed there.

That ship was lost in the mission to Veridian 3 (or, 'III') .... 'Star Trek' movie canon Star Trek: Generations

(Possibly one of the "best" of the Franchise....anyone wish to "vote"??)....

At 20 years years old; I personally feeel in my heart that humankind will be cruising inner space (and possibly the outter planets too) in my current lifetime. We have the knowledge, its kept behind a curtain from public. The collective of man-engineering could build 'miracles', the only thing that holds us back is mockery, confidence, imagination, open mind and the acceptance that as one we honestly can accomplish whatever our minds want.

Its nice to hear this from a true engineer though! With the amount of abductions, spaceship sightings, "rumors" of government and extreaterrestrial alliances in underground bases, people being boarded ON spacecraft (not abducted)... I belive humanity is finally opening the lid to amazing possibilites

~ Love is an art

Well that's great but we can't even build the Botany Bay.