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Engineer Thinks We Could Build a Real Starship Enterprise In 20 Years

Nancy_A writes "An engineer has proposed — and outlined in meticulous detail — building a full-sized, ion-powered version of the starship Enterprise. The ship would be based on current technology, and would take about 20 years to construct, at a cost of roughly $1 trillion. '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."

16 of 589 comments (clear)

  1. actually... by irussel · · Score: 3, Funny

    screw the starship...just give me the holodeck. without the glitches preferably.

  2. Mother of all Kickstarters by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Funny

    I smell the mother of all kickstarters launching in 5, 4, 3, 2 ...

  3. I could not find it by skipkent · · Score: 4, Funny

    I could not find this project on kickstarter

  4. Re:There's no starship with just an ion drive by Jeremiah+Cornelius · · Score: 5, Funny

    Engineer designs starship in spare time. Here's another man who needs to get laid...

    --
    "Flyin' in just a sweet place,
    Never been known to fail..."
  5. Re:There's no starship with just an ion drive by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Funny

    No, that would be "engineer designs sexbot in spare time". Or perhaps a holodeck.

  6. Re:Star ship Enterprise? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Funny

    How do you kill with oil? Oil drowning?

  7. Kickstarter by SolusSD · · Score: 1, Funny

    Sounds like a good kickstarter project. I'll chip in.

  8. Re:I'd ditch the hull design first thing. by Reemi · · Score: 4, Funny

    Yes, let's build a cube.

  9. Re:Star ship Enterprise? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Funny

    Tar and Feather? a lot?

  10. Re:I'd ditch the hull design first thing. by rgbrenner · · Score: 4, Funny

    That's why you don't design spaceships. The Enterprise had a great design because it was aerodynamic.. one of the most important things in space.

  11. Re:There's no starship with just an ion drive by Barbara,+not+Barbie · · Score: 4, Funny

    Robotic mission with humans grown near the destination.

    "This space mission brought to you by Soylent Green."

    As long as you're the first one to be decanted, "what could possibly go wrong?"

    --
    Let's call it what it is, Anti-Social Media.
  12. Re:There's no starship with just an ion drive by tqk · · Score: 4, Funny

    Here's another man who needs to get laid...

    You say that like it's a bad thing. Chicks like to get laid too, you know?

    --
    "Tongue tied and twisted, just an Earth bound misfit ..." -- Pink Floyd.
  13. Re:There's no starship with just an ion drive by tqk · · Score: 4, Funny

    I don't recommend we do what he's suggesting, especially in that form factor, but it could be done for a lot less is my point. The most likely route to big shiny spaceships is as I outlined above.

    FFS! Didn't you see the movie?!? All we need to do is bolt warp drive onto an ICBM, and wait for the Vulcans to notice!

    Geez, slow today or what? :-)

    --
    "Tongue tied and twisted, just an Earth bound misfit ..." -- Pink Floyd.
  14. Re:There's no starship with just an ion drive by ObsessiveMathsFreak · · Score: 5, Funny

    Here's another man who needs to get laid...

    ....says the man with the 3 digit ID.

    --
    May the Maths Be with you!
  15. Re:There's no starship with just an ion drive by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Funny

    An ion drive isn't even C+. The rate of return on investment is somewhere near what "Voldemort" did for JP Morgan Chase, except 500x as big-- to start.

    You're right; I heard ion drives are C#. ;)

  16. Re:There's no starship with just an ion drive by jjeffries · · Score: 3, Funny

    That would have been funnier if I had actually bothered to login first...