How to build a fully functional Star Trek Starship Enterprise in 20 years

How to build a fully functional Star Trek Starship Enterprise in 20 years

Engineer comes up with most comprehensive plans to date

BY JEFFREY BAUSCH

Star Trek’s Starship Enterprise was expected to be built, according to the show at least, by the year 2245. This month, an engineer launched a website that not only proposes the idea of building a real-life, fully-functional ship, he covered every last detail on how to actually do it . . . within the next 20 years!

An engineer makes a case that the Star Trek Starship Enterprise can be fully constructed and mission ready in 20 years.

Full details are covered on BuildtheEnterprise.org. The creator of the site, referred to as BTE Dan (with the acronym standing for “Build the Enterprise”), has laid out everything from design to specs to technology to how to fund the project.

Here’s an overview of what you’ll find here.

The most realistic plans to date

While some might dismiss BTE Dan as an overzealous Trekkie who built the site as a hobby, the work he presents on the site is legit. He also apparently has the accreditation to back up the suggestions made with this project: according to the site bio, BTE Dan has spent the past 30 years working as a systems engineer and electrical engineer for a Fortune 500 tech company.

The ship itself, as BTE Dan envisions it, would be three things in one: it would be a spaceship, a space station, and a spaceport. It would be big enough to host 1,000 people on board at a time, whether it’s crew members or adventurous explorers.

BTE Dan’s Star Trek Starship Enterprise would be large enough to host 1,000 people on board.

“This Gen1 Enterprise can go on missions to key points of interest in our solar system, like Mars and Venus,” BTE Dan writes on the site. “It will be the biggest ship of any kind ever built by humans, and it will be larger than the tallest building in the world.”

He adds: “It’s possible to build the Enterprise, and it would be a monumental achievement for us humans who inhabit the planet Earth.”

Everything is covered here

The site covers specs, funding schedule, and just about every other detail involved with the project.

Naturally, what with BTE Dan being an engineer and all, there’s a timeline for this behemoth project:

– Years 1-9: Research, component testing, drawing up blueprints

– Years 10-20: Parts development; components will be manufactured on Earth and launched into space for assembly (the entire ship would be constructed in space)

– Year 20: The ship, complete with crew and supplies, would be ready for its first official “moon fly-by”

According to BTE Dan’s estimates, the Enterprise would be able to travel to the moon in three days and to Mars in three months. With that kind of speed, the ship could theoretically be used to go from planet to planet to drop off robotic probes, including roves, planes, and satellites. It would also be able to visit various asteroids and even Europa (sixth closest moon to the planet Jupiter), where the ships’ 100MW laser (yes, it comes complete with a fully functional laser) would be used to cut through the moon’s icy crust, thus enabling a probe to descend to the ocean below.

BTE Dan’s Star Trek Starship Enterprise would be equipped with a 100MW laser.

Spec details

The ship’s size is, approximately, 3,150 feet:

The ship’s size would make it taller than any building on Earth.

There is a rotating gravity section inside the saucer, pretty close in size to the USS Enterprise from Star Trek: a 0.3 mile diameter rotating, magnetically-suspended gravity wheel. When on, it will create 1G of gravity.

A modified, on-board 1.5GWe nuclear reactor provides the ship with an ion propulsion engine and allows it to travel at a constant acceleration. Two additional 500MWe nuclear reactors create all of the electricity necessary for operation of the ship itself, including oxygen generators, heating / cooling / air conditioning, water pumps, research labs, and more.

Position of two of the three nuclear reactors aboard the Star Trek Starship Enterprise.

A full breakdown of the ship’s specs from the website:

Spec breakdown of the BTE Dan’s Star Trek Starship Enterprise.

The financial end of things

So, with the technical aspects of this enormous endeavor covered, the biggest challenge becomes convincing NASA to include it in its budget. The good news is that BTE Dan has this covered, too. What’s more, he’s figured out how to make it as painless on taxpayers as possible.

In short, the estimated cost would be about $1 trillion over the 20 years. A very detailed, very long chart goes into where every dollar would go, but Dan’s main point is that the US should set 0.27% of its GDP aside each year to fund this project. He argues that, between tax increases and spreading budget cuts to areas like defense, health, and human services, housing and urban development, education and energy, the cuts to areas of discretionary services are not large, and the tax increases would be small. “These changes to spending and taxes will not sink the republic,” he writes on 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.”

Did you catch the magic word in the last sentence? Fleet . That’s because BTE Dan’s proposal does not cover just one Enterprise, but multiple ships, with his estimates showing that a new model could be built once every 33 years (one per generation), giving the US three new space crafts 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.”

A fleet of Star Trek Spaceship Enterprises could very well be within our reach.

Outlook

In addition to furthering our space exploration desires, BTE Dan believes that this project could benefit us here on Earth, too: “Above all else — the Enterprise will inspire us,” he explains. “And some of those inspired by this undertaking will surely be American young people — many of whom will likely become motivated to pursue careers as scientists and engineers.”

As far as all the naysayers are concerned, BTE Dan write, “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.”

How can you help in his quest to build a real Starship Enterprise?

“It’s by simply doing this,” Dan writes. “ Tell someone about the ideas on this website. This matters because the only hope for building the 1st generation USS Enterprise will ultimately depend on an enthusiastic core of people who are encouraging the undertaking.”

He concludes: “Enthusiasm for an idea can become contagious.”

For more information, visit BuildtheEnterprise.org ■