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Build the "USS Enterprise" in 20 years, for 1 trillion USD

buildtheenterprise.org

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Re: Build the "USS Enterprise" in 20 years, for 1 trillion USD

#21

Post by breckinloggins »

smacktoward wrote: post #17
breckinloggins wrote: post #14

There's a lot of negativity around this idea, and mostly for good reason. But if you peel away the "let's build the Enterprise!" specifics and think about the core of the proposal, I believe it is sound. A big cause of waning public enthusiasm in space is, I believe, that it all still looks like the 60s. The ships look the same, the suits look the same, the propulsion technologies look the same, and what's worse... w…

> A big cause of waning public enthusiasm in space is, I believe, that it all still looks like the 60s So the solution is to build a ship based on a design from 1965?

No. And that's why I think a lot of the criticism of the project is valid. The solution is to build something that captures the imagination. Something that LOOKS like a ship from the future. It doesn't have to be the Enterprise.

Re: Build the "USS Enterprise" in 20 years, for 1 trillion USD

#22

Post by smacktoward »

breckinloggins wrote: post #21
smacktoward wrote: post #17

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> A big cause of waning public enthusiasm in space is, I believe, that it all still looks like the 60s So the solution is to build a ship based on a design from 1965?

No. And that's why I think a lot of the criticism of the project is valid. The solution is to build something that captures the imagination. Something that LOOKS like a ship from the future. It doesn't have to be the Enterprise.

If you want to capture the imagination, you don't need a ship that looks snazzy. You need a ship that can safely and reliably take people to Earth orbit and back at a price normal people can afford. As long as space travel is the province of billionaires and test pilots only, nobody will care about it.

What you need is a space DC-3.

Re: Build the "USS Enterprise" in 20 years, for 1 trillion USD

#23

Post by WalterSear »

breckinloggins wrote: post #14

There's a lot of negativity around this idea, and mostly for good reason. But if you peel away the "let's build the Enterprise!" specifics and think about the core of the proposal, I believe it is sound. A big cause of waning public enthusiasm in space is, I believe, that it all still looks like the 60s. The ships look the same, the suits look the same, the propulsion technologies look the same, and what's worse... w…

How. Incredibly. Disappointing.

Re: Build the "USS Enterprise" in 20 years, for 1 trillion USD

#26

Post by MichaelApproved »

gouranga wrote: post #15

I'd rather spend the money replacing our fragile and short lived meat sacks first. Building massive space ships to sling us across the universe is a problem which only exists when we have meat sacks. Voyager 1 and 2 have done well with ancient technology and no meat sacks.

Continuing both themes, I'd rather spend the money to make us us Borg.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Borg_%28Star_Trek%29

Re: Build the "USS Enterprise" in 20 years, for 1 trillion USD

#29

Post by lotharbot »

tptacek wrote: post #2

Here's NASASPACEFLIGHT.COM making fun of this: http://forum.nasaspaceflight.com/index.php?topic=28821.0

Fantastic final post:

"Sci fi fans taking on NASA engineers is too funny, but also a waste of time. We deal with real hardware here. Locked."

Bingo. The project is to build a very poorly designed spacecraft to perform a mission it's not well suited to for a ridiculously large sum of money. If we're going to build a spacecraft to journey to Mars, we shouldn't force it to conform to a 1960s fantasy hull design.

Re: Build the "USS Enterprise" in 20 years, for 1 trillion USD

#30

Post by gouranga »

MichaelApproved wrote: post #26
gouranga wrote: post #15

I'd rather spend the money replacing our fragile and short lived meat sacks first. Building massive space ships to sling us across the universe is a problem which only exists when we have meat sacks. Voyager 1 and 2 have done well with ancient technology and no meat sacks.

Continuing both themes, I'd rather spend the money to make us us Borg. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Borg_%28Star_Trek%29

Indeed. If you ever read Kurzweil's The Singularity Is Near, that's what we'll end up as at some point in the near future.

It starts with google goggles, proceeds to more integration and then becomes us.

I wouldn't say no to assimilation when I think about it.

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