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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

#51

Post by rvkennedy »

leeoniya wrote: post #38

"The Gen1 Enterprise will be powered by three ion propulsion engines. These will provide constant acceleration, and versions of this technology are already used in spacecrafts." to my knowledge they are used in spacecraft that can afford acceleration cycles that last several years and "rapid" maneuvers that last several months. ion engines produce very little thrust but for a very long time. i'm not sure how practica…

Actually, a "long time" in space propulsion terms means more than a couple of minutes. The specific impulse of ion engines is sufficiently high that with sufficiently large engines, you would be talking weeks to get to Mars, rather than months by rocket.

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

#52

Post by theorique »

civilian wrote: post #18

If we build a space elevator for 10-20 billion USD, it would bring down the cost of building the USS Enterprise (and really, all space construction) vastly. I think a space elevator is a better thing to build!

Would a space elevator cost only $10-20B? Burj Khalifa, a half-mile high building cost $1-2B already. Hard to imagine a space elevator costing only 10-20x the price of the world's tallest building.

A space elevator would presumably need to use a range of as yet non-existent and/or unproven technologies (very long carbon nanotube ropes, etc).

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

#53

Post by Scramblejams »

sparknlaunch12 wrote: post #33

Wow. This has been deeply thought through. I don't think the final design will mimic the fictional one, but certainty have to admire the passion. Hopefully some people with the money and the brains can get behind this.

> This has been deeply thought through.

It hasn't. Read tptacek's link to see why: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=4009591

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

#55

Post by anigbrowl »

pygorex wrote: post #44
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. The ships look the same, the suits look the same, the propulsion technologies look the same, And the ideal of manned spaceflight should remain in the 60's - at least for the foreseeable future. We are magnificently evolved to inhabit this planet. The remainder of the solar system is insanely hostile to our form of…

We're not all that great at swimming either, and yet building oceangoing boats and ships has turned out to be an important part of our technological development. Likewise air travel; we're only evolutionarily optimized for walking about on land, but have used technology to travel and transport goods over large distances on water and in the air.

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

#56

Post by drostie »

gouranga wrote: post #30
MichaelApproved wrote: post #26

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

I remember a great comment from a talk by John Searle about the scariest way that this could happen. Imagine that you get just such an implant, and suddenly, you just feel woozy or tired, as if something is really going royally wrong, as if your consciousness is no longer really "in control."

The Doctor starts the checkup and says "how do you feel?" and you internally think, "lousy! I need you to remove it, get it out, now!" -- but that's not what you say. Your lips articulate instead, "Doc, it feels great, I'm almost ready to check out and get back to work."

You live the rest of your life a prisoner in your own brain, which has been co-opted and taken over by the artificially intelligent electronics.

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

#57

Post by leeoniya »

rvkennedy wrote: post #51
leeoniya wrote: post #38

"The Gen1 Enterprise will be powered by three ion propulsion engines. These will provide constant acceleration, and versions of this technology are already used in spacecrafts." to my knowledge they are used in spacecraft that can afford acceleration cycles that last several years and "rapid" maneuvers that last several months. ion engines produce very little thrust but for a very long time. i'm not sure how practica…

Actually, a "long time" in space propulsion terms means more than a couple of minutes. The specific impulse of ion engines is sufficiently high that with sufficiently large engines, you would be talking weeks to get to Mars, rather than months by rocket.

well, there's this one under development http://www.newscientist.com/article/dn17476-ion-engine-could...

which says a pound of thrust and Sun -> Jupiter (483 million mi) in 19 months and mars in 39 days (from earth i think). edge of the solar system is another 88.8 billion mi. that's a long time just to get out of the solar system.

i always imagined the USS Enterprise to be an interstellar ship. but it could work as a solar system taxi as well :)

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

#58

Post by civilian »

theorique wrote: post #52
civilian wrote: post #18

If we build a space elevator for 10-20 billion USD, it would bring down the cost of building the USS Enterprise (and really, all space construction) vastly. I think a space elevator is a better thing to build!

Would a space elevator cost only $10-20B? Burj Khalifa, a half-mile high building cost $1-2B already. Hard to imagine a space elevator costing only 10-20x the price of the world's tallest building. A space elevator would presumably need to use a range of as yet non-existent and/or unproven technologies (very long carbon nanotube ropes, etc).

Yeah. I think the 10-20b is based off of stronger carbon nanotubes. But I think we have strong enough nanotubes at the moment. However, the stronger they get, the fewer we have to use, and the cheaper it will be.

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

#59

Post by lumberjack »

tomjen3 wrote: post #43
lumberjack wrote: post #28

Personally I don't see us achieving anything close to pop-sci space exploration fantasies when four fifths of our species are still struggling to survive day by day.

I used to think like you. But we have been trying to solve that problem forever. It is not going to happen. Ever. So might we not have fun as part of the 1/5 who make it to space?

You sort of misinterpreted my post. My fault though. My post was a bit ambiguous.

I wasn't implying that we should abandon all current space endeavours so as to focus on humanitarian causes. I wasn't even implying that we will never do any advancements in space exploration without first solving these socio-political problems. But I don't see the current first world countries and their resources as having the means to do what is envisioned in the article (which is a far cry from our current space programs).

And note that I wasn't only talking about the economic stratification. One fifth of the world might be in an economic condition where big space exploration would be feasible but do they have the right mindset, education and motivation? Are they willing to throw away their greed and nationalism and collaborate with the rest of the first world to reach another milestone? Do they even value such an achievement?

I myself am a great advocate of space exploration. I was merely pointing out some inefficiencies in our socio-political ecosystem that are holding us back.

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

#60

Post by greyfade »

fennecfoxen wrote: post #12
nextstep wrote: post #3

Maybe this is a joke and I'm taking it too seriously, but doesn't the Enterprise run on antimatter? I don't think we're going to be able to manufacture antimatter in large quantities in the next 20 years.

The Enterprise runs on Westinghouse nuclear reactors burning enriched U-235 (93%+). Also, the quoted price tag here seems steep when you could, quite literally, build the USS Enterprise 52 years ago for $451.3 million USD: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/USS_Enterprise_(CVN-65) :P

Bah. Those are dirty reactors. Why don't we talk about Thorium or something?
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