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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

#91

Post by tptacek »

anigbrowl wrote: post #73
tptacek wrote: post #2

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

I wish the engineers at NASA spaceflight, instead of taking a dump on the guy, would applaud his enthusiasm and then explain the better and cooler things that could be achieved with a trillion dollars over 20 years. Technologically they're dead right, but they come off as a bunch of unimaginative jerks.

It's true, but I don't know what the norms of that community are, so I wouldn't want to criticize.

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

#92

Post by encoderer »

stcredzero wrote: post #76
ChuckMcM wrote: post #46

Earlier quoted context omitted.

As a huge fan of space I agree we need progress, but we can achieve that by no longer 'visiting' space and instead 'moving' there. I was talking with a JPL engineer about SpaceX and he said something which really knocked me for a loop. He said "We don't live in space, we camp there." And by example he suggested what if there was no food, fuel, or running water in Barstow California. Everyone would have to carry what…

Back in 1988, a Canadian scientist was commissioned by a 2nd world power to build a system that could be used for orbital launch 4 orders of magnitude cheaper per pound to orbit than what SpaceX can do. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Project_Babylon It would have involved firing payloads out of a very large cannon, then firing a rocket onboard to circularize the orbit, so this is not for manned launch, but we should be…

I remember LOVING the "Doomsday Gun" movie when I was a kid. It was one of those that was on TV late at night and I watched it secretly long after I was supposed to be in bed.

Though you don't even need to look at what he did for Iraq, right? His first project launched projectiles into space for the DoD iirc.

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

#93

Post by fennecfoxen »

tomjen3 wrote: post #47
existentialmutt wrote: post #25

What, no kickstarter page?

Do there even exist a trillion dollar? I don't mean a trillion dollars worth of wealth, but a trillion dollar in currency (or even as deposits in banks)?

The Federal Reserve can answer your money-related question! Let's go to their website and look at H6, "Money Stock Measures" - http://www.federalreserve.gov/releases/h6/current/h6.htm

According to this release, as of April 2012, the money supply measure M1 (currency + check-like thingies) consisted of $1707.9 billion, of which $1036.9 billion was actual circulating currency (not in vaults). So, yes. There is roughly $1 trillion USD currency circulating.

If you include savings-account-like thingies, M2, there is $9842.2 billion in money.

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

#94

Post by furyofantares »

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…

> simply because the different companies will have to start competing on something other than "look, we're in space!"

Price, safety, quality of the trip? It seems a long way out before space travel is a commodity such that a large percent of those wanting to travel can afford to do so. The majority of air travel now doesn't compete on style of the vessel, does it?

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

#95

Post by madao »

I think we really need to look at this historically, the first sailors used smaller ships which were only able to follow the coast or travel short distances up rivers, further development in navigation and hull designs allowed them to cross the great depths even further. I think we are still in the Raft stage of space exploration, although it is a great idea, I think we need to work on those little steps.

Getting back to the moon and/or perhaps chasing asteroids seems much more practical at this time I don't think colonisation of mars will ever happen unless we gain the capacity to build bigger ships in orbit of earth, it just costs to much to get things up there. If we can solve the issue of getting basic materials and manpower into orbit and then set up supply lines that do not involve earth then we will be ready to start making caravels instead of rafts.

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

#96

Post by warfangle »

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).

If you front-load the cost of a mostly-automatable construction of a space elevator (factory in orbit spitting out woven carbon nanotubes in opposite direction like a spider's spinnerets - this is almost definitely wandering into the realm of sci-fi, but maybe?), synthesizing the manufacturing components and launching them to orbit will be the most difficult part.

And if we can refine those materials from asteroids, that cuts the resource extraction cost as well - no need to ship it to orbit. (besides, what if the manufacturing technique for said carbon nanotube ropes require a weightless environment?)

There's even research into using the earth's magnetic field to generate electric potential this way.

Then of course there's the collision and weather and so on and so forth.

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

#97

Post by stcredzero »

twelvechairs wrote: post #88
stcredzero wrote: post #76

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Back in 1988, a Canadian scientist was commissioned by a 2nd world power to build a system that could be used for orbital launch 4 orders of magnitude cheaper per pound to orbit than what SpaceX can do. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Project_Babylon It would have involved firing payloads out of a very large cannon, then firing a rocket onboard to circularize the orbit, so this is not for manned launch, but we should be…

Great post, but '2nd world' is not the right description https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Second_world

Actually, I know this and this wikipedia entry. It's hard to for me to classify Iraq. For awhile they were another totalitarian state with ties to the Soviet Union. For awhile they were more in the US orbit. I guess that would put them in the 3rd world, though economically they have been in a different class than the poorest 3rd world nations.

I was thinking of terming them a "second rate power."

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

#99

Post by sevenstar »

lumberjack wrote: post #59
tomjen3 wrote: post #43

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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…

Humanity needs a jump start... again.

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

#100

Post by pdonis »

pdonis wrote: post #83

Has anyone found a calculation in the specs of whether the power requirements given are sufficient to produce the required thrust, given the total mass of the ship? Here's what I come up with (rough numbers): Ship mass: 85,000 metric tons, or 85 million kg. Effective exhaust velocity: 150,000 m/s (1 g, or 10 m/s^2, times the quoted specific impulse of 15,000 s) This implies a power requirement of 75,000 Watts per New…

I have posted a comment in the Build the Enterprise forums here:

http://www.buildtheenterprise.org/forum/build-the-enterprise...

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