Engineering:Build the Enterprise

Build the Enterprise is a project to create a real-life version of the Starship Enterprise, the spaceship featured in the science fiction television show Star Trek. The project is detailed on its website, Build the Enterprise, and is spearheaded by an engineer who goes by the name BTE Dan. He cites himself as a systems engineer and electrical engineer who has worked at a Fortune 500 company for the past 30 years. The ship would be able to carry the personnel, supplies and equipment needed for a long journey or colonization of another planet.

History

The website was launched in May 2012. It gained widespread recognition after the story was covered by the major news corporations NBCNews, and Huffington Post. On December 22, 2012, BTE Dan created a petition on the White House's We the People website. The petition stated that NASA should do a feasibility study of the project. A petition on the website requires 25,000 signatures in 30 days to merit the attention of the White House¹. However, the petition only received 7,200 signatures.

Propulsion

According to the original proposal, still found on the site's home page, the Gen1 Enterprise will have 3 main engines. They will be ion thrusters that give constant acceleration. This acceleration will be slow, but over time it will allow the ship to travel at great speeds. The engines will be nuclear powered. The nuclear power system will also be used to power the ship's lighting, controls, and all other equipment on board.

In addition to the main engines, there will be impulse engines for short bursts of thrust. They will be used to help the ship exit from orbit around a planet or moon quickly. They will also be used when emergency short bursts of power are needed to avoid obstacles. Unlike the main engines, the impulse engines must be much more powerful. Therefore, they will be powered by liquid propellant made of liquid Hydrogen and liquid Oxygen.

Subsequent ongoing activity in the site's forums pages have since offered numerous alternatives to this original proposal. Among these, rather than one of the variants of traditional ion engines, the use of VASIMR engines is currently being strongly considered, although this would still be powered by the 2.5 GigaWatt (output) nuclear power plants. Other possible alternatives for the main propulsion and power sources are being considered as new technologies are steadily coming into existence and being tested. Likewise, plans for the "impulse" engines are being modified, as conventional thrusters are considered too weak to be of any practical use. One option proposed would be to tap the nuclear generators directly as nuclearthermal rockets similar to the NERVA concept. Chemical rockets might still be useful as part of a reaction control thruster system, for very fine maneuvers.

Warp drive

In Houston, Texas, at the Johnson Space Center, Harold White is working to create a warp drive that could be used for propulsion. Although this project is not related to the project proposed by BTE Dan, it could still possibly be used in a future version of the Enterprise. The project is based on Miguel Alcubierre's spacetime metric. The warp drive would allow the ship to travel faster than the speed of light by compressing space around it to create a moving bubble. As of yet however, there still remain many problems with the theory.

Funding

The Gen1 Enterprise is slated to cost $706 billion USD. This doesn't include costs to launch the needed parts into space, however. The total cost for the project is estimated at US$983 billion. It is proposed that NASA will create a program to build the spacecraft. The ship will take about 20 years to build, and Congress will allocate 0.27% of the United States' Gross Domestic Product each year to the program.

Comparison to the Television Show

Note: For more information on the original starship, see Starship Enterprise

The spaceship that is proposed to be built is named the Gen1 Enterprise. Unlike the original Enterprise, the hangar deck will be at the underside of the saucer hull instead of the lower hull section. This is because the lower hull will be reserved for the main engine and main nuclear reactor. In addition, the bridge will be moved lower so that it is within range of the gravity wheel.

See also

• Warp-field experiments
• Faster-than-light
• Alcubierre drive
• 100 Year Starship

Notes

1. At the time of the Build the Enterprise petition, the requirement was 25,000 signatures. However, the requirement was later raised to 100,000 signatures.