How About a 1:1 Enterprise?

[treadhead1952]

HI All,

I was checking the E Mail the other day and was sent a rather interesting link to an "Enterprising" site (All puns fully intended!). I have often considered what it would be like to go traipsing off to space exploring off world mysteries and seeing what there was to see. Now here is an individual who has a plan to get us back in the space race in a real big way.

http://www.buildtheenterprise.org/

 

[Zathros]

This guy is behind the times because the new plasma drive engines are predicted to reach Mars in 45 days. Also, with habitats like Bigelow/Boeing, a rotating ring could be made in a much easier manner This guy is sucking money out of Trek Heads. Meanwhile, there will people actually making progress, and in fact are. Too much to go into, but that is really silly! Some(most) of these designs are of NASA origins. They are in space now. This is why the archaic I.S.S. will come crashing down to Earth, as the new Bigelow/Boeing craft are not only capable of working as a space station, but can also fly through space because of their inherit elastomeric quality, and their ability to resist micro meteoroids, which would tear any other craft apart.

 

[treadhead1952]

Hi Zathros,

Neat stuff! Thanks for the photos. :thumb:

Since most likely the only way my happy old tired self would ever make it into the cosmos would be in the same manner as the late Jimmy Doohan, rest his soul: and probably with as much trouble as he had as well (two tries just to get there!)

I mostly just put this up as a point of curiousity, trying to duplicate a fictional starship design as this guy is proposing might serve to light a fire under some folks to pull for a better way just to get the world at large to take a more serious interest in off world travel. I would much rather it be in a manner that would face the hard facts of radiation, space debris, vast distances and mans' fragile nature into much more serious consideration.

 

[Zathros]

Oh I do find it interesting. I also have no problem with it. These discourses can lead to new models and disseminate ideas from misconceptions that some people may have. Our space program is alive and will. The course change it is making has implications that are incredible. The Bigelow modules can be assembled as a space station, with relay points put on to the moon.. Then, other Bigelow space modules can be landed on the moon and covered with regolith. Since each module is self contained, the built in safety makes for a safe exploration environment.

A space station at the LaGrange point could be the beginning of space mining! This is all being done by private companies (which have always built out space craft) but now, in a much more independent way. We have groups of people doing in the desert what whole governments cannot do.

 

[Vince]

What? No Captain's Yacht?
Reading this site, I can't tell if this guy is trying to get creative thought process going, or if he's serious. If he's trying to stimulate discussion, more power to him. If he's seriously trying to divert half of NASA's budget to this ship, good luck with that.

The third, scariest idea is this whole thing is a scam to get money.

 

[Zathros]

With the "real" private initiatives going on now, and money being tight, it would be of more benefit to stick with the reality of people who have already had the fires lit and are doing the work now, Space X, Bigelow (who was just purchased by Boeing, I've been following that guy for 10 years!), Scaled Composite, with Spaceship II, the list goes on. In a couple of years, people will be shocked by how many people are taking off into space from America, and it will kind of be like Star Trek, small groups of people in the woods, but in reality, deserts, with rocket ships made by private individuals, not governments. We have groups of 100's of people doing what whole governments cannot do. They have already succeeded. The Dragon Capsule has docked with the I.S.S. and has launched a capsule from a rocket, that they developed. The Dragon Capsule can carry 7 men and can be manually controlled for re-entry! It is good that the Shuttles were finally stopped, decades too late, we would have these new technologies already if the had stopped feeding that elephant, politics!