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An engineer who created plans to build a working replica of the starship Enterprise from “Star Trek” has created a petition for NASA to consider the feasibility of the project and re-imagine his design. As of today, his petition has gathered 6,293 signatures. In order to receive a reply from the White House, just over 18,700 additional signatures are required.
The engineer, who goes by BTE-Dan, has done more than just start a petition. He's created a website, buildtheenterprise.org, outlining why he believes the project would yield positive results for the country and the world.
“We have within our technological reach the ability to build the 1st generation of the USS Enterprise,” BTE-Dan wrote in his petition. "It ends up that this ship’s inspiring form is quite functional. This will be Earth’s first gigawatt-class interplanetary spaceship with artificial gravity. The ship can serve as a spaceship, space station, and space port all in one. In total, one thousand crew members & visitors can be on board at once. Few things could collectively inspire people on Earth more than seeing the Enterprise being built in space. And the ship could go on amazing missions, like taking the first humans to Mars while taking along a large load of base-building equipment for constructing the first permanent base there.”
BTE-Dan stresses that the ship would not be an exact replica as the technology does not exist, but he feels that using the design of the iconic ship would bring more public interest and enthusiasm in the American space program.
The engineer suggests that the 3,000 foot-long ship be built in space and not land on the surface of any moon or planet so that it would never need to reach escape velocity. The ship would use on-board nuclear reactors, cutting down cost of fuelling the ship. He estimates his re-design of the Enterprise would be able to travel to the moon in a mere three days, and Mars in three months.
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