BTE-Dan (Build The Enterprise Dan?) has published specifications for the iconic spacecraft, as well as estimations for the costs involved. He also has a mission plan and funding strategies, demonstrating that he has really thought this out. If everything goes according to plan, he said the real USS Enterprise (called the Gen1 Enterprise) could be built in as little as 20 years.

While his proposed Gen1 Enterprise will bear a resemblance to its sci-fi counterpart, its function will be a little different. This Enterprise will be a “spaceship, a space station, and a spaceport,” working in some ways similar to the current International Space Station, though BTE-Dan decries the lack of gravity on the ISS. He’s overcome it with a rotating magnetically-suspended gravity wheel in the saucer section, generating 1g. He also bemoans the “comical and primitive” toilet facilities and the cramped quarters. His Gen1 Enterprise would be home to about 1000 people.

As expensive as it sounds, Dan claims the the project would constitute only (I say only) 0.27 percent of the United States’ GDP, and would allow the construction of ever-more advanced Enterprises every 33 years. Dan claims this compares favorably to the Apollo era, when NASA’s budget averaged 0.5 percent of the country’s GDP. Further, at a spend of $40 billion per year, Dan reckons this equates to 1.1 percent of the 2012 budget.

This spaceship is not designed to “boldly go where no one has gone before.” Instead, the 1.5 GW nuclear-powered ion engine is for intra-solar system missions, reaching the Moon in 3 days and Mars in 90 days. It would not have any “faster than the speed of light” warp drives. One small step for man? One giant waste of time for mankind?

[Source]

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The company has three final missions planned with NASA this year, and is looking to pick up work shuttling supplies and crew between the International Space Station with their Atlantis and Endeavour vessels afterwards. USA would make two trips a year at under $1.5 billion annually.

On the other hand, SpaceX estimated it would cost only $560 million for their Dragon spacecraft to make four crewed flights per year.

“We thought this was a good option to be put on the table to be evaluated with all the other commercial options, since it’s a vehicle that has really proven itself,” said Mark Nappi, head of United Space Alliance’s Florida operations. “It is safe. We have a lot of history, we understand how to operate it.”

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After the first launch attempt was aborted due to a false telemetry reading, the second launch attempt of the Falcon 9 rocket was flawless. The rocket flew above the Atlantic Ocean and reached the orbit in under ten minutes. Having separated from the Falcon 9 rocket, the Dragon space craft orbited the earth gathering vital data for future projects. After re-entering the atmosphere, it opened its parachute and landed in the Pacific Ocean. The SpaceX team have recovered the capsule.

This mission was the first of its kind conducted by a non-state agency. Considering the success of the Falcon 9 rocket, similar technology shall be employed in future projects related to private space ships. The Dragon space ship, at its present capacity, shall be able to carry seven astronauts into outer space. Speculations are soaring high, with talks of using the Falcon 9 rockets to ferry astronauts and cargo in private space ships to and from the International Space Station, especially after NASA Administrator Charles Bolden commented, “We’re witnessing the dawn of a new era whose ultimate result could be routine, safe access to space, with industry, academia, other agencies and other governments regularly sending payloads and people to low Earth orbit.”

“There’s so much that can go wrong and it all went right,” said SpaceX CEO Elon Musk, in a statement. “I’m sort of in semi-shock,” said Musk, who founded PayPal before SpaceX.

Some believe SpaceX could be used to launch private contractors to the ISS following the retirement of NASA’s space shuttle fleet next year. President Obama is behind this, and may look at the company for more deep space missions—and of course, putting a human on Mars. That is decades away of course, but would provide scientists with millions in grants for “environmental research.” Although many critics in Congress are against this, as it will cost jobs throughout the Florida Spacecoast, NASA isn’t one to look lightly on a second place in the space race behind Russia or China.

Photographs: Chris Thomson

[SpaceX]

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