So asks the Christian Science Monitor.
In Star Trek lore, the first Starship Enterprise will be built by the year 2245. But today, an engineer has proposed — and outlined in meticulous detail – building a full-sized, ion-powered version of the Enterprise complete with 1G of gravity on board, and says it could be done with current technology, within 20 years. “We have the technological reach to build the first generation of the spaceship known as the USS Enterprise – so let’s do it,” writes the curator of the Build The Enterprise website, who goes by the name of BTE Dan.
Of course, with ion propulsion (for now) instead of warp drive, it’s a bit of a stretch to call it a starship. Still, I do like this idea better than the one to build an exact replica of the Titanic.
Well of course we should.
No brainer.
Just so long as the ships name is something other than “Enterprise”.
That’s right. Since the Star Trek Enterprise used naval ranks, and the proposed (space) ship will be American, it should follow naval naming procedure, and “Enterprise” is not only a storied name, it’s still in use (CVN-65). The first purpose-built naval vessels were the six frigates authorized by the Naval Act of 1794, and the first of those, named by George Washington, was “United States”. That name is still available, since the three successor ships proposed over the last two centuries were scrapped while incomplete, cancelled before construction, and renamed, respectively.
I really want something like “Faraway Quest”*, “Rodger Young”** or “Space Beagle”***. And nothing from Star Bores either.
*A. Bertram Chandler.
**RAH
***A. E. Van Voght.