Friday, January 11, 2013

What A Mad Enterprise!

As USA teeters on the edge of its 'fiscal cliff', an American engineer is petitioning the White House to leap straight off it...and boldly go where no man has gone before!
This space nerd wants the good ol' USofA to look at building a real-life starship Enterprise (just like the one in tv's Star Trek)!
Revelation: Star Trek wasn't REAL!
This nutsville proposal was submitted through the White House's official "We the People" channel, which promises a response from Obama's boys to any petition gathering at least 25,000 signatures. They don't guarantee just what sort of response might be forthcoming... but hey, even a "You gotta be kidding me!" from Barak is a response, right? (Just last month, a petition to build a Death Star like the spherical spaceship in Star Wars hit the 25K mark, and so is currently awaiting its official response.)
Anyway, back to the future: the Enterprise proposal comes from a geek who goes by the name BTE Dan. This guy posted plans for constructing a life-size, flyable starship Enterprise on his website last year. He claims USA has within its technological reach the ability to build the 1st generation of the USS Enterprise inside the next 20 years. Support for his idea is currently running at around 5,000 signatures...
BTE Dan reckons this is no joke, but a practical step forward for space exploration: "This will be Earth's first gigawatt-class interplanetary spaceship with artificial gravity. It can serve as a spaceship, space station, and space port all in one. In total, one thousand crew members and visitors can be on board at once."
Some experts question certain aspects of the plan eg: no artificial gravity technology currently exists, and the largest number of people ever accommodated on any space vehicle until now has been 13.
But BTE Dan maintains its motivational benefits would match its scientific paybacks: "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."
And those who authorise such expenditure, financially crippling their country and dragging the world economy down too, can then beam aboard, Scotty, and escape the global wrath...riiiiiiigghhtt!

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