It would be the too cool to see three 6 foot starships, the orginal enterprise, the D and a new ship named after Gene flying in tandem together and photographed in space.
I would really like to see the either the orginal or the D go up, because Gene was part of those and that would be the greatest tribute, but not sure if that is possible yet. Hopefully, I will know soon.
I also believe that it would really be a great tribute to fly something really worthy of Gene's vision of people working together and putting a ship up. I believe the ship should be roughly around 6 feet long, although that could change for various reasons. I also believe it should carrry an, as yet to be determined, real science payload of sorts. As well as some cameras of course. But I think that in really doing this should be something very special.
The starship could be made by someone like MIT or another educational organization with an educational emphasis for students from middle school up through college. This could also be filmed and make a great science documentary. But, it would get young people involved in building and being part of an actual really cool starship with a major emphasis on education and make the science fun.
If it can't be the orginal or the D there are a couple of other cool possiblities perhaps that could work and still be a great tribute.
I am actually working on a project to try to accomplish such a mission like this and to send a historical and educational tribute to Gene into space with a science payload, which I believe is all technically possible.
I would also like to see the ship retrievable from Orbit, as I believe it would end up in the Smithsonian or prehaps even be reusable.
I have studied astronomy and cosmology for some 35 years and a big part of my own interest in science and space came in big part from Gene's visions and a starship and an imagniation. I really think and hope a project like this would could be an awesome tribute and celebration to Gene. I also believe it would be an excellent way to get younger people interested in space exploration and science at the same time. I think a major tribute to Gene, a starship design, an emphasis on science education would all be awesome towards accomplishing these goals. I also believe it would be historical for many reasons.