Building a REAL Enterprise, if evenonly for amusement?

[scottjua]

This is pretty far fetched and nerdy but I've been thinking about this for a while and remembered something from my childhood near Killeen, TX. There was a playground that had (may still exist?) a huge (in kid's terms) starship enterprise shaped jungle gym, steel frame, playground set. I always remembered it being very awesome, and it got me to thinking recently.

Let's just assume that this would be for entertainment purposes only: How plausible or even possible would it be to build a real life starship enterprise here on earth? We can assume the scale to be either 1:1 or even half scale of the plans for the enterprise, and that it's sole purpose would be for entertainment. Trek Land/resort/hotel anyone???

Could that structure with its inherent design even work (of course as a non functioning/flying ship) for people to visit, walk or take tours in, or even possibly be entertained as in a theme park role?

Would the costs even be realistic?

I'd go for sure, and if I was a billionaire woudl even pony up to start it.

 

[Psion]

Oh, I thought about this myself decades ago. I wanted to have a full-scale mock-up of both the Enterprise and a Klingon ship so crews could have simulated battles.

It'd cost millions just to build the shells, and then there'd be the support electronics and maintenance costs. You'd need a billionaire with a ridiculous love of Trek for funding, because I doubt Star Trek will ever be popular enough to justify the expense. But it's a wacky world we live in, and I refuse to say "impossible", just "very, very improbable."

Which Enterprise should be built? How do you get around technical limitations such as computer interfaces, processing power, and those funky doors? Turbolifts? Building this thing in the real world would probably require a lot of imaginative re-imagining so that the tech is dumbed-down to stuff that's real world and cheaper; a lot of pocket doors replaced by manual doors, elevators instead of turbolifts, etc.

I suggest that you look elsewhere for a full-scale Enterprise: Virtual reality. In Second Life, there's a full-scale Defiant and Klingon Bird of Prey available to walk through. They aren't very functional and limitations in Second Life would prevent crewing these ships properly, but that's not to say a SL v2.0 won't someday have the power necessary.

The costs in an environment such as SL are much lower than in real life, though still not negligible. You'd probably need to purchase an entire "sim" (1/4 real world processor) for each starship, and that costs a lot every month. Still, some people do exactly that for more trivial activities.

 

[JustAFriend]

As someone whos family is in the construction business:

To give you an idea, a standard office building the size of the Enterprise would cost you $30-$60million (land costs would be a variable, but not by a lot..)

Just off the top of my head, you'd probably be looking at $75-$100million and up easily.

Not a cheap project just for the fun of it....

 

[B.J.]

This thread was about exactly that, which led you to this link with some concept artwork about a life-size Enterprise Vegas hotel/exhibit.

 

[Silvercrest]

Whew. I was afraid that would take us to one of tri's old threads.

 

[B.J.]

Who?

 

[Silvercrest]

A poster from way back who had this obsession about building a real, functional Enterprise using today's technology. (He figured anything that hadn't been invented yet, like warp drive, could be retrofitted into it later.) Misfit Toy makes a brief reference to him in the thread you posted.

 

[noknowes]

This is pretty far fetched and nerdy but I've been thinking about this for a while and remembered something from my childhood near Killeen, TX. There was a playground that had (may still exist?) a huge (in kid's terms) starship enterprise shaped jungle gym, steel frame, playground set. I always remembered it being very awesome, and it got me to thinking recently.

Let's just assume that this would be for entertainment purposes only: How plausible or even possible would it be to build a real life starship enterprise here on earth? We can assume the scale to be either 1:1 or even half scale of the plans for the enterprise, and that it's sole purpose would be for entertainment. Trek Land/resort/hotel anyone???

Could that structure with its inherent design even work (of course as a non functioning/flying ship) for people to visit, walk or take tours in, or even possibly be entertained as in a theme park role?

Would the costs even be realistic?

I'd go for sure, and if I was a billionaire woudl even pony up to start it.

Are they not called ocean liners?

 

[FordSVT]

This is pretty far fetched and nerdy but I've been thinking about this for a while and remembered something from my childhood near Killeen, TX. There was a playground that had (may still exist?) a huge (in kid's terms) starship enterprise shaped jungle gym, steel frame, playground set. I always remembered it being very awesome, and it got me to thinking recently.

Let's just assume that this would be for entertainment purposes only: How plausible or even possible would it be to build a real life starship enterprise here on earth? We can assume the scale to be either 1:1 or even half scale of the plans for the enterprise, and that it's sole purpose would be for entertainment. Trek Land/resort/hotel anyone???

Could that structure with its inherent design even work (of course as a non functioning/flying ship) for people to visit, walk or take tours in, or even possibly be entertained as in a theme park role?

Would the costs even be realistic?

I'd go for sure, and if I was a billionaire woudl even pony up to start it.

Are they not called ocean liners?

Recreating the Enterprise as a building on land would entail an entirely different set of engineering problems than a ship. The cruise ship industry also has a different business model then the resort/theme park industry. As was mentioned in one post, the best place for something like this would be Las Vegas, or possibly Orlando or something.

The Constitution refit is just over 300 meters (1000 ft) long. The largest aircraft carriers, cruise ships, large skyscrapers, and oil tankers are that long (or even a bit longer in some cases), so the scale is about right. It's not the size of the project in materials that would be a bit daunting, it's getting something that is built like that to look right without a distracting number of support structures on its exterior. And the ship's volume is quite large.

Building something like the Enterprise D would be an entirely different ballgame. Just one of the nacelles on that thing is the size of an ocean liner, and it's got about six-eight times the interior volume of a large oil tanker.

 

[noknowes]

This is pretty far fetched and nerdy but I've been thinking about this for a while and remembered something from my childhood near Killeen, TX. There was a playground that had (may still exist?) a huge (in kid's terms) starship enterprise shaped jungle gym, steel frame, playground set. I always remembered it being very awesome, and it got me to thinking recently.

Let's just assume that this would be for entertainment purposes only: How plausible or even possible would it be to build a real life starship enterprise here on earth? We can assume the scale to be either 1:1 or even half scale of the plans for the enterprise, and that it's sole purpose would be for entertainment. Trek Land/resort/hotel anyone???

Could that structure with its inherent design even work (of course as a non functioning/flying ship) for people to visit, walk or take tours in, or even possibly be entertained as in a theme park role?

Would the costs even be realistic?

I'd go for sure, and if I was a billionaire woudl even pony up to start it.

Are they not called ocean liners?

Recreating the Enterprise as a building on land would entail an entirely different set of engineering problems than a ship. The cruise ship industry also has a different business model then the resort/theme park industry. As was mentioned in one post, the best place for something like this would be Las Vegas, or possibly Orlando or something.

The Constitution refit is just over 300 meters (1000 ft) long. The largest aircraft carriers, cruise ships, large skyscrapers, and oil tankers are that long (or even a bit longer in some cases), so the scale is about right. It's not the size of the project in materials that would be a bit daunting, it's getting something that is built like that to look right without a distracting number of support structures on its exterior. And the ship's volume is quite large.

Building something like the Enterprise D would be an entirely different ballgame. Just one of the nacelles on that thing is the size of an ocean liner, and it's got about six-eight times the interior volume of a large oil tanker.

It is stark raving mad idea which could never work and just make trekkers look even more stupid and ultimate nerdish.It would be just stupid and Joe Average would boycott it.It is impossible to build anyway the saucer neck would just snap and the engines break of the pylons.

It is impossible to build and would cost billions.

Whoever thought of this should be locked up.

It is totally insane.

 

[FordSVT]

^Do you, um, smoke rocks or something?

I can't tell if you're being facetious (in which case I don't know why because I said none of the things you inferred) or serious (in which case I don't know why you'd contradict your earlier statement that it wouldn't be much different from building a cruise ship).

 

[noknowes]

^Do you, um, smoke rocks or something?

I can't tell if you're being facetious (in which case I don't know why because I said none of the things you inferred) or serious (in which case I don't know why you'd contradict your earlier statement that it wouldn't be much different from building a cruise ship).

A cruise ship is just like the enterprise with complex machinary.
I was not referring to you at all but to the idea of building a real enterprise.

It is just sheer lunacy.We have starving people everywhere.A huge credit crunch and jobs being lost and to waste money on a madman fantasy.

 

[FordSVT]

^Do you, um, smoke rocks or something?

I can't tell if you're being facetious (in which case I don't know why because I said none of the things you inferred) or serious (in which case I don't know why you'd contradict your earlier statement that it wouldn't be much different from building a cruise ship).

A cruise ship is just like the enterprise with complex machinary.
I was not referring to you at all but to the idea of building a real enterprise.

It is just sheer lunacy.We have starving people everywhere.A huge credit crunch and jobs being lost and to waste money on a madman fantasy.

First of all, no one would build a "real" Enterprise unless they believed it would be financially viable.

If it was financially viable, your second paragraph is rendered pointless.

 

[Silvercrest]

It is impossible to build and would cost billions.

It would cost billions... to do the impossible? How does that work, again?

It is totally insane.

Ah, the irony.

 

[USS Triumphant]

Are they not called ocean liners?

I've often thought that if I ever had more money than sense I would like to have a yacht built that would look like a Miranda-class starship. The very bottom tip of the saucer, and the nacelles, could be pontoons. It wouldn't even have to be to scale - just big enough to be impressive, and to have a lot of fun passing near the Navy's traffic lanes and "hailing" them.

 

[Marc]

Building something like the Enterprise D would be an entirely different ballgame. Just one of the nacelles on that thing is the size of an ocean liner, and it's got about six-eight times the interior volume of a large oil tanker.

In the TNG Tech Manual there was a scale drawing on the 1701D over the Paramount Lot.

and once you had the land you'd need to have all sorts of support structures - the saucer section would just crash down without support.

 

[noknowes]

Building something like the Enterprise D would be an entirely different ballgame. Just one of the nacelles on that thing is the size of an ocean liner, and it's got about six-eight times the interior volume of a large oil tanker.

In the TNG Tech Manual there was a scale drawing on the 1701D over the Paramount Lot.

and once you had the land you'd need to have all sorts of support structures - the saucer section would just crash down without support.

It is totally stupid.I hope they straitjacketed the nutter.

 

[SilentP]

I've often thought that if I ever had more money than sense I would like to have a yacht built that would look like a Miranda-class starship. The very bottom tip of the saucer, and the nacelles, could be pontoons. It wouldn't even have to be to scale - just big enough to be impressive, and to have a lot of fun passing near the Navy's traffic lanes and "hailing" them.

Like this kind of boat? http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Catamaran

 

[MadMan1701A]

Hmm... I've been listening to you guys, and I think there could be another approach to this....

It's not feasible to have the full ship for this. If you just build a "saucer" section, from the rim up, and then build some "engine" structures behind it, you could probably fake it enough to be neat, once you're inside. I'm sure you could even have a basement level entrance like a shuttle bay, if you did it right...

 

[FordSVT]

Building something like the Enterprise D would be an entirely different ballgame. Just one of the nacelles on that thing is the size of an ocean liner, and it's got about six-eight times the interior volume of a large oil tanker.

In the TNG Tech Manual there was a scale drawing on the 1701D over the Paramount Lot.

and once you had the land you'd need to have all sorts of support structures - the saucer section would just crash down without support.

It is totally stupid.I hope they straitjacketed the nutter.

You shouldn't type whilst gazing into a mirror.