"The unit components were built at the Star Fleet Division of what is still called the San Francisco Navy Yards, and the vessel was assembled in space. The Enterprise is not designed to enter the atmosphere of a planet and never lands on a planet surface." - The Making of Star Trek by Stephen E. Whitfield & Gene Roddenberry.
"Our vessel was constructed in space and has never felt the solidity of the surface of a planet." - Gene Roddenberry's Star Trek Writer & Director's Guide (Bible) dated April 17, 1967.
TGT
Thank god things adapt, culture evolves, and stories progress. I'd hate to be stuck with 1960's mentality for my modern entertainment...
Or in the case of having the ship built on Earth, take a step back. Modern shouldn't mean scientifically illiterate.
Roddenberry for all his faults did something very right when he created
Star Trek... he talked to people who actually worked in the aerospace industry to make sure his show didn't look silly. He put real effort into getting much of the science right. That's why
Star Trek inspired so many people to make science a career.
This silliness of the Enterprise being built on Earth is the kind of mistake you'd expect from a movie or TV show back in the 1950s... a bad one.
Ask anyone at NASA where they intend to build a ship to Mars... IN SPACE.
First, the raw materials are there--- either from the moon, or the asteroids.
And second, there's this little thing called gravity which makes lifting large items from the surface of the Earth energy and cost prohibitive.
One of the brilliant things about
Star Trek has always been how it did a fairly good job (in most cases) of getting the science right. Seems for all the millions being spent on this film, they weren't able to spend any money on a science advisor.
Sure, the shot of Kirk riding up to the ship under construction on Earth has a certain emotional appeal. But if having the ship being towed into space by a bunch of birds tied to the hull had an emotional appeal that wouldn't change how incredibly stupid it was.