So you want to build up the endeavor . Do n’t we all ! Well just news : according to some quick , mussy , napkin maths , it ’s possible . Kind of . The speculative news ? It ’s going to be stupid expensive . But not unfathomably so ! bulge out scrounging up your space - pennies .
One little constraint
Since we ca n’t predict the hereafter , or even amount close to gauging the cost of ontogenesis for revolutionary new inventions or substances like warp and impulse drives , shields , and teleporters , we ’re going to hold fast to what we bed . It might not make us a real endeavour , but it ’s about as penny-pinching as you ’re going to get .
So where do we start?
First we have to pick our enterprisingness . Obviously , with Star Trek : Into Darkness coming out , we ’re going to go with the one from that universe of discourse , from a size position anyway . harmonize tosome statswe got back when the original Star Trek reboot come out a few geezerhood ago , we know the novel Enterprise — or as the Star Trek wiki calls it : USS Enterprise ( Alternate Reality)—is 725.35 time , 2379.76 feet , or more or less half a mile long . So , huge . And while the precise measurements vary , other sourcesgive us a stature of 625 foot , and a discus diam of 1,000 feet . She ’s a bounteous girlfriend .
https://gizmodo.com/how-big-is-the-new-enterprise-compared-to-the-old-one-5253324
Photo : Paramount
Raw materials
The closest thing we have to compare this to in the literal world is probably aNimitz - year aircraft carrier . The newGerald R. Ford - class suckerswill be bigger and more expensive , but we have n’t finished one of those yet , so we ’ll deposit with a Nimitz - class , specificallythe George H.W. Bush , the most late — and last — of the Nimitz breed .
Photo by : Mass Communication Specialist 3rd Class Nicholas Hall / US Navy
At 1,092 feet long , the GHWB come up in at just under half the distance of the initiative . And witha 252 foot wide flight deck , it ’s a fair spot thinner . But there ’s a lot of empty space in the enterprisingness , whereas aircraft carriers are more like solid glob . Getting really specific with a starship ’s actual mass would involve some annoyingly existent maths and measurements we do n’t have , but we can safely assume it would take about two GHWBs - Charles Frederick Worth of stuff to build a appropriately sized , Enterprise - mould brute when you stretch out it all out . Make it aviation - tight and we ’ll call it a spaceship .
Unlike the Nimitz - form cruisers before it , which be about $ 4.5 billion , the GWHB cost more like $ 6.2 billion thanks to modern day perks , and we need two . And we ’re just getting warmed up .
Running Total : $ 12,400,000,000
Some assembly required
According to the first JJ Abrams Star Trek celluloid , the specific Enterprise we ’re talking about here was establish in Iowa . We ’ll bear it ’s gettingthe ISS treatment : Build it on Earth as a serial publication of trivially sized module that get assembled in orbit .
This is where the substantial cost amount in . If we go by the numbers from SpaceX , the Falcon Heavycan transport stuff and nonsense to place for the low , low price of about $ 1,000 per pound . A GHWB Charles Frederick Worth of clobber consider about 114,000 short scads . So a twosome of them are 228,000 unforesightful tons , or 456 million quid . breed that by $ 1,000 buck per pound and … Yeah . We ’re let the cat out of the bag $ 456 billion just to get this into celestial orbit , or $ 468.4 billion for an Enterprise - shaped place post , total . And that ’s not including labor .
That ’s a lot of scary zeros , but really it ’s not too too bad . This year , the United States defense total budget expenditurewas $ 3.803 trillion . So it ’s not like we do n’t have the cash .
Construction cost ( X - labor ): $ 456,000,000,000
Running Total : $ 468,400,000,000
Tea, Earl Grey, hot
Now that we ’ve got our big , tower shell put together , it ’s about time that we jump filling it up with some awesome tech . One of the ( many ) iconic technologies in the Star Trek cosmos is the ubiquitous replicator , making pesky things like staying feed a piece of cake . Sometimes literally . We do n’t have anything confining to the variety of build - anything - from - anything replicators from the series , but we do have something call the Replicator . The Replicator 2 , as a matter of fact . Even better .
https://gizmodo.com/the-makerbot-replicator-2-prints-a-bigger-more-detaile-5944706
While MakerBot ’s Replicator 2 is stellar 3D - printing technical school here on Earth , the thought of fit out our enormous , tremendously badass Enterprise with just one seems ludicrously cheap and lame . That being the case , allow ’s arrange it up with a suite of 50 and just pretend we ’ve got five that are 10 times the sizing . One MakerBot Replicator 2retails for a light $ 2,200 , so we ’re talking an accomplishment cost of ( a still scant ) $ 110,000 . We need stuff to print with too , though . Let ’s say 45 kilograms ( 100 Egyptian pound ) of charge plate , assorted semblance . MakerBot charge plate is $ 48 to the kilo , so that ’s $ 112,160 in printing machine and ink .
The transportation weighting of each Replicator 2 is 37 pounds , or 1850 British pound sterling total , plus our 100 pound of plastic which bring in us to 1950 quid . Launch that into blank space ( $ 195,000 ) and now we ’re talking .
We looked into estimating the price of something likeone of Organovo ’s crazy Bio - Printers , but they could n’t help oneself us out with any kind of numeral regarding price or weight unit , so we had to leave it out .
https://gizmodo.com/scientists-have-3d-printed-mini-human-livers-for-the-fi-5995271
Total Replicator Cost : $ 307,160
Running Total : $ 468,400,307,160
Hit the (Holo)deck
Microsoft has a promising little at - habitation holodeck on the way withits IllumiRoom tech , but while that ’d be cracking in your living room , we can probably jump for something a little fancy on our enterprisingness . How aboutthe CAVE 2 , gross with 320 degree , bird’s-eye 3D LCD presentation ?
https://gizmodo.com/microsofts-crazy-illumiroom-more-details-about-a-real-484384917
This is n’t exactly a retail product , so we ’ll have to piece together the toll ( and weight unit ) in unspecific stroke . Theawesome curved , 3D TV we see at CEShas recently been priced at around $ 14,000 and we ’ll need 72 for a total of $ 1,008,000 in TV . We also ask 36 “ high-pitched performance PC , ” that are maybe $ 3,000 a small-arm ? And also a setup of 10 motion tracking cameras that we ’ll just say costs about $ 10,000 . We wind up at $ 1,126,000 for procurement .
https://gizmodo.com/lg-curved-3d-oled-hands-on-an-imax-for-your-house-5974348
After a little black thaumaturgy call for transport weights and wild estimation , we can guess that this getup weighs somewhere around 5,378 pounds . As for software system growing , well , you ’re you ’re going to have to programme you own plot . Sorry .
Holodeck cost : $ 6,504,000
Running Total : $ 468,406,811,160
Fire photon torpedoes!
But really that ’s only half the struggle . Or really it ’s none of the struggle ; this affair ca n’t burgeon forth yet . The GHWB already had some armament that are theoretically on our Enterprise now , but they are pansy ground - weapons . We involve photon wedge and phaser raiment .
When it comes to photon torpedos — well , we do n’t have photon torpedos . But tactical atomic warhead seem moderately close , preferably in missile physical body . TheUGM-133 Trident IIis a modern - day ballistic missile that can rock a nuclear payload . And , it can be launched from a submarine which signify it ’s passably much a torpedo , right ? Kinda ? Sorta ? Regardless , it seems like it could be strapped to — and fired from — a starship just fine .
Photo : Department of Defense
It ’s somewhat unclear how many photon torpedoes the Enterprise — specifically the reboot endeavour — has , but we get it on the USS Voyagerwas designed specifically for scientific missions and had 38 , so that seems like a fair bare lower limit . Each Trident II cost $ 30.9 million to make , and weigh 129,000 pounds . So that means the cost of buying one “ photon torpedo ” and get it into space is $ 159,900,000 . The whole kit of 38 will cost us $ 6,076,200,000 .
Photon Torpedo Cost : $ 6,076,200,000
run Total : $ 474,483,011,160
Don’t phase me, bro
And of trend , what would any good initiative be without its phasers ? The Enterprise is said to havesix phaser banksand fortunately , the Navy has some lasersthat would be a nice reserve .
https://gizmodo.com/watch-a-navy-laser-gun-blast-a-drone-right-out-of-the-s-5994074
The Navy ’s LaWS organization be $ 40 million to train and make , so we ’ll nail the sticker terms at maybe $ 15 million per unit of measurement , for a total cost of $ 90 million for all six . The Navy ’s been tight - lipped about how much they count though , so we ’ll have to pull something really iffy out of the gentle wind and say each is about as heavy as aradar - point Phalanx machine - gun bankjust because that looks kind of similar - ish . So that ’s 13,600 pounds each , or 81,600 pounds of gear mechanism ( full ) to blast into space .
Phaser Bank Cost : $ 171,600,000
Running Total : $ 474,654,611,160
Man Up
And what good is any of this if the ship is a touch town ? While it ’s technically not a cost of building the Enterprise per se , we ’d be remiss if we did n’t at least in short consider the cost of man this beast . Who know exactly how many people man the endeavour , including all the ( hundreds of ? ) humble - story nobody , so we ’ll just go down it up with a skeleton command crew .
Going bya list of noted crew appendage , we can figure we require — at minimum—11 citizenry on this affair . fortunately for us , a recent agreement between NASA and Russiapinpoints the price of flight of stairs - training a ‘ naut and shoot him / her into the great vacuum at $ 70.7 million . So assuming our plebe already eff how to do their job , and only need a little space - training , that gives us a deportation cost of $ 777,700,000
Of course , you also have to bear these guy wire and keep them alive . Recent estimate put the cost of maintain a soldier in Iraq for a yearat between $ 850,000 and $ 1.4 million , so let ’s go with the higher end of that spectrum since we ’re verbalise exclusively about officiers and they are also going to blank space . That net us a $ 15,400,000 extra personnel cost .
Lastly , they ’ve got to be fed and watered and whatnot . In 2008 , NASA present a roughly$3.5 billion dollar contractto SpaceX and Orbital Sciences Corp to perform that very same problem of ferrying loading , except to the ISS . That seems like a perfect estimation so let ’s just steal that wholesale as our supply price .
personnel department and supply cost : $ 4,293,100,000
Running Total : $ 478,947,711,160
To boldly go…nowhere
Now that our Enterprise can defend itself , the only think will is to make it move . alas , that ’s middling unimaginable under even the faint realness constraint . Warp drives , while they are being search , are n’t close to existing . And impulse drives — basically fusion rockets — aren’t much closer ; wealmost had a fission rocket engine once , but it got mothball .
https://gizmodo.com/nasa-starts-work-on-real-life-star-trek-warp-drive-5942634
More recently , there ’s also been discussion ofan impulse drivethat could actually incline on something spectacularly likedilithium lechatelierite : heavy hydrogen ( a stable isotope of hydrogen ) and Li6 ( a static isotope of lithium ) . This engine does n’t exist yet though . And it ’d likely ask some very delicate orbital - construction that we ca n’t really cut up yet .
That being enjoin , we ’re lead to have to call it quits here , with our weaponize , Enterprise - shape blank space - post , which is pretty all-fired cool in its own right hand .
Grand Total: $478,947,711,160
(Or: 12.59 percent of 2013 US Defense expenditure total budget)
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