Yeah, so it's highly speculative, but... NASA design for a 'warp' ship

[vger]

http://io9.com/heres-nasas-new-design-for-a-warp-drive-ship-1588948192?utm_campaign=socialflow_io9_facebook&utm_source=io9_facebook&utm_medium=socialflow

[Dodgey]

I don't care if it works or not. That is a beautiful ship. I'll have to have a look at that video before I make any comments on it. Though I'm pretty sure whoever designed it is a trekkie.

[Mitchz95]

I don't care if it works or not. That is a beautiful ship. I'll have to have a look at that video before I make any comments on it. Though I'm pretty sure whoever designed it is a trekkie.

Correct. Mark Rademaker designed the Vesta-class for the Star Trek: Destiny novels.

And I agree, that's probably the most beautiful realistic-looking spaceship ever designed. I'd love to see something like that happen in my lifetime, though I know that's a bit optimistic...

[Voidryder]

Just read the article with Dr. White's comments about how this is possible and while I'm no physicist (I don't even play one in KSP), I have to say, GETOUTTAHERE! No friggin way! Zowie-wowie!! And I was really excited about SpaceX's Dragon 2, but this...is way cool.

Just hope this isn't some joke site.

P.S. If it is a joke site I knew it all along. Was just playing along with the joke. Yeah, that's it. Just playing along.

P.P.S. Guess all that reverse engineering from Roswell crash is finally paying off. (Don't ban me.)

[the_bT]

If we really are going to name the first warp capable space ship we build "Enterprise" it's first mission needs to be to go find some new ideas...

[Dodgey]

Ah I see Mitchz95. That makes a lot of sense. It sorry of reminded me of Voyager.

We could always call it Phoenix.

[Thomas988]

Dang it! You beat me to it, vger! I was going to make a thread about this exact thing. XD

But yeah, that spacecraft is amazing! I could stare at it all day...

[Dispatcher]

If I was a trillionaire, I'd pay real money for a real starship that looked like that.

[karolus10]

I guess I'm picking up, but I always wonder why many (or even most) Sci-fi space ships had flight deck with windows like in shuttle, I guess it's pretty useless feature in any spaceship not designed to flying/gliding like a plane.

[Tommygun]

I guess I'm picking up, but I always wonder why many (or even most) Sci-fi space ships had flight deck with windows like in shuttle, I guess it's pretty useless feature in any spaceship not designed to flying/gliding like a plane.

Probably the same reason trans and airplanes have windows for the passengers.

People just want to see out at some point and designers of ships real or not end up putting them on.

The Mercury capsule originally had no window, but the astronauts demanded one.

[Nuke]

developed by nasa... art department.

is that round disc thing under the cockpit supposed to be a centrifuge, its kinda small.

[jfull]

developed by nasa... art department.

is that round disc thing under the cockpit supposed to be a centrifuge, its kinda small.

No, its only a partial disc. Its supposed to be a module reminiscent of the "saucer section" of most federation starships in Star Trek.

Anyway, it is a very beautiful ship, but I feel like it fails to take into account the reactor necessary for warp travel.

Whether you're using antimatter or something else to power the ship, you're going to be containing MASSIVE amounts of energy. You'd want that reactor as far away from the habitable sections of the ship as possible. This wouldn't save the crew in the event of the reactor exploding, but would keep them safe from the radiation the reactor produces and would keep sensitive electronics away from the magnetic containment fields.

So yeah, basically it would require a long truss with the crew at one end and the engines at the other.

[jwenting]

guys, it's completely fictional, it's not designed by NASA either.

Easy to tell too, the name of the ship being USS Enterprise shows clearly the creator thinking to pass it off as a NASA design had no clue as to NASA naming practices.

The prefix USS is used only by the US military.

[vger]

The prefix USS is used only by the US military.

USS is not what it says.

And comeon, you really think NASA wouldn't consider giving it that name?

The Alcubierre drive concept wouldn't even be around were it not inspired by Star Trek.

[Dodgey]

Where did you get USS from? It's prefix is IXS.

[rkman]

If I was a trillionaire, I'd pay real money for a real starship that looked like that.

Even if you were a googolionaire you could not have one. There actually are things that can not be created in a reasonable amount of time no matter how much money you throw at it.

[JMBuilder]

Anybody else notice the logo on the side of the ship? USS Enterprise.

[vger]

Wow, I'm this close to adding a poll, asking what the prefix on this ship is.

[DaveofDefeat]

Ha look at that USS prefix, its just like star trek!

[Dodgey]

Where is the USS?

[K^2]

I see text in three different places, and in each one, it's clearly "IXS Enterprise". I have no idea where people are getting the "USS" from.

There is really no reason to try and build a ship that big for the first warp tests, though. First warp engines would be sub-light, not fast at all, in fact, small, and probably powered up by an external unit, with only enough on-board power to maintain stable warp and drop out properly.

[Aghanim]

IXS = Interstellar Experimental Ship?

Edit: Side note to K^2: Do you have a PF account? Because when I was researching for balloon rocket launch I found this: http://www.physicsforums.com/showthread.php?t=523741

Edited June 11, 2014 by Aghanim

[Seret]

that's probably the most beautiful realistic-looking spaceship ever designed.

I dunno, looks like it was designed by an artist not an engineer. It's streamlined.

[Nibb31]

This sort of PR really annoys me. Any sort of Alcubierre or Warp drive is nothing more than an theoretical construct at this time. It relies on this purely theoretical "exotic matter" that might or might not exist or even be possible. At any rate it is decades away, and more importantly, several scientific breakthroughs away. It's way too early to start thinking about designing a ship around it because if we do build warp ships in 100 years, chances are they'll look nothing like the IXS Enterprise. In 30 years, you'll be looking back at this and finding it just as laughable as this:

I'm not sure how much of this pointless exercise is funded by NASA and how much is fan art, but I don't think NASA should be spending their tiny budget on artist impressions of science fiction space ships.

Edited June 11, 2014 by Nibb31

[Streetwind]

I'm not sure how much of this pointless exercise is funded by NASA and how much is fan art, but I don't think NASA should be spending their tiny budget on artist impressions of science fiction space ships.

That's not how government budgets work... NASA gets prescribed in great detail by congress how exactly they are to use their budget. There's an entire section in there that literally exists for fancy concept art, marketing and PR. It cannot be spent on anything else.

As for the topic, I'll reserve my judgement until after I've seen the presentation, but I'll say one thing: I'm expecting such a vessel to look far more utilitarian. And far more modular, too. It's too large (physically bulky) for a single launch vehicle, even for the SLS block II. Thus it must be bolted together in space. I'm willing to bet money it'll end up looking more like a wayward ISS segment than what this artist imagined here.