COULD WE BUILD THE USS ENTERPRISE?
DID YOU KNOW?
The speed of light in a vacuum is 186,282 miles per second, far faster than anything else can travel
Launched into space from the mind of creator Gene Roddenberry in the 1960s, the USS spacecraft to reach warp speed on television screens around the world. The ultra-fast, near-invisible and sometimes-time-travelling Constitution-class starship was the most advanced spacecraft at the time of its launch in fictional 2245. Built in space, the Enterprise is a feat of make-believe engineering. It’s estimated that the spacecraft would weigh more than 4 million tonnes and house a crew of 430. In comparison, the heaviest human-made object to venture into space is the International Space Station (ISS), which has a mass of around 419 tonnes. China is reportedly researching the possibility of constructing a colossal spacecraft measuring up to 0.6 miles in length – this would absolutely dwarf the ISS, which is only 110 metres long.
