In Star Trek lore, the first Starship Enterprise will be built by the year 2245. But today, an engineer has proposed — and outlined in meticulous detail – building a full-sized, ion-powered version of the Enterprise complete with 1G of gravity on board, and says it could be done with current technology, within 20 years. “We have the technological reach to build the first generation of the spaceship known as the USS Enterprise – so let’s do it,”
phys.org quoting "BTE Dan", an engineer who believes that within the next 20 years we could have a fully functional (but not Warp equipped) Starship Enterprise NCC-1701.
Of course in order to achieve this goal, "BTE Dan" needs three 1.5 GW nuclear reactors, and significant financial backing from the US Government (but don't worry folks, he has a plan for raising that cash!). The main difficulties from a physics point of view have been solved, in theory. "BTE Dan" seems to have figured out a way to solve the problem of constant acceleration (using an ion engine powered by one of the three nuclear reactors) and creating artificial gravity (using the outer rim of the saucer as a magnetically suspended gravity wheel).
Although the project would not allow us to 'boldly go where no man has gone before', the vessel would be able to travel our solar system. It's an ambitious thought, no doubts there, and potentially a step in the right direction for space travel.
For more information from "BTE Dan" visit the website: Build The Enterprise (note: when I tried to access this site it was temporarily unavailable).