The real cost of the Enterprise from Star Trek

Here’s what it would cost in the real world to run and maintain a ship like the Enterprise from Star Trek.

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In the future universe in which Star Trek inhabits, all money is obsolete and humanity strives to better themselves and expand our knowledge by exploring the galaxy. But what if money did exist? What would it cost for the Federation to maintain and run the U.S.S. Enterprise? Well thanks to an engineering firm based in Derby, England, we have a pretty good idea.

Using a real life modern-day equivalent as a comparison, in this case the U.S.S. Gerald R Ford aircraft carrier, they broke the costs down to different categories such as maintenance, crew salaries, repairs etc so what does this add up to?

"The ship is by any standards absolutely giant! It measures just over 725 meters in length and 190 meters in height. So unsurprisingly because of its size it would cost a lot just to keep it in service every year – £5.2m being a lot in this case. A big ship needs a big crew and that’s what the Enterprise has; 430-strong to be precise. The salaries of the engineers in this crew would then total up to £4.1m. The expenses don’t stop there though, there’s still £946,825 to add in safety and performance upgrades every year."

So that adds up to £10,341, 817.36 for one year of the five year mission, that’s $13,482,161.91 a year in U.S. dollars. That’s around 65 million dollars for a five year mission, which is really not too bad at all. Mind you this is operating costs, not how much it would cost to build the vessel, that number would be astronomical.

In the grand scheme of things that seems very reasonable, considering the International Space Station costs a good few billion a year to keep going.

Check out the SGS Engineering website for more.

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