The Enterprise Goes to Mars…

To boldly go where no man has gone before. This is the mission statement of the popular science fiction television series Star Trek.

The USS Enterprise (NCC-1701-D) is also known as the Enterprise-D. This sets it apart form previous starships that carried the same name.

The Enterprise is a popular name for starships in the Star Trek universe. It is the name of quite a number of starships. The Enterprise-D is a 24th century starship, which is a theoretical spacecraft that was built for voyages among the stars.

The Enterprise-D is a Galaxy-class starship. It is the fifth Federation ship to be called the Enterprise. The Enterprise-D can be seen in the first episode of Star Trek: Deep Space Nine.

The Enterprise-D was last shown on Star Trek Generations. Due to a warp core breach, its stardrive section was lost. The saucer section then crashed on the exterior of Veridian III.

This starship was designed by artist Andrew Probert. At first, he was only asked to design the bridge. But Probert drew a theoretical sketch of the Enterprise-D and hung it on its wall. Story editor David Gerrold saw the sketch and handed it over to Star Trek creator Gene Roddenberry. And the rest, as they say, is history. Roddenberry liked the sketch and gave the go-ahead for the sketch to be used in designing the Enterprise-D.

In order to film the Enterprise-D, an Industrial Light and Magic team built two models. One was six-foot tall while the other was two-foot tall. The team was supervised by Ease Owyeaung. The models were first used in “Encounter at Farpoint”, the Star Trek: Next Generation pilot. They would go on to be used for Star Trek: Next Generation’s first two seasons. During the show’s third season, another model of the Enterprise-D was built. It was four feet tall and it featured an additional layer of surface plating detail.

The six-foot miniature of the Enterprise-D was auctioned by Christie’s in October 2006. It was only expected to sell for $20,000 to $30,000 but it ended up topping the list of items auctioned at a whopping $576,000.

One model of the Enterprise-D was used in the 1184 film Star Trek Generations.

There are key differences in the proportions of the Galaxy-class Enterprise-D and the first Enterprise. But the Enterprise-D still has the Enterprise’s dual warp nacelles. The original look of the saucer section was also retained.

The Enterprise-D proved to be so popular that Playmates made an Enterprise-D toy in 1992. Art Asylum made another Enterprise-D toy in 1999.

The Enterprise-D was commanded by Captain Jean-Luc Picard. The starship was built at the Utopia Planitia Fleet Yards, which can be found at the orbits of Mars. The Enterprise-D is the third Galaxy-class starship, following the pathfinder ship USS Galaxy and the USS Yamato. It was commissioned on October 4, 2363. It dedication plaque gives this date as 40759.5

The crew of the Enterprise-D makes a lot of first contact across the galaxy.