An engineer for the space exploration company SpaceX has outlined an elaborate plan to build Star Trek’s USS Enterprise, which he says could be ready to fly within the next 20 years.

“We have the technological reach to build the first generation of the spaceship… so let’s do it,” writes BTE Dan on his website, BuildTheEnterprise.org (which has been loading intermittently because of heavy traffic). 

The website includes conceptual blueprints, budgeting proposals, a timeline for research and development, and almost every other conceivable detail.

Could they actually pull this off?

Groundbreaking research suggests the universe’s most mysterious substance — dark matter — is hitting the human body at a much higher rate than previously thought. 

Old theories suggested these particles collided with particles in our body maybe once in a lifetime, but now, a team of experts argues that dark matter particles are flying through your body as often as once a minute. 

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Why ‘Space Madness’ Fears Haunted NASA’s Past

When astronauts first began flying in space, NASA worried about “space madness,” a mental malady they thought might arise from humans experiencing microgravity and claustrophobic isolation inside of a cramped spacecraft high above the Earth. Such fears have since faded, but humanity continues to see spaceflight as having the power to transform people for either better or for worse.

Such early concerns of NASA psychiatrists led to careful screening of the first astronauts drawn from U.S. Air Force test pilots. The astronauts proved highly professional and level-headed in even the most life-threatening scenarios — a reality that did not stop reporters and science fiction writers from imagining astronauts going crazy or becoming spiritually changed by spaceflight.

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Photo: The Mercury 7 are the first group of NASA’s astronauts. Back row: Alan Shepard, Gus Grissom, Gordon Cooper; front row: Wally Schirra, Deke Slayton, John Glenn, Scott Carpenter in 1960. Wikimedia Commons

A space elevator, you say? A Tokyo-based firm is planning to build a space station thousands of miles above the planet, transporting passengers to-and-from orbit with a futuristic elevator. Going… up?

NASA scientists have just confirmed an entirely new category of planet just 40 light years away: A world with a diameter 2.7 times larger than Earth that’s covered almost entirely in water. “If you want to describe in one sentence what this planet is, it’s a big, hot ocean.”

Houston, we have a big one. Engineers are now developing the largest aircraft ever flown — dubbed the “Stratolaunch” — which in addition to costing  hundreds of millions of dollars, would weigh more than 1.2 million pounds with a wingspan of more than 380 feet — longer than a football field. It’s mission? To launch spaceships into the stratosphere.

Say hello to “Earth 2.0.” NASA’s planet-hunting Kepler spacecraft has discovered an alien world that might just support life as we know it. The Earth-like planet is 2.4 times the size of our own with a more-than-manageable surface temperature of 72 degrees. But don’t pack your bags just yet… 

The fate of mankind’s future in space may very well hinge on a microscopic worm that dines on its own kind. But perhaps the strangest thing about Caenorhabditis elegan (pictured above) is that it shares half of its genes with humans, making it an ideal guinea pig for deep space travel.

“Frequent travel may be required.”

Good news, space fans: NASA is hiring astronauts. The pay is good — anywhere from $64,724 to $141,715 a year. But to be considered, you’ll need to meet NASA’s “highly competitive” criteria. Only nine candidates were picked out of more than 3,500 applications in 2009. The incoming class of eight to 12 candidates will begin training in 2013, and will work on the next generation of spacecraft meant to take humans into deep space. Do you have what it takes? Here, some highlights from the job application