How close are we to boldly going where no man has gone before? Every day, it seems closer and closer. But there was a time when some folks wanted to speed up the process by actually building an ion-powered version of a Constitution-Class Enterprise from the science fiction series Star Trek.

In 2013, engineers started an online White House petition to start a feasibility study to build one of these bad boys. And we have to say, we were totally on board for this type of advancement. Let’s boldly go, people.

The original petition was put through the White House’s official petition portal and needed 25,000 signatures to actively be considered. This was a big time for these kinds of petitions seeing as how another group put in one to get the Death Star from Star Wars up and off the ground too. President Barack Obama’s administration didn’t seem to be into either.

The official Star Trek Starship Enterprise petition can be read below.

We have within our technological reach the ability to build the 1st generation of the USS Enterprise. It ends up that this ship’s inspiring form is quite functional. This will be Earth’s first gigawatt-class interplanetary spaceship with artificial gravity. The ship can serve as a spaceship, space station, and space port all in one.

In total, one thousand crew members & visitors can be on board at once. Few things could collectively inspire people on Earth more than seeing the Enterprise being built in space. And the ship could go on amazing missions, like taking the first humans to Mars while taking along a large load of base-building equipment for constructing the first permanent base there.

An engineer originally put through the Star Trek Starship Enterprise petition through the now-defunct BuildTheEnterprise.org. He believed it is possible to build a full-scale Starship Enterprise with current technology within 20 years of the start of the project. The anonymous engineer hoped to gain the attention of other engineers and scientists to move the concept forward.

If he planned to build an actual Constitution-Class Starship, then BTE believed its construction would all take place in outer space and have a rotating gravity section inside. At the time, the website featured extensive and detailed conceptual designs, Starship specifications, and a funding schedule. Below is a video highlighting what the Starship will look like and how it would move.

While the Death Star petition reached the necessary vote count (32,000 in all) and had to be officially considered (Cliff’s Notes: they didn’t really consider it), the Star Trek Enterprise petition didn’t. That’s a real shame.

While years ago it seemed tongue-in-cheek to suggest building the Star Trek Enterprise as a practical solution to space travel, we are quickly speeding toward the future with some of our technology.

Planned missions to Mars, continued privatized space exploration, and the rise in artificial intelligence systems, means that at least some of the necessary components are coming online here.

Boldly going where no one has gone before? It’s still a long way off. But a new White House Star Trek Enterprise petition might have just a few more legs these days than it did back then.