(While waiting new material from the production team we dip into an enjoyable but alas non-"Enterprise" subject. If this holds no interest for you best skip the column until "Rogue Planet" airs March 20.)

Ever thought about how to build a starship? God may not need one but any human plans to get off this rock surely do (nice rock such as it is). Star Trek populates our extraterrestrial imagination full of ships zinging back and forth yet rarely do we ask from where they all come. "Enterprise" gets credit for even mentioning the construction of successor NX-class vessels.

We've seen spacedocks for sure but that introduces even more questions (starting with, Who builds the dock?) What is needed is a construction method better understood in terms of human resources and less in those of technology (physically viable of course!). It should be readily expandable, subject to evolutionary improvement, and limited in growth effectively only by a lack of necessary material resources. Tall order.

Good thing somebody's already thought about this. In the middle of the last century the theorist and all-around genius John von Neumann suggested self-replicating probes as the best way to explore space. His mathematical (hence archetypal) design of self-replicating systems is a triumph of human ingenuity.

Project Von Neumann (PVN) molds these mathematics into a highly recognizable form (at least for now, simulated in a computer). PVN changes the conditions of the test a bit in that it considers crew and ship together as a self-replicating system, but after all the system is what's leaving the rock. (No need to get graphic on how a crew self-replicates!)

The initial goal of PVN is not to build a Constitution Class starship but instead to build a "SeedShuttle" which "grows" into that ship. A SeedShuttle may not be the best way to assemble a Connie but it has certain advantages. It can be deployed anywhere a mother-ship can carry it. Construction begins immediately compared with the conventional build-the-factory first, build-the-product next approach.

Under optimum conditions the concept requires an estimated minimum of twenty operators and two weeks to complete. The growth of a fleet is limited only by construction resources and crew size - given enough of each, production can proceed indefinitely.

The spectrum of technologies used in PVN ranges from yesterday (thruster packs) to today (eutactic manufacturing). Tomorrow's tech (warp engines and transporters) are "installed" rather than "built" and thus no "magic" enters into the construction.

Next week we'll examine the initial launch details. From here to everywhere!