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Umm, Enercon anyone? This is hardly new technology. I realise that some in the States may not have heard of them. Funny story: so the NSA spied on Enercon in the early 90's, then gave the stolen data to Kenetech Windpower Inc., who then patented the technology in the US (but nowhere else in the world, because everyone else honoured the original Enercon patent), preventing Enercon from selling turbines in the States until 2010. But rumour has it that even after that date, Enercon is still basically going to flip the bird at the US and still refuse to sell turbines there because the owner(yes, it's a private company) is holding a pretty big grudge against the Americans. Justifiably, it could be argued, but hey, that would be editorialising... They can afford snub the USA since there's a multi-year waiting list for wind turbines everywhere in the world, especially for the Enercon ones. Oh, and Kennetech? They filed for bankruptcy in 1996, even though they had the stolen technology that helped Enercon become the third largest manufacturer in the world. I think that deserves a slow-clap... Anyway, all that is to say that Enercon makes some wicked gearless turbines, and what makes them so sophisticated is that they use electromagnets instead of permanent magnets, meaning that they can throttle their turbines virtually instantaneously by just modifying the excitation of those coils. And unlike others, they don't need several tonnes of rare earth metals from China for every generator. If you want to see Enercon turbines, the closest place for most of y'all is probably Canada, where there's a whole mess of 'em installed in southern Ontario. They're the ones with the tear-drop nacelle.

I'm thinking of something along the lines of "Battlemodule Galactica". After all, they named one of the shuttles Enterprise. Of course, calling something a battlemodule may be a bit aggressive for NASA's liking, but they need something to hold against the bad-ass shotgun that the Russians carry on Soyuz. Especially since the NASA pride is going to take a hit from having to beg rides for the next five years...