Conservators are helping preserve the most famous model spaceship of all time

What do you do with one of the best-known models in science fiction history? How do you treat such a thing once it's suffered aging and damage?

This amazing video looks at the conservation — not restoration — project that's going on with the 11-foot model of the USS Enterprise (NCC-1701) from the original Star Trek television show. This is the filming model, the ship you saw the most on the show.

Going into space takes funding, courage and a whole lot of imagination, and the Star Trek series helped provide the world of space travel with all three in different ways. It deserves a permanent home alongside other pieces of history.

According to this video the file they have on the model is over 1,000 pages long, and they've spoken to a number of experts in models on what to do with the piece.

Udvar Hazy, the Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum's annex at Washington Dulles International Airport, is the perfect home for this model, and I can't wait to visit during my next trip to DC. If you're a fan of things that fly in general, it's a museum that can feel more like a church.

If you grew up as a science fiction fan this model is all but priceless, and it's amazing to know it's in such great hands.