NaNoWriMo

Over the past few years, I've wanted to participate in the NaNoWriMo. I've gotten damn close to finishing this monolithic artistic task in the past, but alas, I've fizzled out before I finished.
I think since this year I'm not looking for a new job or flying to a new country/traveling during November.
This might be the year I finally do this.
What do I do?
50,000 words plus change in 30 days, at 1,667appx words per day.
But.. I can't start until November 1st.
I've had an idea for a story that I've been wanting to type out since two years ago, in '09 and I've sorted out the "story-world", the characters, places, and so on. There's been flash writing moments since then where I've tried to piece together a chapter here and a chapter there of the story. Too bad I can't use any of those chapters for this, as only writing from the 1st until the 30th counts for the NaNoWriMo. I can, however, make an outline and map out the story in advance if I so choose to do so.
Light background of the story?
The chapters in the book will revolve around the voyages of a space ship and its' crew, as takes place in the fictitious "Phoenix Solar System." I have no running title, maybe one will come to me as I get closer to completion...
There are three major powers in the Phoenix system; the Paradisian Union, the Solar Federation, and the Exodusian Kingdom.
All of the eight planets and fourteen inhabited moons in the system are affiliated in some way with one or two of the major powers in the system.
The captain and first mate are cousins who were orphaned but later fighters in a system-wide war between the superpowers known as "the Great War."  Their vessel, the Furritus, is a long range cargo vessel / passenger ferry which the two acquired by cheating in a high-stakes game from its' previous owners; a crew of smugglers and pirates...
The Furritus travels from planet to planet trying to eke out a living, carrying cargoes and passengers around the system. Though highly illegal without a salvage license, sometimes the vessel will salvage derelict spacecraft. Also, the laws and trade rules differ from planet to planet and even station to station, which turns into a profitable affair for smuggling forbidden and otherwise taboo items here and there. Most of the time however, the cargo is legit. As long as they agree to stay out of the way of the crew and not sabotage the ship, passengers or 'fares' are sometimes taken between ports the vessel is heading to.

The idea that I'm running with right now is that the first half of this body of work will be strictly about character development and how main characters came to become part of the crew. The latter half will be chapters/episodes using the established characters.

What's worked whenever I've felt compelled to write before has been to type the story and have each chapter in its' own word file rather than everything in one block of text. It somehow makes organizing the story easier for me when I do that.

A major influence/inspiration for this story for the first time I attempted the behemoth NaNoWriMo came after watching all of the long cancelled TV show, Firefly. Although, there are tons of sci-fi tales about life among the stars and planets. I've been a fan of Darkstar One as well. I'd like to write more than just a tale of space pirates, but damn if that's not fun to write.

Any more writing and I think this would qualify for chapter one...