We don't know what percentage of the deep space stations are outside Federation space in neutral territory or inside Federation space and close to the border.
What's the difference between a starbase and a "deep space" station?
- Thread starter t_smitts
- Start date
Or starbases, or whether it matters.
So far, the score is 50-50, DS9 being outside and DSK-7 presumably inside. A border location alone doesn't a deep space station make, though, since we get plenty of border starbases and the difference in terminology needs an explanation of some sort.
Perhaps "deep space station" is those space stations left over when floating installations are categorized and starbase criteria are not met? Starbases typically service starships, even when not all of them are seen doing so. Perhaps DS9 at best hosted and headquartered starships - yet O'Brien supposedly did some sort of maintenance for them. Perhaps a starbase needs firepower - but DS9 had plenty, and OTOH it seems SB47 was (or merely featured among its many assets?) a dinky comms relay platform. We might nevertheless invent a further metric to make DS stations the dropouts from SB category, relatively few of them getting a failing grade.
Timo Saloniemi
So far, the score is 50-50, DS9 being outside and DSK-7 presumably inside. A border location alone doesn't a deep space station make, though, since we get plenty of border starbases and the difference in terminology needs an explanation of some sort.
Perhaps "deep space station" is those space stations left over when floating installations are categorized and starbase criteria are not met? Starbases typically service starships, even when not all of them are seen doing so. Perhaps DS9 at best hosted and headquartered starships - yet O'Brien supposedly did some sort of maintenance for them. Perhaps a starbase needs firepower - but DS9 had plenty, and OTOH it seems SB47 was (or merely featured among its many assets?) a dinky comms relay platform. We might nevertheless invent a further metric to make DS stations the dropouts from SB category, relatively few of them getting a failing grade.
Timo Saloniemi
It may be that in common usage, “orbital station” refers to a space station within an atmosphere, but “orbital” has nothing against “deep space.” For example, the moon orbits the Earth. The Earth and moon orbit the sun. The Earth, moon, and sun orbit Sagittarius A*. These orbital bodies orbit other orbital bodies well outside of any known atmospheres. So, an orbital station does not technically refer to a space station within an atmosphere and could just as well refer to a deep space station that orbits a planet outside of the extent of its atmosphere.
I like to think of the history of the starbase like this,
I think that most of us have forgotten what a Federation starship was. It was a vehicle designed to transport people from one place to another place through space.
A primary motivation to go from one place to another place through space was to explore strange new worlds, to seek out new life and new civilizations, especially other warp capable peoples.
Normal people did not want to stay on a starship. They wanted the starship to take them to their destination and then they wanted to get off the starship and visit new places and people.
That is where starbases came in. They were the best destinations. Like ports or airports, starbases were gateways to the civilizations of entire planets and even solar systems. Even explorers could get tired of their work and hope to enjoy shoreleave through visiting a good starbase. Every warp capable civilization would see the advantages of constructing a number of starbases on their planets to host visitors. Along with the starbases, many would also construct a number of facilities such as nearby space stations in orbit to better serve visitors from space and their deep space vehicles that might stay in orbit. Even so, their best services were available to the people on the planet in the form of people to see.
So, who would conceive of the idea of building a starbase in the middle of space, like a gas station in the middle of a desert? At best, such facilities could offer only limited services and virtually nothing of interest to the people who might pass through out of refueling necessity.
While the technical terms, “orbital,” “space station,” “deep space,” “starbase,” are distinctly clear (to me), the common usage of these and similar terms is open to interpretation and has more to do with the people that use them than the facility itself.
For sure, they did, at the start. And, most still depend on the supply chain rooted in planetary resources.
The first starbases were planet-based facilities that enabled construction, maintenance, recruitment, and launch and recovery to space. Naturally, such facilities would come to include nearby space stations and other facilities. Starbases were gateways that bridged the unknown to the known, and a fundamental aspect of the supply chain.
The supply chain would come to include a great many space stations in deep space to support a three-dimensional network.
Over time, some of these deep space stations evidently grew in economic and strategic importance and became permanent homes to populations that grew along with the wealth of the supply chain. Some eventually even became so popular so as to become destinations in themselves. These deep space starbases, while not as great as most capital planets, offered residents and visitors much potential and unique opportunities.
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