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DS9 capacity

Stag

Rear Admiral
Rear Admiral
Did they ever mention in series or in any of the background information how many inhabitants that DS9 could accommodate?
 
In "Sanctuary" Odo says the station is capable of holding 7000 people.
 
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It always seemed odd to me in The Siege that when Sisko is addressing the Starfleet officers he makes it seem like that's all the officers on the station. There are seriously like 12-18 - which is not nearly enough.
 
It always seemed odd to me in The Siege that when Sisko is addressing the Starfleet officers he makes it seem like that's all the officers on the station. There are seriously like 12-18 - which is not nearly enough.

You do realise dont you that whilst he was making that speech the station was being evacuated right? it was only his senior staff who stayed on the station to fight the Bajorans.
 
It always seemed odd to me in The Siege that when Sisko is addressing the Starfleet officers he makes it seem like that's all the officers on the station. There are seriously like 12-18 - which is not nearly enough.

You do realise dont you that whilst he was making that speech the station was being evacuated right? it was only his senior staff who stayed on the station to fight the Bajorans.

Yeah, I know the station is being evacuated, but Sisko makes it sounds like that is going to take a loooong time to do. The whole point was that the station wasn't actually being evacuated. And if those are only his senior staff then why do we never see/hear from any of them again?
 
I always thought it was about 40,000. I could have sworn I heard that number somewhere on the show.
 
It seems odd that DS9 would have a capacity of only 7,000. It's larger than the Enterprise-D, which had a stated evacuation limit of 15,000. There would have to be a great deal of oddly used space on the station for it to be able to hold only so few.
 
It seems odd that DS9 would have a capacity of only 7,000. It's larger than the Enterprise-D, which had a stated evacuation limit of 15,000. There would have to be a great deal of oddly used space on the station for it to be able to hold only so few.

Yes, the Galaxy class has an evacuation limit of 15,000 but for normal operations, it only has a crew of 1,200.

For all we know (which we don't), DS9 can hold up to 90,000 at full capacity.
 
DS9 doesn't have quite the volume that it appears to have. There's a lot of empty space between the rings and pylons. Also, much of the space on the station is dedicated to mining operations and not habitable.
 
It seems odd that DS9 would have a capacity of only 7,000. It's larger than the Enterprise-D, which had a stated evacuation limit of 15,000. There would have to be a great deal of oddly used space on the station for it to be able to hold only so few.

Yes, the Galaxy class has an evacuation limit of 15,000 but for normal operations, it only has a crew of 1,200.

For all we know (which we don't), DS9 can hold up to 90,000 at full capacity.

I'd sooner chalk up the 90 000 number to the mushroom star-bases than DS9 (which is severely smaller in size ... not to mention volume).
And a galaxy class ship ... if it's max. evacuation limit is 15 000, then it's quite possible we could say that DS9 could hold double the amount ... maybe triple (but I think that's pushing it a bit).
 
DS9 doesn't have quite the volume that it appears to have. There's a lot of empty space between the rings and pylons. Also, much of the space on the station is dedicated to mining operations and not habitable.

I was thinking the same thing. It's quite possible that large parts of the station don't have environmental controls. Since the station originally orbited Bajor, the Cardies might not have felt there was need for a lot of habitable space. And who knows how much of the station's area is taken up by machinery and equipment? Given all of that, the stated capacity of 7,000 given in "Sancutary" seems plausible.

Besides, with Bajor still only a few hours away, how much capacity do they really need? It'd probably be just as easy to take people to the planet, should the need arise (although that did become a political problem in "Sanctuary").
 
I think I found the quote I was remembering. It's from season 3's Second Skin.
Entek: (interrogating Kira) What are your duties as first officer on Deep Space Nine?
Kira: I told you, the Federation runs the station. I'm not even allowed in Ops!
Entek: How many Starfleet personnel are stationed on Deep Space Nine?
Kira: Hmm, thirty, forty thousand. Don't tell them I told you.
I can't really remember the episode so I don't really know about the context of the quote. It sounds like Kira was having a little fun with Entek.
 
^ :rommie: Yeah, she was flat out lying in that scene. Remember? "Second Skin" was the episode where Kira is captured by the Cardassians and surgically altered to look like one of them. They want her to believe that she is a Cardassian spy who was supposed to infiltrate the Bajorans.
 
^ :rommie: Yeah, she was flat out lying in that scene. Remember? "Second Skin" was the episode where Kira is captured by the Cardassians and surgically altered to look like one of them. They want her to believe that she is a Cardassian spy who was supposed to infiltrate the Bajorans.
Ah yes, yes. How could I have forgotten that one. :o
 
Perhaps the figure of 7000 is referring to how many people the station can comfortably support, say there are 7000 beds. But if they really needed it the life support system could provide enough air for a far greater number of people, since that would probably be the limiting factor rather than physical space. But they'd all have to stand up....
 
In "Captive Pursuit", O'Brien tells the Tosk that the station has about 300 people aboard. That was early on in the saga, of course, but one might surmise that most of the people that came aboard later on would be civilians lured in by the commercial appeal. The Starfleet and Bajoran crew running the station might always have been as low as a couple of hundred, and the bulk of the 7,000 would consist of merchants, the families of said merchants and the operating crew, civilian and military personnel in transit, and possibly later on a garrison of troops.

A slight increase in Starfleet operating crew might have come when the station was upgunned for "Way of the Warrior". Still, the numbers would probably not exceed a thousand. I mean, the station at that point was still commanded by a recently promoted Captain. Surely a higher-ranking officer would be expected for commanding thousands upon thousands?

Timo Saloniemi
 
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