A question about the area surrounding DS9
- Thread starter Infern0
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Plecostomus
Commodore
Indeed. And there is almost never anything in Earth Orbit when we see Earth either! 
I suppose we could chalk it up to the limitations of the studio, not having enough money to show such things, DS9 was a physical model not a CGI if I remember... Of course now if they Remaster the show they *could* insert things of that nature.
I'd like to see some outlying traffic-control structures myself.
I suppose we could chalk it up to the limitations of the studio, not having enough money to show such things, DS9 was a physical model not a CGI if I remember... Of course now if they Remaster the show they *could* insert things of that nature.
I'd like to see some outlying traffic-control structures myself.
Maybe the Cardasians took it all with them when they pulled out. Then again, maybe the station itself was designed to be fully self sufficient.
In orbit of Bajor I can imagine there'd be more, but the station was out in space, and with all of its self-contained systems I don't imagine it would have needed much extra placed out there and held in place by whatever means. There may also have been concerns about putting "stuff" near the wormhole opening: turbulence, signals interference, crowding the flight path to and from the wormhole, I dunno.
All makes sense - they wouldn't want to leave the Bajorans or Feddies anything more than they had to.
Also the station was moved from its orignal position so such original structures would be gone. However as InfernO mentions for its new found importance there ought to have been some new Federation tech around. Maybe there was but we never got to see it onscreen. But weird later on with DW brewing - they make modifications to the station but don't have other defence systems in the surrounding area.
^ "Homefront" confirms that existence of surface based defensive installations. In the conversation during the power outage between Sisko, Leyton, Odo and the President they refer to Earth as "defenceless" and "doesn't stand a chance" if it were to be attacked by the Dominion at that point.
Obviously from what we know the planet is still defended despite the power loss; the USS Lakota is in orbit, there's spacedock and the Mars Defence Perimeter, which would be unaffected by the power problems on Earth. That suggests that the bulk of the planet's defences are surface based or at least the most critical components of Earth's defence are on the surface.
Obviously from what we know the planet is still defended despite the power loss; the USS Lakota is in orbit, there's spacedock and the Mars Defence Perimeter, which would be unaffected by the power problems on Earth. That suggests that the bulk of the planet's defences are surface based or at least the most critical components of Earth's defence are on the surface.
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Indeed, about the only time I recall seeing multiple defense platforms in orbit of a planet was in "What you leave Behind" the defense system around Cardissia was pretty impressive, to say the least. If Odo had not convinsed the Female Changling to stand down, the casulties would have been massive on both sides...
Uh, I'd argue that a "Mars Defense Perimeter" would protect Mars...
A single structure at low orbit couldn't protect much - its firing angles would be severely limited.
As already said, several movies and DS9 episodes make reference to defenses of Earth. Whether any of these are Earth-based, in the sense of being down on the surface... Now that we don't know yet.
Any orbital fortresses would simply be far too small to be visible in the shots. Suppose there were a million stations there the size of DS9: none would be visible in a random shot at medimum orbital height, as they would be dozens of kilometers apart and dark in color! I'm sure that whatever fortresses defend Earth are a bit smaller than that, and a bit less numerous...
As for the lone nature of DS9/Terok Nor, one has to think why the Cardassians built that station in the first place. It was an ore processing facility, that much we know. Why would such a facility be in orbit, rather than next to the planetside mines?!? A good reason would be that Cardassians feared sabotage. So they'd build something that was out of reach, and was well defended. A singular fort would be much better at that than a spread-out fort-plus-camp-of-followers. Especially since Cardassians used slave labor even aboard that precious station, and thus had to carefully monitor the movements of the slaves; that was possible within the confines of Terok Nor, but would have been less practical if there were numerous stations and substations floating about.
Of course, Bajor's orbit could have had a few defense forts similar to those seen around Chin'toka. But those would almost certainly have been folded up, packed away and shipped to Cardassian space when the occupation force withdrew.
Timo Saloniemi
The Mars Defense Perimeter is intended to protect the inner worlds of the Sol System according to the encyclopedia from a few years ago.
But that's a statement that has no onscreen basis.
And it makes little sense to use Mars, a single spot in the sky, to protect Earth, another spot in the sky, from an outside threat. Defenses should be concentrated close to the target to be defended - and if there are also some spread-out defenses, it still makes little sense to spread them out at the orbital distance of Mars, which is neither close enough to be economical, nor far enough to be protective against the enemy releasing a volley of torpedoes.
In the actual episode, we saw the MDP respond by sending missiles at the Borg Cube right next to the planet. Earlier in the episode, we heard that a comparable defensive system was resisting the Borg at Jupiter, and we saw the Cube buzz Saturn as well. Each of those planets could have had the same sort of defenses as Chin'toka had: orbital and surface phaser and torpedo platforms, plus a few bonus missiles for longer range interception, reinforced when necessary by various ships and craft.
Timo Saloniemi
And it makes little sense to use Mars, a single spot in the sky, to protect Earth, another spot in the sky, from an outside threat. Defenses should be concentrated close to the target to be defended - and if there are also some spread-out defenses, it still makes little sense to spread them out at the orbital distance of Mars, which is neither close enough to be economical, nor far enough to be protective against the enemy releasing a volley of torpedoes.
In the actual episode, we saw the MDP respond by sending missiles at the Borg Cube right next to the planet. Earlier in the episode, we heard that a comparable defensive system was resisting the Borg at Jupiter, and we saw the Cube buzz Saturn as well. Each of those planets could have had the same sort of defenses as Chin'toka had: orbital and surface phaser and torpedo platforms, plus a few bonus missiles for longer range interception, reinforced when necessary by various ships and craft.
Timo Saloniemi
^ Nor do most things from the Tech Manuals, Star Trek Magazines, etc but a lot of people do quote things from them.
We do know that there were drydocks nearby capable of supporting Romulan Warbirds. O'Brien mentions in Inter Arma that they can move a Romulan warbird into a drydock, but that would mean General Martok's ship wouldn't be repaired.
We do know that there were drydocks nearby capable of supporting Romulan Warbirds. O'Brien mentions in Inter Arma that they can move a Romulan warbird into a drydock, but that would mean General Martok's ship wouldn't be repaired.
It seems fine to have our cake and eat it too by thinking that the Sol system defenses are layered; the Mars Defense Perimeter is supposed to protect Mars, sure, but also I can easily imagine it is tasked with stopping stuff from getting any deeper into the solar system.
Now, I'm perfectly aware you can approach Earth without going particularly near Mars the vast majority of the time, but hey, the Borg decided to slow to impulse and kind of LOOM over the system and see the sights on their way in, and I guess we can rationalize this with some whatnot about where exactly you ought to stop using warp drive as you get closer to a star.
Now, I'm perfectly aware you can approach Earth without going particularly near Mars the vast majority of the time, but hey, the Borg decided to slow to impulse and kind of LOOM over the system and see the sights on their way in, and I guess we can rationalize this with some whatnot about where exactly you ought to stop using warp drive as you get closer to a star.
No we don't. Inter Arma Enim Silent Leges doesn't say drydocks, just that the chief can bring them in to dock at the expense of the Rotarran and Hornet, which could just mean docking them to the station and not to another facility.
^ It was said that the ship that was meant to be repaired was a warbird. The warbird would have to dock at one of the upper or lower pylons. The only repair structures that we've seen attached to the station were at the ring based docking stations (Shattered Mirror) - and they weren't that large. It makes more sense for it to be an external drydock facility for repairs.
I guess so. But neither the Borg nor the E-D seemed to have to slow down at Mars: the Borg dropped out of warp somewhere outside Saturn, and then went to visit each planet at close range - probably so that they could destroy the defenses at each planet and thus avoid any backstabbing from them when the assimilation or destruction or other manipulation of Earth began. It doesn't sound likely, then, that an enemy less superior, and less interested in a pedantic mop-up, would have to stop at any of these locations, least of all Mars.
The exact quote is this, at least insofar as TrekCore has it right:
So for one thing, the Romulan ships are assuredly warbirds (but perhaps not necessarily the big D'eridex ones). For another, O'Brien is in charge of the schedules, so the repairs might be assumed to take place on or near DS9 rather than in other installations elsewhere in the Bajoran system, let alone farther out. And finally, the ships are to be brought to "a docking bay" (one each, or two in one bay?), while the station itself doesn't have any volumes big enough to hold even one BoP, let alone a capital ship.
Of course, we also have to remember that we have never seen more than two ships docked to the station at a time even in the busiest action shots, and usually there are none - including this very episode!
So the existence of nearby repair facilities sounds possible, even probable. Although "nearby" could still mean Bajor's orbit or moons, since it's not as if Starfleet would have any higher representatives in the system besides our DS9 heroes... O'Brien could still be the Big Boss of systemwide operations.
Timo Saloniemi
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