Federation/Earth probes in TOS

[Wingsley]

During "The Immunity Syndrome", the Enterprise launches probes to explore the "zone of darkness" and the alien organism from a distance. These probes revealed interesting, though simple, information about the subject they explored.

Offhand, I do not recall any other probes being mentioned in TOS, save the mutated hybrid remains of Nomad/Tan Ru. (Nomad would be a pre-Federation probe launched from Earth.)

My conjecture on the probes used near Gamma 7A was that Federation starships carry simple unmanned probes to carry out routine tasks. I envision these probes to be economically made, easy to dispose of, since space is so vast that Starfleet must have a policy governing the presumed sacrifice of probes as well as a security concern on the level of technology that could fall into alien hands.

Of course the DS9 opener "Emissary" mentions the Quadros-1 probe exploring the far side of the Galaxy in the 22nd century. Of course, superimposing this over TOS to confirm the Federation's use of probes is retconning. Still, is there any other evidence that the Federation, and presumably Federation starships, used/deployed various kinds of probes as a standard practice?

 

[Knight Templar]

"Tin Man" mentioned an unmanned probe that discovered Gomtu

 

[Wingsley]

Yes, that would be the Vega 9 Probe.

In the O.P., I was pointing out that, even without retconning from TNG and DS9, there was at least some evidence of the use of probes.

In "Friday's Child", Scotty takes the Enterprise for a wild goose chase in response to a fake distress call. No probes were mentioned, but the absence of evidence doesn't imply the evidence of absence.

Would a starship like the Enterprise carry a substantial compliment of probes while in flight for contingency purposes? They seemed to have them on-hand near Gamma 7A.

 

[Knight Templar]

Yes, that would be the Vega 9 Probe.

In the O.P., I was pointing out that, even without retconning from TNG and DS9, there was at least some evidence of the use of probes.

In "Friday's Child", Scotty takes the Enterprise for a wild goose chase in response to a fake distress call. No probes were mentioned, but the absence of evidence doesn't imply the evidence of absence.

.

"Friday's Child"? Use of a probe would make no sense. The Enterprise was responding to an alleged Klingon attack on a convoy. So the armed response of a starship was obviously what was called for. Or to provide search and rescue if they arrived too late.

"Friday's Child" would probably be about the last episode for a probe to be used.

 

[throwback]

The pilot "The Cage" showed that the Enterprise had a stock of '60s photos and diagrams of space probes in its library archives.

I think that starships would carry a large number of probes that would be specialized for a particular mission. I don't know why writers don't utilize probes more in story lines. Then again, there are things in science fiction that I expect to see and that I don't see, such as combat drones.

 

[Wingsley]

Yes, that would be the Vega 9 Probe.

In the O.P., I was pointing out that, even without retconning from TNG and DS9, there was at least some evidence of the use of probes.

In "Friday's Child", Scotty takes the Enterprise for a wild goose chase in response to a fake distress call. No probes were mentioned, but the absence of evidence doesn't imply the evidence of absence.

.

"Friday's Child"? Use of a probe would make no sense. The Enterprise was responding to an alleged Klingon attack on a convoy. So the armed response of a starship was obviously what was called for. Or to provide search and rescue if they arrived too late.

"Friday's Child" would probably be about the last episode for a probe to be used.

For a long-range probe, I would agree.

But "Friday's Child" was one of those eps where short-range warp-speed probes would've been in order. Consider that Scott ordered the ship to initiate and continue a "search pattern" for the supposedly missing S.S. Dierdre and her convoy. By deploying probes with minimal equipment in a search pattern, Enterprise could sweep a great deal more space.

 

[F. King Daniel]

If we're including later stuff squeezed into the continuity, there's the probe from Voyager's "Friendship One", launched in the late 21st century. It had UESPA markings and a blue arrowhead insignia.

Pre-Prime Directive, it included instructions on how to build a warp drive. Some poor planet ended up in intergalactic Chernobyl.

 

[Jose Tyler]

Though not explicitly stated, the equipment the Enterprise-A carried to catalog gaseous anomalies in STVI could have been delivered via probe.

There is also a reference in TMP (I think) that the Epsilon IX station was watching the Klingons fight V'Ger using sensor probes.

 

[Wingsley]

^ Yes, they were called sensor drones, IIRC. The Epsilon 9 space station was using at least one of these probes to monitor the Klingon battle with V'Ger, so they must have had the capability of shadowing Klingon starships at warp speed, as well as tapping into Klingon communications.

 

[Timo]

I'd consider long range uncrewed reconnaissance systems a completely different beast from short range uncrewed probes. The former perform autonomous studies over a wide "spectrum", basically acting as starships of great range and endurance (but with some limitations on the ability to perform combat or contact duties); the latter patch narrow holes in the "spectrum" of a starship.

I see no real advantage to a starship carrying additional starships onboard. Lesser starships would have lesser propulsion; it would be silly to launch small ones from a large one to "augment" the range of the large one. Small probes puttering in multiple directions would be less efficient than the large starship flying in a search pattern, as they would actually cover less ground.

However, a starship could plausibly launch probes across very short distances to perform studies in high-risk zones (as in "Immunity Syndrome" and "Where Silence Has Lease"), or across medium distances to perform covert studies with low-signature devices rather than the entire high-signature ship (as in some DS9 episodes and perhaps "Inner Light", our only explicit TNG use of a long range probe in a non-military situation). The ship herself could perform more extensive studies faster, but would then face risks or would alert the target of surveillance.

Consider that Scott ordered the ship to initiate and continue a "search pattern" for the supposedly missing S.S. Dierdre and her convoy. By deploying probes with minimal equipment in a search pattern, Enterprise could sweep a great deal more space.

We never saw TOS probes of the starship-carried type covering great distances or achieving high speeds, and both attributes would be needed for covering significantly large volumes of space. Moreover, covering space would do no good, as a probe would achieve nothing at the destination. I agree that "Firday's Child" is the one case where we can rest assured that no probes were used.

I doubt the Federation designs its shipboard probes with criteria of expendability primarily in mind. Rather, I think shipboard probes are small and simple because large and versatile ones could not be carried aboard, and because only simple things are needed when the versatile starship herself is also available. Versatile long range probes in turn are not carried aboard starships simply because they are huge things almost the size of a starship already; we never saw Vega 9 or Quadros 1, but we did see Friendship 1...

The Epsilon 9 space station was using at least one of these probes to monitor the Klingon battle with V'Ger, so they must have had the capability of shadowing Klingon starships at warp speed, as well as tapping into Klingon communications.

The ability to monitor communications would suffice, as long as this took place across a sufficient speed differential. I.e. the drone would not shadow the ships or the cloud, it would merely eavesdrop from a standstill position, perhaps very far away from the battle site.

The exterior visual could come from the Klingons rather than from the drone. We only see two of the three ships get destroyed by V'Ger; the third, sensibly fleeing to tell the story to the Empire, could be the one sending the exterior view that lingers after the Amar dies. (Naturally, that ship might also perish some time later, although it is never specified that all three were lost.)

Timo Saloniemi

 

[Wingsley]

IIRC, Roddenberry's novelization of TMP seemed to indicate that at least one probe was indeed flying fairly close to the Klingon attack ships.