Local Star Powers

[Kamen Rider Blade]

Perhaps there is a UN-like structure in place, but the Federation is not enough of a serious galactic power yet to be invited to that table. (A major pet peeve of mine is how Trek often underrepresents the scale of the galaxy and the sheer amount of exploration to be done.)

That's one of those aspects I want to fix, the scale of the UFP's territory sounds big, but it's about as big to the relative Milky Way Galaxy as a single city block in Singapore is to the the scale of the rest of Earth.

It's really a drop in the bucket.

Also, finding a UN-like structure that far apart is pretty hard when communication distances / styles are so vast and different.

It's hard enough to communicate over the existing distances that we have on Earth, imagine how much harder it is when communications have to travel over MUCH further distances along people who might not have many things in common linguistically.

One of those things I really appreciate about DISCO's recent last season finale was how alien / difficult it should be to communicate with some new species you met who you have no common background.

 

[Arpy]

That's one of those aspects I want to fix, the scale of the UFP's territory sounds big, but it's about as big to the relative Milky Way Galaxy as a single city block in Singapore is to the the scale of the rest of Earth.

It's really a drop in the bucket.

Also, finding a UN-like structure that far apart is pretty hard when communication distances / styles are so vast and different.

It's hard enough to communicate over the existing distances that we have on Earth, imagine how much harder it is when communications have to travel over MUCH further distances along people who might not have many things in common linguistically.

One of those things I really appreciate about DISCO's recent last season finale was how alien / difficult it should be to communicate with some new species you met who you have no common background.

I rather like the idea of there being levels of connectivity that even the Federaion have no concept of. The Travelers, Metrons, Organians, Douwd, Q and many others...Preservers, Iconians, countless energy beings...that they have abilities to communicate and coexist with one another using methods and on planes of understanding that we simply cannot yet fathom. There are 100-400 Billion stars in the galaxy, with maybe 50 Billion to Trillions of planets in it, not to mention all the moons and asteroids and nebulas and all sorts of other phenomena that we know and don't know about, that could all host one form of life or another, most very different from us. And all this over the 13.8 Billion years or whatever we think it is now or will one day learn is the great age of the Universe. Plus all the other universes out there in the multiverse, plus all the as yet unknown unknowns. There are beings, civilizations billions of years older than us that have been evolving some of whom are part of their own "federations" of many mindbogglingly diverse godlike beings. It should give us pause and wonder and terror and hope and glee.

 

[Kamen Rider Blade]

I rather like the idea of there being levels of connectivity that even the Federaion have no concept of. The Travelers, Metrons, Organians, Douwd, Q and many others...Preservers, Iconians, countless energy beings...that they have abilities to communicate and coexist with one another using methods and on planes of understanding that we simply cannot yet fathom. There are 100-400 Billion stars in the galaxy, with maybe 50 Billion to Trillions of planets in it, not to mention all the moons and asteroids and nebulas and all sorts of other phenomena that we know and don't know about, that could all host one form of life or another, most very different from us. And all this over the 13.8 Billion years or whatever we think it is now or will one day learn is the great age of the Universe. Plus all the other universes out there in the multiverse, plus all the as yet unknown unknowns. There are beings, civilizations billions of years older than us that have been evolving some of whom are part of their own "federations" of many mindbogglingly diverse godlike beings. It should give us pause and wonder and terror and hope and glee.

You NAILed it. There's been too much of a un-warranted feeling that the UFP has explored most of the Milky Way Galaxy, even by the 32nd century, which should be absurd given how large it really is.

The Milky Way Galaxy is VAST, far greater than what is being shown, and we need to make sure people understand that.

 

[Citiprime]

One thing that's never been expanded on in canon (although I believe it has been in the novels) is who built the barriers at the center of the galaxy and around the galaxy, and what are their purposes?

If I remember correctly, the novels involve the Q and imagines that the higher power species created the barrier around the Milky Way Galaxy to protect it from beings like the one that was pretending to be "God" which they imprisoned at the center of the galaxy with a similar barrier.

 

[Kamen Rider Blade]

One thing that's never been expanded on in canon (although I believe it has been in the novels) is who built the barriers at the center of the galaxy and around the galaxy, and what are their purposes?

If I remember correctly, the novels involve the Q and imagines that the higher power species created the barrier around the Milky Way Galaxy to protect it from beings like the one that was pretending to be "God" which they imprisoned at the center of the galaxy with a similar barrier.

What if it was a "Natural Phenomenon"!?!?!

Astronomers discover enormous 'barrier' separating the center of the Milky Way from the cosmic ray sea
This could be equivalent to "The Great Barrier"

The Galactic Barrier may be a refernce to what we call the Galactic Halo

 

[Orphalesion]

If I remember correctly, the novels involve the Q and imagines that the higher power species created the barrier around the Milky Way Galaxy to protect it from beings like the one that was pretending to be "God" which they imprisoned at the center of the galaxy with a similar barrier.

Why do the novels always have to be so complicated? Also I really don't like when storylines or situations boil down to "Q snapped his fingers lol"
I like @KamenRiderBlade 's idea of it being a natural phenomenon much better, it's what I always assumed.

 

[at Quark's]

I rather like the idea of there being levels of connectivity that even the Federaion have no concept of. The Travelers, Metrons, Organians, Douwd, Q and many others...Preservers, Iconians, countless energy beings...that they have abilities to communicate and coexist with one another using methods and on planes of understanding that we simply cannot yet fathom. There are 100-400 Billion stars in the galaxy, with maybe 50 Billion to Trillions of planets in it, not to mention all the moons and asteroids and nebulas and all sorts of other phenomena that we know and don't know about, that could all host one form of life or another, most very different from us. And all this over the 13.8 Billion years or whatever we think it is now or will one day learn is the great age of the Universe. Plus all the other universes out there in the multiverse, plus all the as yet unknown unknowns. There are beings, civilizations billions of years older than us that have been evolving some of whom are part of their own "federations" of many mindbogglingly diverse godlike beings. It should give us pause and wonder and terror and hope and glee.

Yup. Humans are probably still quite primitive from a galactic perspective. They only discovered warp 3 centuries ago. Barring technology plateaus / barriers,the road to Q-levels of power and knowledge still might involve millions of years, and there may be many levels in between. There may be not just one, but many classes beyond, each completely indetectable (if they choose to) to those (far enough) below them, much like the Federation can choose to reveal or not reveal themselves to pre-warp cultures.

You NAILed it. There's been too much of a un-warranted feeling that the UFP has explored most of the Milky Way Galaxy, even by the 32nd century, which should be absurd given how large it really is.

The Milky Way Galaxy is VAST, far greater than what is being shown, and we need to make sure people understand that.

I think that's partially due to the feeling that DS9 'did' the GQ, and VOY 'did' the DQ. Even though they problably only saw an extremely small part of it.

It also has little to do with how fast their ships can go. Even if they invented an engine that could traverse the galaxy instantaneously, exploring those 200,000,000,000 or so solar systems (assuming a remote scan isn't enough) is still going to take centuries.

 

[Kamen Rider Blade]

I think that's partially due to the feeling that DS9 'did' the GQ, and VOY 'did' the DQ. Even though they problably only saw an extremely small part of it.

It also has little to do with how fast their ships can go. Even if they invented an engine that could traverse the galaxy instantaneously, exploring those 200,000,000,000 or so solar systems (assuming a remote scan isn't enough) is still going to take centuries.

I think you might want to update the time to explore by 2x factors of magnitude.

Assuming you do a standard full Star System survey where you scan every major object within a Star System and have a reasonably good detailed scan of the surface and the composition of the planetoid

It's going to take multiple 10,000's of years to explore every single Star System & Rogue Planetoid within the 3D MilkyWay Galaxy and explore every nook & cranny inside and have it mapped out along with placing persistent Satellites to monitor every thing in each Star System and feed back data to StarFleet's central Stellar Cartography area.

That's even with the Spore Drive making trips significantly shorter on the return trip.

 

[at Quark's]

^The answer to that would very much depend upon the future capacity of the Federation (if, in a future century, many new species have joined, and they have a thousand starships for every starship in the 24th century, the process might go a thousandfold faster, too), and it would depend in a lesser extent on the development of future technology developments, making the survey process potentially faster.

(That's assuming that the DIS 32nd century future isn't the future of the Federation, but just one of the possible alternate timelines.)

Anyway, my intent was not to provide a reasonable estimate, but just to give lower bound very unlikely to be broken, given the size of the galaxy.

We also have to take into account in-universe statements. According to Kosinksy in Where no one has gone before , so in the very beginning of the TNG era, 'in three centuries of spaceflight, we've charted just 11% of the galaxy', and by the time of The Dauphin (mis-season 2, so slightly over a year later), 19% of the galaxy has been charted. So, apparently, assuming both statements are correct, a tremendous acceleration in the 'charting' process took place during that time interval.

'Charting' though may refer to just making basic star maps (e.g. by remote imaging), rather than to exploring each and every system in that area of space. The amount of galaxy explored may still be less than 1%.

 

[Kamen Rider Blade]

We also have to take into account in-universe statements. According to Kosinksy in Where no one has gone before , so in the very beginning of the TNG era, 'in three centuries of spaceflight, we've charted just 11% of the galaxy', and by the time of The Dauphin (mis-season 2, so slightly over a year later), 19% of the galaxy has been charted. So, apparently, assuming both statements are correct, a tremendous acceleration in the 'charting' process took place during that time interval.

'Charting' though may refer to just making basic star maps (e.g. by remote imaging), rather than to exploring each and every system in that area of space. The amount of galaxy explored may still be less than 1%.

I concur, 'Charting' just seems to be identifying all the various Astronomical Bodies actual relative location with SuperLuminal Sensors and not depending on outdated information via STL Photons naturally transmitted in space, but even knowing relative locations of where everything is in space will be incredibly helpful.

Especially since there might be Trillions of Rogue Planets floating around in space, not attached to any particular Star System.
If you don't map or track the Galactic orbit of these Trillions of Rogue Planets, they might be a navigational hazard for many FTL species. They also might make great hiding places for species/factions/groups that don't want to be easily found.

Imagine a Rogue Planet that has a active planetary cloaking field/camoflage (NOTE: In TNG, we've seen planetary cloaking shields before). That would be one hell of a navigational hazard.

Actual exploration is probably < 1% given the vastness of space since you would need to get up close and get very detailed informations on all major Planetoids within a StarSystem and observe their orbital patterns and what is considered "Natural Behavior" for the Orbital Mechanics in each Star System would take a reasonable amount of time and alot of placements of Satellites / Sensors and remote monitoring of data. That's just a time consuming task with a ever growing need for staff to help sift through all the Remote Sensor data.