So just how big is a starbase?
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I'd dispute both claims. The 300 figure from "Captive Pursuit" would depict the station back at a time when the departure of the Cardassians was a recent thing and there was little business flowing to and from Bajor or the Gamma Quadrant. The figure could have jumped up to several thousands pretty soon thereafter, as the station did become an important commerce hub (or at least a "last call saloon" of sorts).
OTOH, the 7000 figure from "Sanctuary" is rather vague. This is what Odo says there:
Odo could be saying that the station at that time holds 7,000 people, or that the station can hold 7,000 people total, or that the station can hold the current personnel plus 7,000. And Odo might not know much about the true technical details of using the orbiting industrial plant / intimidation center for accommodating people. Volume-wise, the station ought to be good for holding a hundred thousand in comfort - it's easily ten times as big as the E-D which holds a thousand in luxury. But we have little idea about how much of the interior space is really habitable, or modifiable to habitation.
Since it's a recurring theme through the seasons that the station can be rapidly evacuated, or at least an evacuation convincingly faked, I guess we could estimate the populance on basis of transfer capacity: 300 people could be shipped out with one vessel, 7,000 might require a dozen small ones or one or two larger transports, and half a million people would necessitate a massive operation (even if most of them just shuttled down to Bajor in a constant stream of small craft).
Oddly, in "The Circle", evacuation was supposed to involve Starfleet runabouts, even for civilians like Quark. Those have very limited capability: the known maximum from "The Homecoming" is about sixty IIRC, but the station couldn't hold more than five or perhaps ten of the craft (and usually only three are featured) and there'd be little or no time for round trips. OTOH, involving even a single good-sized starliner would change the equation considerably.
Timo Saloniemi
Rarewolf said:
I think it depends on how big the space station itself is. While DS9 was huge, its overall diameter wasn't much larger than a Romulan warbird, so moving it was more an issue of "did they have the means to move it very far, very fast?" than whether they could move it at all, IMO.
But I think the problem with moving a bigger space station is how much time before the situation becomes critical. If time is of the essence, it may be more prudent to simply abandon a very large station via shuttlecraft, escape pods, and any available starships at the station or nearby.
You can dispute them if you want, but those were the figures given onscreen.
You're thinking of Second Skin, when the Obsidian Order operative asks Kira how many Starfleet personnel are stationed on DS9. She says...
...but that was just an exaggeration to mess with the guy.
I'd say DS9's total capacity is 7,000 people, but that the station rarely, if ever, actually had that many inhabitants.
I don't know that much about FASA but becuase TOS Trek had Ensigns and Enlisted with no rank identification then wouldn't the Ensign figures include Enlisted personnel as well?
On the Spacedock population and internal volume I found a sereis of sheets from the LCARS Blueprints database titled Starbase 79 which gives a good indication of what the inside of Mushroom Starbase would be like.
Well, when they did the write-up for Regula I, the officers plus ensigns came to something less than the listed crew, whereas for K-7 and Spacedock, the officers plus ensigns equalled the crew.
When they did ships, they just gave a total crew with no breakdown of officers or ensigns.
Make of that what you will.
One would think that something several miles tall and wide would be an extrodinary object anywhere in the galaxy. What seems strange is why would you need an enclosed space for dockage of ships meant to operate exclusively in space?
It's almost as if they are trying to sell the idea that the saucer section filled up with a pressure envelope to alow people to work in a shirtsleave environment. That would require massivetankage space under great pressure to cycle an atmosphere in and out.
What I would like to know is what a starbase and/or a space.dock would be like in the time of Star Trek Enterprise. The scale of sector size would be an important factor in gauging the size of space with regard to need for docking and repair facilities in the time of warp five starships. Which in the span of less then five years jumps to warp seven. That's roughly a threefold increase in warp speed, and distance traveled. The need for dockage and repair facilities, as well fuel, supplies, spares, etc...Even so. I would still like someone to show me what a spacedock, starbase would look like in 2165 AD.
It's almost as if they are trying to sell the idea that the saucer section filled up with a pressure envelope to alow people to work in a shirtsleave environment. That would require massivetankage space under great pressure to cycle an atmosphere in and out.
What I would like to know is what a starbase and/or a space.dock would be like in the time of Star Trek Enterprise. The scale of sector size would be an important factor in gauging the size of space with regard to need for docking and repair facilities in the time of warp five starships. Which in the span of less then five years jumps to warp seven. That's roughly a threefold increase in warp speed, and distance traveled. The need for dockage and repair facilities, as well fuel, supplies, spares, etc...Even so. I would still like someone to show me what a spacedock, starbase would look like in 2165 AD.
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