Starfleet, The Federation and civilian space exploration

[Brannigan]

The recent thread on the Roddenberry series "Starship" got me thinking: would Starfleet, and/or the Federation permit a civilian development of a spaceship for exploration a la Elon Musk's SpaceX?

Scenario: a group of Federation individuals designs their own starship and incorporates ideas into it that maybe don't adhere to Starfleet protocol (e.g a sentient computer which after STD 2 seems to be outlawed in Starfleet at least until M-5 in which its presumably outlawed again). The group then use the ship to explore space with the purpose of enhancing their own knowledge. The decision to circumvent Starfleet is due to the members disinterest in the military style of Starfleet.
Please correct me if I'm wrong but it seems that the only civilian spaceships seen in Star Trek are freighters/merchant ships or civilians with malignant intentions (Harry Mudd for example).
If the answer to the original question about Starfleet permitting civilian exploration is negative than it confirms the worst of Starfleet and the Federation: they are a quasi-military/dictatorship that stifles independence and civilian entrepreneurship. If however the answer is positive than Star Trek society is what we hope: a utopian society where everyone is free to pursue their own interests.

 

[robau]

There’s probably some sort of federation charter. In other words you need permission. I’m not sure how that would work independently anyway because the federation controls all the resources right?

 

[Prax]

The Hansens

 

[F. King Daniel]

Would they permit missionaries from using starships to spread the word of their deity to undeveloped/pre-warp worlds? Or even just to rule a primitive world with one phaser? Or to pose as a god, Stargate-style? The scope for doing catastrophic damage is immense.

 

[Brannigan]

So what would stop any freighter or other civilian from doing the same thing?
Even if the Federation/Starfleet had a permit process about civilian exploration, would they grant it for a scientific mission especially considering that that is Starfleets supposed mission?

 

[The Old Mixer]

So what would stop any freighter or other civilian from doing the same thing?

Laws.

 

[The Wormhole]

Those guys in the gray jumpsuits in TNG (like this guy) seem to be a non-Starfleet civilian space exploration organization within the Federation. So there are options for those who wish to explore space without having to join Starfleet.

 

[NCC-73515]

The Oberth-class SS Vico seemed to be a civilian ship.

 

[Timo]

...Although no doubt military surplus, as she "still" wears Starfleet pennants, as visible on the starboard side.

Civilian interstellar vessels of UFP origin are fairly common in Trek. In the sense that whenever one appears, there is nothing uncommon about that, that is - statistically, the appearances are relatively few and far in between. Carter Winston and Cyrano Jones make their TAS appearances in interstellar spacecraft of their own; the hippies on their way to Eden steal a civilian craft for their needs; rich Feds (apparently not a contradiction) have their yachts in both DSC and TNG; etc. The existence or presence of these vessels in deep space is not questioned by any of the players involved.

In turn, "Angel One" suggests that the law is firmly on the side of the civilian meddler. Our TNG heroes are prevented from interfering with the civilian castaways' interfering by the Prime Directive, which thus isn't an anti-interference law at all, but an anti-Starfleet one! (Makes sense, as Starfleeters with their phasers and photon torpedoes would be the worst meddlers, but Starfleet doesn't hold a monopoly to those...)

So, what stops civilians? Nothing, apparently. Yet something, equally apparently, or else we would have more John Gills and more regulations that allow the Kirks to stop the Gills. Yet if there are consequences of any sort for the meddler, threatening the "Angel One" folks might be prudent; that there is no such threatening taking place in the episode indicates that not just the law but also all the potential "soft" mechanisms are impotent in the face of callous meddling, and that's probably the only sort of meddling that exists.

Should our conclusion be that the government of the UFP in the 23rd century still tried to fight meddling, but in the 24th century had given up on that, having come to the realization that not only was any sort of fight hopeless, the meddlers were in fact not a big deal after all? Perhaps primitive worlds get screwed no matter what so this counts as "natural development"; perhaps free competition between meddlers minimizes the overall effect.

Or perhaps Starfleet in fact enforces utterly strict no-fly zones around primitives in the 24th century, in a way that was not yet possible in the 23rd, and the legal weapons for that reason have been scaled back, to the detriment of Angel One and to the benefit of the there-by-the-castaway-loophole meddlers.

Timo Saloniemi

 

[Finn]

There's likely a system in place.

 

[Henoch]

Laws.

And big Starships.

Captain's log, Stardate 1513.1. Our position, orbiting planet M-113. On board the Enterprise, Mister Spock temporarily in command. On the planet the ruins of an ancient and long-dead civilisation. Ship's surgeon McCoy and myself are now beaming down to the planet's surface. Our mission, routine medical examination of archaeologist Robert Crater and his wife Nancy. Routine but for the fact that Nancy Crater is that one woman in Doctor McCoy's past.

Crater and his wife are on a planet orbiting M-113, and seem to be private archaeologists. Crater repetitively tells Kirk that he is trespassing on his planet. Yet, Kirk is obligated to give routine physicals to these archaeologists. The United Earth seems to be loosely in charge and give a large degree of autonomy to the private contractors on deserted planets.

 

[Prax]

There was Kassidy Yates. She had her own ship, could work for whomever she wished, and travel where she wished

 

[Finn]

She worked for someone....

 

[Timo]

Her ship was "owned by Petarian interests", but she apparently originally worked a tramp, a vessel hauling freight on a series of ad hoc contracts, including one with Bajor. In "For the Cause", she was more like a packet, running a scheduled (and probably Bajoran-sponsored) service to Bajor's outlying assets and in fact getting caught for smuggling because the heroes questioned her schedule.

Whether any of that in any fashion involved the Federation, we don't know. Was Yates even a Federation citizen? Her ship was a generic one: a similar ship was seen in Federation hands in "The Passenger", and in its first appearance in "Heart of Glory", it could only be indentified as Talarian when Riker spotted a national symbol on its side. None of her crew were explicated as Feds. Somebody's law put her in UFP jail/therapy/whatever for her assisting the Maquis, and the local Bajoran law would have little interest in doing that. Then again, the status of the Maquis as UFP citizens was in flux, too, and those fell under Sisko's jurisdiction without known contradiction (he was even entitled to shooting 'em at sight with trilithium torps!).

Yes, in TOS, Kirk had broad powers to boss over UFP colonists and civilian workers. He also hunted down those who meddled without a license (quoting it as his official duty in "Bread of Circuses" even if not in "Patterns of Force") - but only well after the fact, demonstrating that Starfleet had no way of stopping the meddling from happening in the first place. And of course he himself meddled the worst, but apparently he did have a government license for that, and is off the scope of this debate...

Timo Saloniemi

 

[The Wormhole]

There was Kassidy Yates. She had her own ship, could work for whomever she wished, and travel where she wished

Kassidy Yates was employed by the Bajoran Ministry of Commerce and commanded a freighter. She was not involved with space exploration, and therefore has no relevance to this discussion.

 

[Tenacity]

I’m not sure how that would work independently anyway because the federation controls all the resources right?

I would hope not, Mudd's Women said that spacecraft did need licensing and it's pilot as well. but that could be through a member planet or a private business.

The scope for doing catastrophic damage is immense.

No feedom of speech in the Federation?

Kassidy Yates was employed by the Bajoran Ministry of Commerce

Kassidy had a businees contract, the ship was hers.

 

[The Wormhole]

Kassidy had a businees contract, the ship was hers.

Her contract was with the Bajoran Ministry of Commerce, and either way she still wasn't involved with space exploration. But, yeah, let's split hairs some more why don't we?

 

[F. King Daniel]

No feedom of speech in the Federation?

To pre-warp species? They call it General Order #1.

 

[Paul Weaver]

Would they permit missionaries from using starships to spread the word of their deity to undeveloped/pre-warp worlds? Or even just to rule a primitive world with one phaser? Or to pose as a god, Stargate-style? The scope for doing catastrophic damage is immense.

Immense damage would be what would happen should an anti-matter core breech occur in an atmosphere, or a ship goes to warp while aimed at a city.

 

[F. King Daniel]

Immense damage would be what would happen should an anti-matter core breech occur in an atmosphere, or a ship goes to warp while aimed at a city.

Because cultural contamination isn't a thing?