Hello all!
Ric here with a look into the Sol System as depicted in Star Trek lore!
We already know a great deal about Earth, for some reason it features a lot, but what
of the other planets, colonies and starbases within the system?
It is after all the capital of the United Federation of Planets.
I will be looking at its composition primarily around the late 24th century, because there
was far less in the early days of Starfleet and who knows what by the 32nd century.
I will also be drawing from beta canon content to add to the unknown.
Before we touch on the planets however, what about Sol itself, the Sun?
Well there are several artificial satellites around it, but these are more akin to sensor
arrays and solar activity monitors, nothing on the scale of a Dyson ring to harvest solar
energy.
That’s about it.
Moving out now to the closest planet to the Sun in our system, Mercury.
Due to its slow rotation, the 4,880 kilometre almost sphere has one side exposed to the
sun far more often.
This side is completely uninhabited due to the extreme radiation and heat it received
and while Starfleet no doubt has the technology to create a base here, the question is why
bother when there is so much more free real estate to develop?
However, there are a series of fully automated antimatter refineries on the planet that presumably
generated the anti-deuterium for warp drive?
Venus is a little more active and it has several facilities and factories there that create
shuttles and automated drones.
In orbit is the Sol 2 Shipyard which serves much of the same function as the shipyards
over Earth or Mars.
The first ground base established was an environmentally sealed base called the North Pole Base as
a pre-Federation facility.
The planet was a known location for shuttle training in hazardous atmospheres although
the stifling greenhouse furnace will eventually be a thing of the past.
By 2371, terraforming had begun on the surface in earnest and within a decade, the difference
was notable, but still uninhabitable, with estimates of around 100 years for full completion.
However, there is still an Agricultural facility on its surface and Starfleet does have its
Venusian Campus for training purposes.
In orbit, joining the shipyards, we have Ishtar Station which manages the terraforming efforts.
Next up is Earth, which is the capital of the United Federation of Planets for now,
the headquarters of Starfleet, the primary training facility of Starfleet and the seat
of the United Earth Government.
It’s no wonder that to most aliens, Earth, Starfleet and the Federation are all the same
entity.
In orbit we have the Earth Spacedock and the San Francisco Fleetyards, both of which are
large enough to have their own videos, so I did.
There are a myriad of other orbital facilities however, from Invictus-type defensive platforms,
to many Starfleet office facilities and other spaceframe docks.
One of these is McKinley station.
There is so much traffic in orbit of Earth that managing it is a full time job, mostly
conducted from the ESD.
Among the many artificial satellites, there is the one natural Moon, that Earthers call
Luna.
The capital of the Moon is New Berlin which was founded in 2069 and by the 24th century,
there were 50 million people living in interconnected domes cities, such as Tycho.
There is a slight Starfleet presence here, as there is in most Federation territories,
which has a training outpost.
The Orpheus Mining Complex was also based here and the headquarters of mining operations.
For all purposes, Luna is effectively a self-contained colony world, and Beverly Crusher was born
there.
Moving on to Mars, the red planet is best known for Utopia Planitia, the primary Federation
sipyards with factories on the planet’s surface and drydocks in orbit overseen but
many orbital stations.
Utopia Planitia itself began construction as early as 2069 and by 2106, the first colonies
were established on the planet surface.
Mars had received visitors before that however, with small installations and stations on its
surface as early as the first manned mission of Ares IV in 2032.
The original cities were all pressurised and domed cities, but terraforming operations
began straight away.
By 2155, the planet had a breathable atmosphere, but was still subject to unhealthy amounts
of radiation over long exposure and the surface was still devoid of life.
A great portion of its early settlers were Native American tribes who expressed concern
over the United Earth Government.
However, in 2105 there was a brief civil war over the rights of the Martian colonies, but
it resulted in the Fundamental Declarations of the Martian Colonies.
This was a foundational document in the generation of future charters concerning Human and Federation
colonial rights.
Alongside Utopia Panitia, which also had its own surface colony around, the Daystom Institute
also had a Theoretical Physics department there.
Between 2385 to 99 however, the synth attack rendered much of the planet uninhabitable.
Mars is well beyond the status as just an Earth colony world, and is its own power by
the 24th century and separate Federation member.
Moving through into the Asteroid belt, as you’d probably expect, many of these have
mining facilities on them as the belt is a great source of raw mineral resource.
There were however colonies among these, with Ceres Base being the largest port of operation.
In 2179, there was a brief issue with piracy in the belt, but I imagine that with the expanding
Federation, that was eventually stomped out.
On to the big boy himself, Jupiter.
The planet has nothing, it’s a gas giant although there may be bases within its atmosphere.
Starfleet certainly has the tech to do that.
The most well-known station orbiting Jupiter is the Starfleet Research station, which also
has its own video.
Most of the action is on Jupiter’s moons, as we’ll also see with Saturn.
20 million people live on Europa, and Starfleet has a base there that studies aquatic life.
There is also a resort there called Club Jove.
The oceans of Europa have confirmed life in Star Trek, but in one tale, the oceans are
also home to transposed Earth species, such as the giant squid.
Ganymede is home to only 20,000 miners and their families, most of which work for Ryekeyster
Industrial Metals across its 20 mines.
It has strong business ties based on the export of metals to other worlds, including the Klingons.
There is another mining company on Calisto, Dennis and Young Amalgamated.
There are references to bases on Io, but I could not find what they were.
In the alternate reality of the Kelvin timeline, Io played host to a Section 31 black site
and shipyard.
Saturn, itself is again, uninhabited.
Titan however is inhabited with Luna-like colonies.
By the 24th century however there was an artificial atmosphere, however like Mars, the surface
was still inhospitably cold and barren.
By the 31st century however, Titan had tillable soil and was on its way to becoming completely
self-sufficient.
There was a Starfleet Saturn Drydock in orbit for ship repair and the space around the ringed
planet was used for Starfleet flight training and Mimas Station was a moon-side facility
that watched over the potentially dangerous flights.
It was little more than an emergency station with a minimal crew of Starfleet medical staff
who were otherwise engaged in research.
The supply run between Satrun and Jupiter was known as the “Jovian Run”.
Uranus had nothing on it that I could find.
There is nothing interesting about Uranus.
Probably because most people don’t want to say that they work on Uranus.
Seriously, there was very little info I could find or unearth, so moving on.
Neptune was Inhabited, not the planet, but its moons were mostly centred on the industrial
or research aspects.
Nereid had a research facility while Triton featured a refuelling station.
Pluto is not a planet, but because humans are somewhat endeared to it, it does feature
in Star Trek lore.
The small ground station of the planetoid is pretty much just an operational travel
relay for people to disembark and schedule new flights, it seems.
And it is recorded as having permanent inhabitants of only 12 people, a geology team.
Pluto station is in orbit an served as a shipping and navigational hub for the outer system
and was the primary listening post connected to the sensor grid at the edge of the Sol
system.
However, Starfleet Archives does have its Annex here, containing much of the non-classified
data of the organisation.
Pluto was selected because the planetoid would survive the death of the Sun itself and it
had no geological activity to ruin the archives in the far, far future.
So who knows, it might be all that survives of the Federation in 10 billion years.
Another planetoid, Eris contains the Eridian Vault, which is a top-secret Department of
Temporal Investigations facility for storing their confiscated objects related to time
travel.
There are many other planetoids in the outermost edges of the solar system, and some of these
have even been terraformed into an M-class environment by 2258.
One such planetoid had Starbase 1 in orbit, which at the time was the closest Starbase
to Earth.
I believe this addition to canon was caused by a mistake behind the scenes, but it’s
there now.
Littered all throughout the Sol system are a myriad of other stations ranging from defence
platforms, observation posts, shipping transfer docks and other undisclosed functions.
With how large the entire solar system is, let alone the available space in orbit of
every planet, there is lots of room for additional structures to feature.
Most of the planets have a networked defence grid of automated turrets and entire system
is under observation by Starfleet and United Earth.
So there is always room to add more is what I’m saying, and even overlap in functionality.
So, that about covers the notable outposts of the Sol System in Trek, just one of the
Federation’s member systems and still the human spirit of exploration carries us beyond
its confines to see what else lies out there.
Thanks for watching this video, I’ll see you next time for another lore, gameplay or
other sci-fi related one and until then, I’ve been Ric, goodbye!