Star Trek: Star Charts

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Star Trek: Star Charts is a guide to the Star Trek universe – the stars and planets of the United Federation of Planets and the other powers of the Milky Way Galaxy. It includes background information on the classification systems used for identifying stars and planets.

Summary

From the book jacket

"...all I ask is a tall ship, and a star to steer her by."

From the earliest days of explorations, there has always been one tried-and-true way to navigate through uncharted reaches and one to find the way home – the stars. Ancient mariners prized their star charts, knowing that they could guide them safely into a friendly port or lead them to the reaches of the mysterious East. Modes of transportation have changed but the stars are still our constant guides. When man took his first step into space armed with the very latest in computers, he took with him the same tool for reading the stars that the men who sailed under canvas carried.

When Humans launched the first ship designed for long-range missions into the deep waters of interstellar space, the Vulcan High Command provided their star charts for the Enterprise NX-01. But Jonathan Archer was not content with relying on the known. Although he used the Vulcan charts, he also added to them, and greatly expanded Starfleet's knowledge of the galaxy. Every generation of starship captain that followed has built on Archer's first steps.

Follow the course set by Archer, Kirk, Picard, Sisko, and Janeway. Relive their extraordinary adventures as you find here, for the first time, the star maps that chart the routes these famous explorers took. This book will be a Star Trek cartographer's dream, without a doubt.

Excerpts of copyrighted sources are included for review purposes only, without any intention of infringement.

Contents

Spectral classification

Class	Description	Temperature	Composition	Examples
Class O	Dark Blue	28,000-50,000 K	Ionized atoms, especially helium	Mintaka (O1-3III)
Class B	Blue	10,000-28,000 K	Neutral helium some hydrogen	Alpha Eridani A (B3V-IV)
Class A	Light Blue	7,500-10,000 K	Strong hydrogen, some ionized metals	Sirius A (A0-1V)
Class F	White	6,000-7,500 K	Hydrogen and ionized metals, calcium, and iron	Procyon A (F5V-IV)
Class G (yellow dwarf)	Yellow	5,000-6,000 K	Ionized calcium, both neutral and ionized metals	Sol (G2V)
Class K	Orange	3,500-5,000 K	Neutral metals	Alpha Centauri B (K0-3V)
Class M (red dwarf, red giant)	Red	2,500-3,500 K	Ionized atoms, especially helium	Wolf 359 (M5-8V)

Planetary classification

Class	Description	Age (bil. yrs)	Diameter (1,000 kms)	Location	Atmosphere	Life-forms	Examples
Class A	Geothermal	0 to 2	1 to 10	Exosphere/Cold Zone	Hydrogen Compounds	None	Gothos
Class B	Geomorteus	0 to 10	1 to 10	Hot Zone	Extremely tenuous, negligible	None	Mercury
Class C	Geoinactive	2 to 10	1 to 10	Ecosphere/Cold Zone	Frozen	None	Pluto, Psi 2000
Class D	Asteroid/Moon	2 to 10	0.1 to1	All	negligible	None	Moon (Sol IIIa), Regula
Class E	Geoplastic	0 to 2	10 to 15	Ecosphere	Hydrogen compounds/reactive gases	Carbon-cycle (Excalbian)	Excalbia
Class F	Geometallic	1 to 3	10 to 15	Ecosphere	Hydrogen compounds	Silicon-based (Horta)	Janus VI
Class G	Geocrystalline	3 to 4	10 to 15	Ecosphere	Carbon dioxide	Primitive single-celled organisms	Delta Vega
Class H	Desert	4 to 10	8 to 15	All	Heavy gases/metal vapors	Drought- and radiation-resistant plants, animal life	Rigel XII, Tau Cygna V
Class I	Gas supergiant	2 to 10	140 to 10 million	Cold Zone	Varying zones/Water vapor may be present	Unknown	Q'tahl
Class J	Gas giant	2 to 10	50 to 140	Cold Zone	Varying zones	Hydrocarbon-based (Jovian)	Jupiter, Saturn
Class K	Adaptable	4 to 10	5 to 10	Ecosphere	Carbon dioxide	Primitive single-celled organisms	Mars, Mudd
Class L	Marginal	4 to 10	10 to 15	Ecosphere	Oxygen, argon, carbon dioxide	Limited to plant life; suitable for humanoid colonization	Indri VIII
Class M	Terrestrial	3 to 10	10 to 15	Ecosphere	Nitrogen, oxygen, trace elements	Extensive vegetation, animal life, humanoids	Earth, Vulcan, Cardassia Prime
Class N	Reducing	3 to 10	10 to 15	Ecosphere	Carbon dioxide/sulfides	Unknown	Venus
Class O	Pelagic	3 to 10	10 to 15	Ecosphere	Nitrogen, oxygen, trace elements	Aquatic vegetation, animal life, humanoids	Argo
Class P	Glaciated	3 to 10	10 to 15	Ecosphere	Nitrogen, oxygen, trace elements	Hardy vegetation, animal life, humanoids	Exo III, Breen
Class Q	Variable	2 to 10	4 to 15	All	Ranges from tenuous to very dense	Genesis Planet	Remus
Class R	Rogue	2 to 10	4 to 15	Interstellar space, cometary halos	Primarily volcanic outgassing	Non-photosynthetic plants, animal life	Dakala
Class S	Ultragiant	2 to 10	10,000 to 50,000 million	Cold Zone	Varying zones/water vapor may be present
Class T	Ultragiant	2 to 10	50,000 to 120,000 million	Cold zone	Varying zones/water vapor may be present
Class X						Environment is particularly hostile to humanoid life
Class Y	"Demon"	2 to 10	10 to 15	All	Thermionic radiation	Mimetic	Silver Blood planet
Class Z						Environment is particularly hostile to humanoid life

Note: For planets that are 15,000 to 50,000 kilometers in diameter, such as Neptune, no classification was provided. It might be possible that, like with the examples of Class X and Class Z, that the planetary classification for these worlds did exist, but wasn't included in the book.

Background information

Star Trek: Star Charts was written and illustrated by Geoffrey Mandel, with the help of Doug Drexler, Tim Earls, Larry Nemecek, and Christian Rühl (see below). André Bormanis, Michael Okuda, Rick Sternbach, and Timo Saloniemi gave technical advice. Mandel and Sternbach also worked on the original 1980 Star Trek Maps; Nemecek contributed items to that older work – the Federation members, and a planet/star pairing list, among others – that survived his earlier, aborted mapping project that was based on the star grid scale of the original Star Fleet Technical Manual. That project, due to be updated with Mandel for self-publication, was abandoned when the Bantam 1980 maps project surfaced.

Appendices

See also

• Stellar Cartography: The Starfleet Reference Library
• Star Trek Maps

External link

• Star Trek Dimension by Christian Rühl, which formed the basis of this book