starfaring

Only a small fraction of the Federation’s population regularly involve themselves with the starfaring activities that define the Federation as a starfaring culture.

As a general rule most citizens have no use for spacecraft, the wormhole network systems have solved the needs for most interstellar travel, the only Federation worlds that lack gates are those which have not been open to general habitation. The only people that require spacecraft to travel between destinations are those groups that work on small or distant outposts, say for archaeology or other research. Though millions of people work on these isolated parts of the Federation this is a very small fraction of the total population, needless to say that transporting people around the Federation takes up only a tiny fraction of the fleet.

Some people need to conduct their occupations on space craft, for example astronomers and space construction crews. Again though there are many professions requiring craft, there are many many more that don’t. However the spacecraft involved in these tasks make up a good fraction of the Federation civil fleet, most of these craft are small, at their smallest the single person vessels used to haul stuff around in shipyards, scarcely a few metres long, at the larger end of the spectrum are the larger interstellar astronomy and science vessels, which may have crews of hundreds, and measure in the same range as many of the larger military craft.

The military also requires spaceflight to patrol the Federation, though not fully autonomous, the Federation military commands its own ships and crews. The crews of these ships necessarily have to use spacecraft. As military vessels seldom roam outside of Federation space many of the larger ships double up as transports for moving personnel.

Perhaps the most exotic profession that requires spacecraft is that of explorer. The Federation maintains a large number of exploration vehicles, some very general, others with specialisation, the crews are similarly diverse. Exploration is a very significant activity for the Federation, though a lot of the spacecraft are at any given time doing a 101 one tasks over than going further than anyone has gone before. Exploration vessels are used to study new stars and planets beyond estalblished federation space. Science exploration vessels may perhaps study new forms of life, or the detailed structures of new planets. The work of these vehicles ultimately precludes the expansion of Federation space, behind the exploration fleet construction and hardware placing vehicles define this edge with sensor platforms, spacecraft servicing depots etc.

All in all less than 1% of the total Federation population is engaged in spaceflight, though a much larger percentage are intimately involved in its service, or on the benefits it brings.