Yes, I've seen Voy multiple times and am well versed in the technology and its capabilities.
The thing is that measuring radiative flux of 3 billion stars in the galaxy simultaneously is just 1 thing for ascertaining the vessels POSITION in the galaxy.
We have no way of ascertaining if this method would work on rogue planets because Stars and planets are different stellar bodies.
But I'm sure they have equally impressive ways of detecting astronomical sized objects within Astrometrics that far exceeds anything we have today.
Stars emit massive radiation and gravitational forces (and likely subspace signatures in Trek)... planets have their own gravitational fields, but they are nowhere near on the level of a star in terms of potential noticeability.
To be fair, I do think SF could do WONDERS with this technology post VOY return... they could do a million different things, and it would probably barely scratch the surface... the problem is that it seems it was never actually implemented in such a fashion.
Only because the limits of the existing writing staff.
Oh and as useful Astrometric sensors have been on VOY, they still had issues finding human lifesigns only a few LY's away in Workforce - and they had to be adjusted and modified over several DAYS to find them.
Finding a specific type of Life-Sign in a city filled with millions of Life-Signs could be hard if everybody was "Near Human".
Finding that exact signature might prove hard.
Especially with people going in/out of buildings and the signal to noise ratio must be terrible.
I wouldn't be that sure. Its possible some uninhabited star systems in UFP space could be designated for research purposes where you could do stuff on this scale... of course getting PERMISSION to do that, is a different thing.
Within the UFP, I doubt you would get permission given what TC wants to do. There would be millions of questions, along with simulations of potential consequences.
The sheer Red Tape would kill the project.
Yes, but you'd have to travel far enough away to not unintentionally interfere with another interstellar power's authority.
If they see you playing with a star system or planetary bodies in that fashion close enough to their space... then they would probably blow you out of the sky for doing that - and of course, being outside UFP space, removes the protection.
That's why you have to spelunk and find it, I'm sure there are Rogue Planets out there that aren't near any existing major powers.
Hell, in ST:ENT, they had a episode on a Rogue Planet.
If they knew what you were up to, and think it could endanger lives, especially UFP lives or start a war.
They'd send in StarFleet to stop your progress. They've sent StarFleet for lesser reasons.
There are a few potential reasons. They probably move asteroids for certain mining operations from one location to the next... if a planet by chance contains more resources than an asteroid (which is ridiculously implausible in RL, but seemingly plausible in Trek), then that could be a reason to move it closer to your processing facilities if the distance is large, or to avoid potential conflicts in case diplomacy fails?
Or you'd just want to experiment to see if you can move a planet and what you can learn from the endeavour.
Moving Asteroids and moving objects that are considered a "Planet" would be seperate things.
As long as the Astronomical Objects surpass the "Potato Radius" (A approximate radii of 200-300 km) and move into Dwarf Planet territory, I'm sure there are Stellar Enivoronmental Laws that would minimize/prevent the "Strip Mining" of planets.
Given the natural abundance of Asteroids, there really is no reason to "Strip Mine" planets unless there are no other solutions.
I disagree.
Since Earth (for example) in the 32nd century already has a network of satellites in orbit powerful enough to erect a planetary shield (which also requires massive levels of power), those satellites would be powerful enough to generate a subspace field instead that can act as a warp bubble.
Most Offensive/Defensive Satellites wouldn't have Warp Nacelles or Warp Field Emitters built into them by default.
They aren't StarShips. Putting those features in adds cost/maintenance complexities that aren't necessary.
They would need to be fit with Warp Field Emitters from the out-set and be planned for it.
Could you make a Satellite Network that creates a Warp Bubble, yes, of course. But you would need to do that from the outset.
Most Planetary Shield or Turret Satellites wouldn't have any FTL capabilities and would divert most of their energy resources to Shields, Weapons, & Sensors.
Like I said, the underlying technology is pre-built into the things, its a matter of switching from one mode to the other.
And they already HAD a fleet of ships in Earth's orbit... remember? Earth had its own vessels when it left UFP, and UFP also sent ships to evac Earth.
The Fleet size we saw isn't large enough to create that size of Warp Bubble, we're talking Planetary Scales.
And the Defense Grid is just that, a Shield Grid & Turrets.
It wasn't that sudden. They had days of advance warning by the time Earth and Ni'Var were in projected to be in danger.
And that's not enough time to erect the type of Warp Bubble Emitting Satellite Shield.
That's a LONG TERM, many years project.
That's not something you deploy like a Safety Blanket.
Honestly, we both know a lot of the stuff in the 32nd century isn't working as its supposed to... because it also IGNORES a lot of the stuff from the 24th century or just hand-waved it away.
That's a seperate conversation that we can go down a rabbit hole, but that's not relevant to the current discussion.
By the time the DMA presented itself as an issue, the Dilithium Crisis was mostly averted and things were starting to get back to 'normal'.
Regardless, we know that 32nd century ships are incredibly fragile though... even more so than their 23rd/24th century counterparts it seems.
They were in the beginning stages, and the fleet size wasn't any where near what it used to be, along with the man power.
32nd Century Ships seem to be designed around a principle of "Programmable Matter" is our universal stucco patch, so we'll use it to fit everything quickly instead of having a more durable hull / shell from the outset.
It takes more time to arrange a more durable hull / shell, but I think it's worth it.
"Programmable Matter" will never be as strong as real Solid Matter & Armor, it's good for "Patch Work" solutions, but it's not a replacement for solid engineering & structural toughness.
But that's a matter of design philosophy & resource availability.
They might not have a choice on what kind of ships they could build due to lack of member worlds compared to what they used to have.
. But the point is that in Star Trek you can have the power and technology to move something the size of a star system along at warp speed.
