Astrometrics

USS Voyager's astrometrics lab

Astrometrics was a specialized lab used aboard Federation starships and facilities for stellar cartographic purposes.

In the 22nd century, there was a powerful astrometric computer located in San Francisco. When Klaang was kidnapped from the Enterprise NX-01 in 2154, Subcommander T'Pol suggested returning to Earth to make use of the computer in analyzing a spatial distortion registered by Enterprise's sensors. (ENT: "Broken Bow")

The Enterprise NX-01 had an astrometrics section. In 2153, while preparing to survey a hypergiant, Captain Archer noted that astrometrics must be "champing at the bit" to start their studies. (ENT: "Cogenitor")

One particular example is the astrometrics lab on the USS Voyager, which was designed by Ensign Harry Kim and Seven of Nine. Astrometrics was used for charting stars, planets, nebulae, and other stellar bodies. It contained a large wraparound holographic wall screen which could display a stellar region three dimensionally. There were a series of control panels to manipulate the screen. The area below the screen and in front of the control panels could be used as a stage during presentations. Astrometrics also included three workstations on the side wall. Seven spent many hours in the lab mapping and cataloging interstellar bodies which the ship encountered.

For convenience or advanced analysis, astrometrics could also be used for communications purposes or even as a workplace for easy access to sensor information. Astrometrics was used by the crew of Voyager to communicate with Earth once contact was established through the Pathfinder Project.

Ensign Harry Kim and Seven of Nine updated Voyager's astrometrics lab at the request of Commander Chakotay in 2374. According to Chakotay, the lab had not been updated since Voyager left spacedock. (VOY: "Revulsion")

In 2375, when Seven suffered a type of multiple personality disorder, she took on the persona of Ferengi DaiMon Torrot and offered Captain Janeway twenty bars of latinum for the large astrometrics screen. (VOY: "Infinite Regress")

In an alternate reality, Naomi Wildman and Icheb worked in astrometrics. (VOY: "Shattered")

Background

• The astrometrics lab first appeared in "Year of Hell". It displayed many images from the Hubble space telescope.
• The astrometrics set of the USS Voyager was built separately from its other standing sets, as evidenced by the differences in carpet color between the corridor outside the room (blue) and those in the main corridor complex on Stage 8 (gray). Although a small stretch of Voyager corridor had been erected outside the door, various doors within the Stage 8 complex served as theoretical locations for the Astrometrics lab, including the main entrance to Sickbay and the much wider entrance to Main Engineering. The only time the corridor outside the lab was seen in its entirety was in "Shattered". ^{(citation needed • edit)}
• Astrometry is the measurement of the positions and motions of stars.