Probe

A 22nd century probe

A probe launched by the USS Defiant in 2371

The Mark V torpedo casing of a solar probe in 2371 behind Data

For the Pocket Books novel, please see Probe (novel).

A probe, space probe, or interstellar probe was an automated spacecraft used to gather information. Probes were often used for tasks or environments that were not well suited for manned-missions.

Such tasks included:

• Collecting information in environments that were too small for starships to examine (VOY: "Eye of the Needle"; DS9: "Rejoined");
• Collecting information in environments that were too dangerous for starships to examine (TNG: "Where Silence Has Lease", "Clues", "The Outcast"; DS9: "Meridian", "Starship Down"; VOY: "Extreme Risk", "Gravity");
• Extreme long-term deep space exploration (Star Trek: The Motion Picture; TNG: "The Price"; VOY: "Friendship One");
• Recording and transmitting remote sensor telemetry to a starship or base that was occupied with other mission objectives (DIS: "Lethe"; TNG: "Pen Pals", "Rascals", "Chain Of Command, Part I", "Lower Decks").

The United Earth Space Probe Agency (or UESPA) was an Earth organization responsible for the exploration of space during the early 22nd century, and was later combined with Starfleet. (ENT: "Demons")

Some probes used by Starfleet were modified photon torpedo casings with extended sensor equipment and no warhead. (TNG: "The Emissary"; Star Trek Generations) Deep space probes had casings that contained radioactive material that could potentially contaminate the biosphere of planets if they crash landed on the surface. (TNG: "Thine Own Self")

Two probes were deployed by the USS Enterprise-D to scan the region of space close to a cosmic string, which led to the discovery of a species of two-dimensional beings. (TNG: "The Loss")

Using the data obtained from a series of probes, and the sensor logs of the USS Brattain and the Enterprise-D, Data concluded that the two starships were trapped in a rupture in space. (TNG: "Night Terrors")

A probe was launched by the Enterprise-D to examine a neutrino emission with no visible source in the planet J'naii's star system. When the probe disappeared suddenly, this suggested the presence of null space. (TNG: "The Outcast")

A probe was launched by the Enterprise-D to follow a radioactive trail left behind by the Kataan probe, in order to trace its origins. (TNG: "The Inner Light")

It was speculated that a small glowing ball of energy that left a spatial rupture created by solanogen-based lifeforms shortly before it was closed was a probe of some kind. (TNG: "Schisms")

A probe was launched by the USS Defiant into the corona of the Trialan sun in order to scan the sun's core. (DS9: "Meridian")

Probe was also the designation of some manned spacecraft, such as the Borg probe, a starship class used by the Borg Collective, (VOY: "Dark Frontier") and the Earth-Saturn probe, the first manned flight to Saturn. (TOS: "Tomorrow is Yesterday")

Starfleet probe classes

The class-1, class-3 and scanner probes shared a similar structure

A class-2 probe

A class-5 probe

A class-8 probe

An atmospheric probe

The advanced multi-spatial probe

• Class 1 probe
  • TNG: "Where Silence Has Lease"
  • TNG: "Time Squared"
  • TNG: "Pen Pals"
  • TNG: "The Defector"
  • TNG: "Yesterday's Enterprise"
  • TNG: "Reunion"
• Class 2 probe
  • TNG: "The Most Toys"
  • DS9: "Battle Lines"
• Class 3 probe
  • TNG: "The Enemy"
• Class 4 probe
  • TNG: "Relics"
  • DS9: "If Wishes Were Horses"
• Class 5 probe
  • TNG: "Chain Of Command, Part I"
  • VOY: "False Profits"
• Class 6 probe (see: Warning buoy)
• Class 7 probe (see: Reconnaissance probe)
• Class 8 probe
  • TNG: "The Emissary"
• Class 9 probe (see: Log buoy)
• Class-A probe
  • TNG: "Ship In A Bottle"

Other Federation probes

• Atmospheric probe (DS9: "Starship Down")
• Deep space probe (TNG: "Thine Own Self")
  • Quadros 1 (DS9: "Emissary")
  • Vega 9 (TNG: "Tin Man")
• Hydraulic probe (TNG: "Home Soil")
• Interface probe (TNG: "Interface")
• Long-range impact probe (TNG: "Night Terrors")
• Microprobe (VOY: "The Cloud", "Eye of the Needle")
  • Gravimetric microprobe (DS9: "Playing God")
• multi-spatial probe (VOY: "Extreme Risk")
• Reconnaissance probe (TNG: "Force of Nature", DS9: "One Little Ship")
• Scanner probe (TNG: "Where Silence Has Lease")
• Sensor drone (Star Trek: The Motion Picture)
  • Class-5 intelligence drone (DS9: "For the Uniform")
• Sensor probe (TNG: "The Last Outpost")
• Solar probe (Star Trek Generations)
  • The Egg (TNG: "Evolution")
• Survey probe (TNG: "In Theory")
• Telemetry probe (TOS: "The Immunity Syndrome")
• Temporal rift probe (DIS: "Light and Shadows")

Ancient Earth probes

• Earth-Saturn probe
• Friendship 1
• Mariner 2
• Nomad
• Pioneer spacecraft
  • Pioneer 5
  • Pioneer 10
• Ranger spacecraft
  • Ranger Block I
  • Ranger Block II
    • Ranger 5
• Sputnik I
• Voyager series
  • Voyager 6

Alien probes

An Iconian probe

The Kataan probe

• Barzan probe (TNG: "The Price")
• Bajoran science probe (DS9: "The Alternate")
• Iconian probe (TNG: "Contagion")
• Cytherian probe (TNG: "The Nth Degree")
• Ilia probe (Star Trek: The Motion Picture)
• Kataan probe (TNG: "The Inner Light")
• Kukulkan's probe (TAS: "How Sharper Than a Serpent's Tooth")
• "Pup"'s probe (DS9: "The Forsaken")
• Orbital probe (Romulan) (TNG: "The Defector")
• Bajoran science probe (Bajoran) (DS9: "The Alternate")
• Whale Probe (Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home)
• Tan Ru (TOS: "The Changeling")
• Transwarp probe (VOY: "Pathfinder")
• Possible alien probe destroyed by a Cardassian ATR-4107 (VOY: "Dreadnought")
• Extra galactic probe encountered by USS Greyhound (TNG: "The Last Outpost", "Datalore", "Conspiracy")
• Srivani medical probes (VOY: "Scientific Method")

See also

• Assault probe, a fictional device described by the Kyrians
• Bio-probe, a multi-purpose Vidiian device
• Borg probe, a starship
• Cortical probe, a medical instrument
• Duotronic probe, a small tool
• Electro-dynamic probe, a tool
• Hunter probe, a ranged weapon device
• Mind probe
  • Romulan mind probe, an interrogation device
• Subdermal probe, a medical device
• United Earth Space Probe Agency, an exploration agency
• Xindi probe, a spatial weapon

Appendices

Background information

Detailed information on the types of Federation probes are given in the Star Trek: The Next Generation Technical Manual.

Several early Earth probes are visible on computer screens during TOS: "The Cage".

The "class V planetary probe" in "Blink of an Eye" is the same graphic as the "multiphasic probe" in "Extreme Risk".

While Enterprise was preparing to head into the Arachnid Nebula (containing gravimetric shear) in the first draft script of ENT: "Fusion" (which had the working title "Equilibrium"), the captain of the Vahklas-type Vahklas commented to Enterprise captain Jonathan Archer that, if Enterprise was a Vulcan ship, he would probably want to send a series of automated probes into the nebula while his craft remained outside it, in relative safety.

External links

• Space probe at Wikipedia
• Probe at Memory Beta, the wiki for licensed Star Trek works