A sleeper ship en route to an unnamed planet in Sector Vega 6.
A sleeper ship was a type of Earth spaceship in service in the late 20th and early 21st centuries. The crew of the ship would be placed in suspended animation for all or part of a journey.
History and specifics[]
Sleeper ships proved necessary because of the time involved in space travel, as it could take years to travel from one planet to another. However, at some point after 2018, propulsion technology advanced and sleeper ships were gradually phased out. (TOS episode: "Space Seed")
Despite this, many sleeper ships left Earth bound for other planets with the hopes of colonizing them. Amongst the many planets colonized by Earth sleeper ships was Macedon III. (TOS - Star Trek II Short Stories short story: "Under Twin Moons")
Also targeted for colonization, by a ship led by Eugenics Wars pacifists Chang and Brand, was an unnamed planet in Sector Vega 6. (TOS comic: "Sceptre of the Sun")
The Federation did launch a sleeper ship project of its own just after its founding. The sleeper ship was attempting to reach the Magellanic Clouds. This would be a journey of several hundred years. The crew that was put in suspended animation was specifically chartered with the statement that the descendants would be defined as Federation personnel and must obey all rules and laws of the Federation. Because of this, any descendants would not be subject to the Prime Directive as the sleeper ship Betelgeuse had in 2239. The Federation sleeper ship was later recovered by the USS Enterprise (Ambassador-class). (TNG novel: The Forgotten War)
Types of sleeper ship[]
Appendices[]
Connections[]
External link[]
- Sleeper ship article at Memory Alpha, the wiki for canon Star Trek.