Starfleet Research and Development headquarters for the Utopia Planetia Shipyards is located in high orbit of Mars' moon Phobos in Sector 001. This medium-sized station is served by several drydocks and open-space labs to develop shield, weapon and sensor technology to meet Starfleets growing defensive needs. While the station itself remains unarmed, it is well protected by dual layers of regenerative shielding and the experimental starships under development at the facility.

The facility's official designation is RD1 and remains sensor-masked from all unauthorized personell to maintain the tightest security. Called "The Big Red One" by some 700 members of the test crews that call the facility home. The facility has tested and refined the Valkyrie Fighter, Defiant class escort and the Los Angeles class frigate. During the Dominion WAr, the RD1 facility worked to successfully counter the Dominion's polaron weaponry and to refine the Quantum Torpedo for fleet-wide use.

The Model

Utopia Planetia is mentioned on the various Trek show on several occasions but only shown once (during Voyager's run) and I thought there would be one central facility for "NX" class ships and top-secret new technologies.....but what would it look like? I've never been really impressed with drydock structures that looked like they were made from spares of the Golden Gate Bridge and really, by the DS9 era, there should be something more advanced looking in Mars' orbit running the show. I decided to take my favorite aspects of the enourmous Spacedock (from STIII) and the much smaller Regula and Starbase 375 stations.

TO build the model, I raided my parts bin, some donated peices from Nova hobbies and Odyssey Slipways (thanks guys!) and then I got really creative.....

I'm happy with the result.

This model stands aproximately 15" x 7.2" (381mm x 183mm) and is made from many model parts, a desert container, wooden bases, sheet styrene and custom-made decals. I disguised the model's brass rod support among the lower antenna array to give it a "floating: effect. It was a fun project that took about two weeks of manic labor to complete.

Image: In Mars orbit

Image: Side view

Image: Closer look

Image: Approaching from above

Image: Beauty shot