Explorer ship

Explorer Ship

While all Union ships can be used for exploration, and even dedicated war ships have lab sections and a science department. However most exploration and science missions are carried out by the Science Corps. The Science Corps is completely separate from the Union Military and not under the authority of the Military Council of the Assembly. The Science Corps maintains space stations, bases and deploys its own fleet of  space craft. Some are highly specialized and tailored to their scientific mission. Some of the Science Corps ships are modified ships from the Union Navy. The most common Science Corps Research and Exploring platform however is the Humbolt Class – Explorer and over 10,000 units are currently in service.

These ships are lightly armed 320 meter Spheres,[1] with excellent shields, extensive lab facilities and  wide arrays of sensors and observation tools.

The technical personnel aboard an Explorer ship is usually Union Navy and the actual ship is under the command of a Union Navy Captain [2], but the overall leader is a Science Mission Chief.[3]