Utopia Planitia Utopia Planitia was a vast lava plain on the planet Mars . It hosted the surface structures of a starship construction facility , the Utopia Planitia Fleet Yards , one of the Federation ' s most extensive construction yards . Utopia Planitia was colonized prior to 2069 . ( ) In the 22nd century , Max Gabl Raymond was born here . ( , " okudagram " ) In 2366 , Doctor Leah Brahms was living in Quayle Canals Northeast , Utopia Planitia Gardens . ( , " okudagram " ) Benjamin Sisko was stationed on Utopia Planitia between the death of his wife ( at Wolf 359 ) and his posting on Deep Space 9 . ( ) While on Utopia Planitia , Sisko worked on the prototype – the first in what was to be a fleet of warship s to defend the Federation from the Borg . After work on the project slowed , and design flaws became apparent , the project was shelved . ( ) " In 2370 , in an alternate quantum reality , a partially - constructed starship was housed in the surface facilities of Utopia Planitia . " ( ) Background information . Although never stated on - screen , Utopia Colony ( itself possibly part of the Martian colonies ) probably was located on Utopia Planitia . According to the , the plain was " first explored by the automated space probe " , which softlanded there on September 3 , 1976 , part of Earth ' s first attempt to employ spaceflight in the search for extraterrestrial life . " The notes that the landscape and city seen in was located at Utopia Planetia . It further noted : " The city of Utopia Planitia in ' Lifesigns ' was a matte painting by Dan Curry , based on designs by Anthony Fredrickson and Doug Drexler . The fact that the " was supposed to have been built at Utopia Planitia was inscribed on the dedication plaque for the ship located on the main bridge . A copy of the dedication plaque was included in a CD - ROM collection of art and literature assembled by the and was launched toward the surface of Mars aboard the Russian space probe , although the probe never made it out of Earth orbit due to a launch vehicle malfunction . " The painting of the surface facilities in was by Rick Sternbach and Michael Okuda . Asked if construction indeed was intended to take place on the surface of Mars , Okuda answered : " Yes , that was the intent , although I like the suggestion that it might have been a training facility . It was something that Rick and I put together in Photoshop . I don ' t recall exactly who did what , but I remember that the upper image uses a bunch of simple paper models that we made for use as [ . . . ] generic futuristic city buildings for exactly this sort of image . Rick may remember more about this . I do recall that we wondered how the components would be brought into orbit , whether they ' d be beamed up , hauled up by space elevator , or carried by a huge orbital tug [ . . . ] " It [ surface construction ] certainly would be difficult , and I personally think that it would be more likely that the major component assembly would be done in orbit . I believe that Rick felt this way , too . Still , impulse engines routinely accelerate starship masses ( many tens , even hundreds of thousands of tons ) to large fractions of the speed of light in very brief times . This suggests a propulsion technology many thousands of times more powerful than anything we have in the 21st century . Also , structural integrity fields would need to protect against these accelerations , which conservatively would exceed 1 , 000 gees . As a result , I ' d contend that lifting major starship components into orbit from the surface of Mars would be well within the reach of " Star Trek " s postulated technology . "