Part of the KDF mission "Second Star to the Right..." takes place at Utopia Planitia in orbit of Mars. Mars, as you may be aware, is an actual, real-universe planet in the Sol System. But you'd never know that from playing this mission, where the mission text instructs the player to set course for, you guessed it, "the Mars system".

What's the story here? Did the mission writers just have a brain f@rt, or is there some technical quirk or even in-story reason why Mars is placed in its own "system" in this episode?

Im still trying to figure out why in game the home system called the Sol system (acronym for Solar no doubt) when a plethora of times in canon it was referred to as the "Terran System".

That particular mission was build before Klingons could to to Sirius or any other sector apart from Omega Leonis, Eta Eridani and Gamma orionis for that matter.

Utopia Planitia in that mission IS also in the SOL system, you just warp there directly from the system, but it's something you have to make happen in your head.


SOL is the stellar name for our sun, wich in turn has become a part of the stellar name of the solar system, while Terra is the Stellar name for earth.

Archer actually refered to the system as SOL in the episode Canamar.

But on the other hand in "Best of Both Worlds" Worf said the cube is proceeding to the Terran system. I guess both Sol and Terran are O.K.

A solar system isn't the only type of system astronomy recognizes. A planetary system is a planet and its satellites, and is named for the largest planet in the system. Usually reserved for planets with many moons, but it technically applies to any planet with a moon, double planets, and (arguably) orbitally linked objects (horseshoe orbits and Lagrange point objects).

Both are...

When referreing to "The terran system", they refer to the species, and by referring to SOL it
s simply the system, so yes... both are equally correct.

This is one reason I have never liked the use of Solar System as opposed to Star System.

I believe the latin name for Sun is Sol. Either way astronomically our Sun is recognized as Sol. Thus the System is known as the Sol System. Most Star systems in Star Trek I believe follow this suit (Memory Alpha even refers to Earth as sometimes being called "Sol III". Vulcan is named for the Star rather then the Species (Though though in their case they are the same). Likewise Bajor Is in reference to the star system with Bajor III being the homeword of the Bajoran People.

As for the "Solar System" my understanding is before the advent of Science Fiction and the idea of other planetary bodies around other stars, it was in reference to Sol aka The Sun. So it was meant as a direct reference to OUR system. Which is why I have never liked the term "Solar System" being used outside our own.

I know what you mean, I don't like it either, or the term "a solar system" when technically it's a star system and we are THE Solar system. Also I think sun is an exclusive term too, I wonder when that first changed.

Terra, meaning Earth in latin. Terran = of Earth. Unsure why this has been such a staple of sci fi to use the latin name. I guess it's more classical than Earthican (lol).

Anyway, perhaps As Terra is the only planet of our system to have sentient life (as far as we and most sci fi authors these days acknowledge), especially in the star trek universe it seems to be practice to name the planetary system after the home planet of the dominant species, e.g Romulan system, Cardassian system etc. Given some of the first human ships and deep space probes had latin on their insignia or badges, or in the messages they contained perhaps the first recognisable name for the species some aliens encountered was Terran and it stuck.

As for us humans - if we had remained a geocentric society as opposed to a heliocentric, we would perhaps be calling it the Terran system ourselves rather than the Solar or Sol system.

For the common gamer and Trek fan, it would have been better to rephrase the line and instruct you to go to "Planet Mars in the Sol system".