Utopia Planitia Fleet Yards

Utopia Planitia is the largest shipyard in Federation space and one of the largest in known space, surpassed only by the Dawnrim Yards in the Harmony of Horizon.

Description
Utopia Planitia, often shortened to "UP", is located in orbit around and on the planet Mars in the Sol System. The name of the shipyard comes from the fact that the orbital portions are positioned in synchronous orbit 16,625 kilometers above the Utopia Planitia region of the red planet. The yards are made up of a number of separate facilities, including space stations and drydocks. The main complex of the shipyards is "Utopia Station 1". The majority of orbital facilities have no physical connections with each other, and travel between is conducted by transporters, shuttles, and short ranged 'worker bee' material transport platforms. When all berths are full of construction, as they usually are, UP resembles an armada of half-constructed ships seemingly forming up for some great expedition.

No less than two Starfleet Research Teams are based out of UP: Utopia Planitia Design Group (specializing in Explorer and Cruiser Design) and Utopia Planitia Tactical Design Bureau (specializing in Explorer Design and Weapons).

UP has the expertise to build any current Starfleet starship design. It has 15 berths as of 2323:
 * Six 3mt berths
 * Three 2mt berths
 * Six 1mt berths

History
Through the late 23rd century, Mars had long been viewed (not least by the citizens of Mars) as the ideal location for a Federation mega-shipyard. Mars is located in Sol with easy access to the industrial heartland of the Federation, but with clean orbits that the cluttered space around Earth cannot provide. Political will to support such a massive construction project was lacking, never getting further than an experimental 2mt berth briefly opened in the 2290's to build the Ares prototype and then closed when that ill-fated project was forcibly canceled by the Federation Council.

However, in the aftermath of the Ulith III Biophage Crisis in 2304, Admiral Kahurangi was able to push approval through the Federation Council. Construction began immediately, and Utopia Planitia Shipyards opened in 2308.Q2 with 2 3mt berths and 2 1mt berths. New berths opened in 2309, 2316, 2318, 2319, 2321, and 2322. There is room for considerable expansion beyond this, but concerns about the vulnerability of having so much construction concentrated in a single shipyard have raised doubts regarding further expansion. Starfleet would like to set up a second yard along UP's lines and bring it up to speed before expanding UP further, but as the timing and planning of this are subject to political issues beyond their control it remains to be seen if this will be possible.

In 2316 a heavy industrial park dedicated solely to Starship construction was organized in Sol system, allowing for decreased build times in both Utopia Planitia and San Francisco Fleetyards. This coincided with the handover of the directorship of the Mars shipyard to Rear Admiral Eddie Leslie.

UP remains the design center for Starfleet's Explorers and Cruisers, with both the Renaissance prototype and the the twin Ambassador prototypes designed and built at UP.