Project Pathfinder...deep space spy tool?

[Enola Straight]

Lt. Reginald Barclay headed the Pathfinder Project to establish semi-regular radio contact to the stranded starship Voyager, several decades away at high warp.

Now that Voyager is home, couldnt Starfleet use this technology as a covert listening device to probe areas of the galaxy too far away to send a ship?

If the natives don't like it, too bad. (unless they have transwarp or quantum sipstream).

[Dark Primus]

I believe there is already a such device called the Argus array.

[Enola Straight]

Ah, a reply.

I was under the impression that the Argus array is simply a VERRRY big telescope. It (supposedly) is restricted by distance and the speed of light by what its programmed to look at (optical and radio frequencies).

Faster subspace frequencies can probably be picked up by Subspace Relay Stations.

Project pathfinder creates a shortcut through subspace...basically, a micro wormhole big enough for a signal to get through...thus bypassing a time lag be negating the intervening distance.

[Darth Servo]

The idiots in charge of the Federation would never be able to come up with something that obvious. They need to use the most convoluted solution and handicap themselves as much as possible.

Besides, it wouldn't be out of the question that this device needs Fed Tech at both ends in order to work.

[Talloway]

enola straight
I was under the impression that the Argus array is simply a VERRRY big telescope. It (supposedly) is restricted by distance and the speed of light by what its programmed to look at (optical and radio frequencies).

In some episode of TNG (the one where Worf keeps jumping time/reality/dimesional streams/forks/pathways), in one of the realities, the Cardassians had reprogrammed the Argus Array to spy on Utopia Planetia, which is in Mars orbit. If the array is stuck with light-speed sensors, any information would be hopelessly out of date by the time the Array picked it up.

So I think it isn't actually restricted to EM and other light-speed systems.

[Talloway]

Episode was "Parallels," if that matters to anyone.