| abstract | - Personnel transporter platforms often consisted of multiple individual pads sized approximately one per person. Early 23rd century Federation transporter platforms typically had six pads in a hexagonal arrangement; by the latter end of that century they were generally placed in a circular arrangement with a larger pad in the center for bulky items, an arrangement that continued to be used into the 24th century. (Star Trek: The Original Series; Star Trek V: The Final Frontier; Star Trek: The Next Generation) Notable exceptions to this include the early transporter models of the 22nd century, which had just one largish circular pad. (Star Trek: Enterprise) Cargo transporters often consisted of one large pad. (TNG: "Datalore" , "The Hunted" , "Power Play" ) Each pad in a Federation transporter had four redundant molecular imaging scanners so that if one of the scanners failed, the other three took over. When necessary, the entire platform could be enclosed within a force field. (TNG: "Realm of Fear" ) Cardassian space stations were designed with transporter pads in ops like Deep Space 9. (Star Trek: Deep Space Nine) In "The Cage" , the actual transporter pads were clearly split by three colors, mirrored from front to back: yellow, blue, and green, presumably correlating to the Starfleet uniform division colors of the period. Starting with "Where No Man Has Gone Before" , the individual pads all used a white light, which continued for the remainder of TOS.
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