I have updated the list again, thanks for the new entries. I've left out a fair few extra suggestions as I feel they went against the spirit of the list and were plot points rather than background furniture.
Space Outposts
• Academic Research Facility: Schools conduct research and need places to protect their personnel and projects.
• Archaeological Dig: <100 academics and guards.
• Archaeological Research Site: Digging up ancient alien artefacts and civilizations.
• Asteroid Mining Facility: Possibly 100 % automated.
• Astronomic Observatory.
• Bank: Where you can put valuable goods in storage and apply for loans.
• Biohazard dumps: Got to put the dangerous stuff somewhere why not in someone else’s backyard.
• Black Market Depot: Where you can place valuable goods in storage, be it of sentimental or money value, and be it legal or illegal. Also a nice place to hide hard-copies of sensitive—possibly blackmail or ‘insurance’—data. Outside of governmental regulations, sometimes can be not very trustworthy, often they are very trustworthy.
• Border Markers: ‘This is Our Space.’
• Business Centre, Independent: Sometimes it pays to be outside of a governmental oversight. See Business Centre for more information.
• Business Centre: Financial/administrative focused outpost.
• Cache: Secret or secure storage; fuel, ammo, weapons, droid army...
• Cemetery: Either bodies, ashes, bones, or keep sakes are stored here.
• Colony, New: A fledgling colony possibly under the guidance of a benefactor.
• Command Centre: Be it government or corporate.
• Communication Outpost
• Communication Relay
• Construction Camp/Under Construction: Pick any outpost and decide how far along the construction process it is.
• Containment Facility: Where dangerous compounds are kept because they cannot be destroyed.
• Destroyed: Pick from list, has been destroyed either from without or from within.
• Diplomatic Outpost: Neutral territory or meeting place.
• Dissident Camp: Fleeing persecution because of their political views.
• Distribution Centre: Where goods are stored prior to being moved to further, smaller, locations; normally to retail centres.
• Embassy: For foreign governments, is normally sovereign territory.
• Energy Manufacturing/Collecting Plant: Either manned or automated, normally heavily guarded.
• Entertainment Centres. Specialised in a single form of entertainment or holds many various forms of entertainment.
• Farms: Hydroponics or other types of plant growth, also includes artificial or real meat growth.
• Free Trade Post: Either outside of governmental control or encouraged by the government. This outpost hosts lots of traders. The goods are usually cheaper as there are few, if any, tariffs that are needed to be paid.
• FTL Beacon (depending of FTL technology): In real space and transmitting a signal to inform ships their location while they are in jumpspace.
• FTL Communication Booster (depending on FTL technology): To boost FTL communication signals. Maybe linked with FTL Beacon
• FTL Weather Buoy: Measuring, and possibly sending out data and/or warnings about various hyperspace or FTL weather conditions.
• Hazard Warning Buoy: ‘You Better Shouldn't Be Here.’ Possibly multiple ones spread around a certain hazardous area; maybe near a black hole, near a star nearing his supernova state, an ancient mine field, or a quarantined planet or station.
• Hazardous Waste Dump: Where dangerous compounds are kept because someday it could be used, but right now it's dangerous thing that must put away in deep space.
• Homesteaders: Independent colonizers; left their home world for freedom of religion/beliefs/trade/political beliefs etc.
• Hypermarket: One stop shop for all your consumables. Food, cleaning products, fuel, and anything else you may need.
• Jump Gate (depending on FTL technology)
• Law Enforcement Facilities: To keep law and order in the system. Maybe a few corvette sized ships (3-10 people each), a frigate (20-30 people), or a destroyer (40-50 people) vessel. Small jail for prisoners and barracks for police. May have less or more police depending upon the type of government and how hostile the area is to the police.
• Long Range Sensor Outpost: Watching a border or a dangerous part of space.
• Mansion: Where a really rich guy gets really away from it all. Likely very heavy security.
• Manufactory, Black Market: As Manufactory, but the goods are illegal.
• Manufactory, Hidden (1): A hidden, possibly illegal, manufactory placed by a corporation near resources or where it's not supposed to be. The goods aren't necessarily illegal, but the base itself might is.
• Manufactory, Hidden (2): A hidden manufactory where secret construction products are completed. Also a top secret research and development may be present.
• Manufactory: A small space-based manufacturing facility; Zero-G metallurgy, Zero-G drugs/pharmaceuticals, ship parts, etc.
• Massive Data Storage Facility: Remote place, possibly outside of governmental control. Probably coupled with a high performance communications relay.
• Massive Particle Accelerator Station: Special type of science station, placed remote from colonies for safety reasons.
• Medical Station: For a sector of space or a single star system. Usually the best medical treatment found in the area. Sometimes specialised to a specific type of medicine.
• Mercenary Base, Training: Where mercenaries can train, can either belong to a single mercenary group, owned by a group of mercenary groups, or independent.
• Mercenary Base: Base of operations for a mercenary band.
• Military, Administrative: Military base focused more on logistics, training, and administration.
• Military, Command Centre: Either for a single branch of military or for multitude of branches.
• Military, Decommissioned Shipyard: Where decommissioned ships are kept until they are scrapped, or are kept mothballed in case of future use.
• Military, Fast Response Base: Squadron of fighters, a small military unit, or a corvette or two; designed to quickly respond to enemy acts of aggression, patrol local space, etc.
• Military, Field Training Base: larger than the Minor Training Base and used for larger training exercises.
• Military, Forward Deployment Base: Where military forces are able to gather prior to an attack. Not necessarily a supply base though it can be.
• Military, Forward Operating Base: Where military forces are based during deployment while in an active warzone. Usually smaller bases away from the main administrative and central deployment bases close to or in dangerous zones.
• Military, Hidden Base: <100 Active Duty, maintains a secret presence. Can be camouflaged as another space outpost.
• Military, Listening Post: Observation post, possibly pointed towards enemy territory or an active war zone.
• Military, Magazine/Armoury/Depot: Resupply base; ammo, fuel, and other consumables.
• Military, Minor Base: <100 Active Duty.
• Military, Minor Training Base: <1000 active duty.
• Military, Research and Development: Weapon and ship design testing.
• Military, Scout Base: <20 Active Duty, base for 2 to 3 long distance scouts.
• Military, Scrap Yard: Like the civilian Scrap Yard except military yards deal with decommissioned military vessels. Unlikely to sell parts but since they are typically not as well defended enterprising privateers may be able to raid the installation for outdated but still functional weapons and systems.
• Military, Special Forces Training Base
• Military, Staging Post: Build up of military forces as a prelude to military action. Not necessarily any outpost at this location.
• Mining Operation, Automated: Largely automated mining/refining post.
• Mining Operation, Penal: Hard labour prison.
• Mining Operation: Some automation but with a large amount of manual work still requiring to be done.
• Museum/Archive: Picture the warehouse at the end of Raiders of the Lost Arc...now imagine it inside a hollowed-out asteroid...
• Navigation Buoy: ‘You Are Here.’
• News Station: Either a home for a single large news network, of any medium, or houses many different mediums of news agencies.
• Outlaw Hideout: Where some folks on the run from the law are hiding. Can be an outpost from this list converted, or subverted, to being a hideout.
• Peacekeeping Compound: An external force keeping peace in a dangerous, war torn, region.
• Penal Colonies: Have to put all the bad guys somewhere. Especially the ones that you don't want around anymore.
• Penal Death Camp: Prisoners are left here to die or are actively killed.
• Penal Work Camp: Prisoners serve their time though hard labour.
• Pirate Base
• Pirate Safe Haven: A large, or not so large, port where pirates can come to spend their gains, repair their ships, refill all their expendables.
• Prison Facility: A mixed level of security and possibly a barracks for prison guards.
• Prison, Alien: Maybe for an unknown alien race, and maybe a horrific one. Or maybe just for those of the same race but just not from the system.
• Prison, High Security: Very secure station used to hold very dangerous, even in just the eyes of the government, prisoners.
• Prison, Open: Minimal security, to segregate those minor criminals away from the rest of the prison population.
• Prison, Political: Where political prisoners are held, can be either comfortable or uncomfortable depending on the government.
• Prison: Secure station used to hold either a systems or sectors worth of criminals away from the general population.
• Private Residence: Private home of a wealthy individual, likely to be well guarded.
• Refuelling Depot: Space fuel station.
• Refugee Camp: Crowded and little spare wealth. Fleeing for their lives this is a home for desperate people who have lost everything.
• Relay Stations: Either for fast courier vessels or for unidirectional FTL communications.
• Religious Commune: Population <1000.
• Religious Compound: Either monastery or cult compound.
• Religious Site: Pilgrimage destination, home for holy relics, or an old religious centre.
• Repair Depot: Maintenance yard/minor repairs.
• Research and Development, Corporate: Wide array of projects; dimensional/time travel, new ships, new weapons, new drugs, etc.
• Research and Development, Top Secret: Next generation technology today.
• Resort/Entertainment Centre: a space-based Disney-land.
• Resort/Gambling: a space-based Las Vegas.
• Restaurant Complex: A large or not so large eatery. Usually belong to a chain, though independent examples do exist.
• Rich Eccentric’s Compound: Those strange rich folks build in the darnest places for the strangest reasons.
• Ruin/Abandoned: Pick from outpost list then trash it. Either decayed, abandoned but in good order, or something happened to it or around it...
• Science Outpost, Applied Research: Biowar weapons, new starship engines, new secret weapons, etc.
• Science Outpost, Dangerous Research: Usually kept apart from inhabited or major transport routes in case something bad happens.
• Science Outpost, Top Secret: Very high security. The most secret of work goes on in here producing the most advanced science known, or the most dangerous.
• Science Outpost: Government/military/private sponsored science post; studies the star, local space/time anomaly, flora/fauna of local planet/moon, or some other science orientated project. Might not have an aim in studying science.
• Scrap Yard: Deals with old run down ships, may be a source of valuable, but cheap, spare parts, particularly if the PC’s operate an older vessel.
• Secret Weapon Test Site: Not where they build them but where they try them out.
• Security Compound: An internal force keeping peace in a dangerous, war torn, region.
• Security Grid Node: A network of monitoring nodes forms a deep space perimeter network to detect violation of boundaries.
• Service Station: Usually holds a small retail centre and a refuelling centre and are found along major transit routes.
• Shipyard, Corporate: ~50 slips of large size or a single assembly line producing shuttles or fighters.
• Shipyard, Nationalized: Over a hundred slips, all sizes of vessels.
• Shipyard, Private: Less than ten slips of moderate size or smaller size.
• Small Space Stations: On asteroid, small planets, or moons.
• Smuggler Base: Place to rest, relax, and recoup between smuggling runs. See also Pirate Safe Haven
• Space Debris Accretion Zone: A ring of space junk that has accumulated. Can be dangerous or could also be mined. If mined there might also be a mining station nearby.
• Space Hotel/Motel/Hostel: Possibly near an unusual or nice looking phenomenon, or a transport route or hub.
• Space Weather Buoy: Measuring and possibly sending out data and/or warnings about various space weather conditions.
• Spy Bases: Usually hidden in a space outpost, pick an outpost to use as a cover.
• Spy Training Camp: Its location may be common knowledge but it’s infrastructure is usually kept secure.
• Star Mall: A large base with over 20 services under one roof. Sells everything from spacesuits and spare parts to jewellery and evening gowns.
• Summer Residence Station: Possibly near an unusual or nice looking phenomenon, or a transport route or hub. Usually for a small group of people, like a family, occasionally groups of them are gathered together or built into a single outpost.
• Surveillance, Covert: A hidden base designed to gather intelligence. Usually based along internal or external communication links, near major nodes and/or transport hubs. Can be corporate, governmental, military, or police.
• Surveillance, Overt: A base designed to gather intelligence. Usually based along communication links, near major nodes and/or transport hubs. Can be corporate, governmental, military, or police.
• Terraforming Facility: Small highly automated
• Terrorist Camp
• Terrorist Training Camp: Where terrorists are trained. Either in the open in a friendly environment or secret if operating in hostile environment.
• Tomb: For something alien and potentially it could be something really nasty; maybe it’s in suspended animation or maybe it’s got some ancient and dangerous automated defences protecting it.
• Trading Outpost, Black Market: Home of the local black market, home also of some fixers. Fuel, supplies, weapons, and any other goods can be acquired: No questions asked.
• Trading Outpost, Grey Market: Semi-legal trading post.
• Trading Outpost: Above board trading post; fuel, supplies, etc.
• Underground Railroad: An outpost—either pick from the list or is dedicated to its role—that is used to cover the movement of a class of people escaping from a regime to a place of freedom.
• University
• War Memorial
• Warehouse: A location where goods are stored.
• Water Purification/Distribution Plants
• Weapon Platforms: Automated or manned.
