Frontier Posts were small facilities maintained by the Bureau of Scouting and Exploration Services on over five thousand planets. Each Frontier Post was highly automated, with a staff of only three or four individuals. The installations provided food, drink, lodgings, equipment, ship maintenance and repair, and other services to active scouts. The sheer number of Frontier Posts meant that it was hard to regulate them, and some had fallen under the control of disreputable individuals who used their position to profit by marking up the prices of goods and services.