BD-12 1172: Survey mission report, or, What I Did on My Christmas Vacation
26 Dec 2018James Hussar
A few days ago I dusted off my AspX and headed out to "sea trial" the new exploration mechanics. I picked a nebula out of the galaxy map (Witchhead) and headed there to see if I could find anything of interest. My codex had very few common discoveries as "confirmed". A few star and planet types and the odd vent or spout. Upon reaching the nebula I found it to be very sparse in terms of stars located inside of it, and those systems didn't contain anything of particular interest. While idly browsing the codex, I noticed that BD-12 1172 was repeatedly named as containing several of notable stellar phenomena, so off I went.
BD-12 1772 is 1100.02LY from Sol on a direct line - but caution, fellow explorer - the system rests on the for side of the Col 70 sector, the entirety of which is Permit Locked by the Pilots Federation. There's no getting through it without substantial jump range or going around the long way. I managed to stumble my way there from the Witchhead nebula without even noticing, but making my way back took a bit of planning and deliberate detouring to clear Col 70.
The BD-12 1172 system itself is remarkable and well-worth the visit. It is anchored in space by a massive (47+ Sol mass) O type star that gives a bright violet/pink glow to most of the system. The farthest orbiting (19th) main body is an M type star. In between is a wealth of planets and moons, most landable, several ringed and pristine with rocky and metal rich varieties present. Numerous hotspots of the most precious resources were detected.
Most of the landable planets and moons exhibit numerous geological and biological locations worth exploring. There are several varieties of vents and fumaroles in the system, all of which containing the full range of mineral deposits available for harvest, as noted below. The biological surface signs are exclusively prasinus (reddish) bio-luminescent anemones. I did not maintain detailed notes on their locations, but both the geological and biological points of interest are so plentiful that any visitor to the system who remembers to pack their surface scanner will find them with ease.
Of particular note and codex value are the Notable Stellar Phenomena - detectable upon discovery scan - located as follows:
Body 2, A-ring: Flavus (yellowish) Metallic Crystals
Body 6, A-ring: Rubeus (red) Metallic Crystals, Solid Mineral Spheres (Sanchez Class Science Vessel on station, mild NPC presence, peaceful)
Body 10, A-ring: Rubeus Metallic Crystals, Lattice Mineral Spheres
The metallic crystals are the large cruciform (cross/star) shaped crystals you may have seen on the news feeds. They are quite large, with the spikes measuring about 450m from the center of the structure.
The solid mineral spheres are just that, clusters of spheres, solid, and durable, and very organic-looking. Lattice mineral spheres look very much like the solid variant, but appear to be made of hexagonal or octagonal - not quite circular - rings of material - similar to buckminsterfullerene. What's interesting about these is that they are not fused together into clusters at the edges of the hollow spheres - rather, they are interlaced, so that the edges of one sphere pass through the openings of another, binding them together.
All these items were present in Rocky rings. I observed no phenomena in the metal rich rings I visited.
The anemones (space pumpkins) are typ[ically spherical, but can have an additional dome making them look like a gourd - hence their nickname. They pulse with light from their base to their top along rib-like structures that run vertically up the object along it's circumference. They give off a dull, low-frequency roar on the sensors when you are within 1km of them. They register as a thick band near the top of the wave scanner, with colectable items casting a faint trace of longer vertical lines when properly oriented. They contain typically one (sometimes two) of the below features - most of which give off a gentle glow in the dark.
| Name: | Appearance: | Material Class |
| cordycep growth | Frond-like | 1 |
| polyporous growth | Wood-ear-like | 2 |
| mussidean seed pod | Spongiform | 3 |
| phloem excretion | Nodular | 4 |
Note that while the material class dropped when shooting these features is consistent, the actual material dropped depends on what elements are available in the surface - so note the planetary composition and establish expectations accordingly.
Also notable is that once the features are harvested, the wave scanner no longer picks up the specific anemone, which simplifies thorough collection of the available minerals.
The biology of these creatures seems to be such that they are mostly inert to scanners, except of the concentrations of minerals present and expressed as the above-listed growths.
Both the pervasiveness of this biological variant in this system, and its singular uniqueness here suggests an interesting dispersion hypothesis. One single variety of organism did not spontaneously evolve in multiple locations throughout this system. They surely evolved on a single body, quite possibly on a moon of one of the giant planets present within this system that was later destroyed during the formation of some of the rings here, scattering the primitive life across the entire system. Either that, or in keeping with the panspermia theory, they came to this system on asteroids from "elsewhere". Also, there is no readily apparent relationship between any of the stellar phenomena in the planetary rings and the biologicals on the many moon surfaces.
Geological observations mirror the biological except that a larger variety of vents, geysers and fumaroles is present within the system. In each case, mineral concentrations as determined by planetary composition are present and may be harvested similar to the biological. Mineral deposits are present in the four varieties described below, and I observed as many as three deposits on one vent, though 1 per vent is most common. Volcanism fields register on the wave scanner as broad bands low on the scanner, with harvestable mineral deposits showing as a faint line and corresponding higher frequency audio trace above the nominal trace. Unlike the anemones, harvesting the mineral deposit does not remove the entire signal from the wave scanner, only the higher mineral trace.
| Name | Appearance | Material Class |
| piceaous cobble | nodular rock | 1 |
| crystaline fragments | several stout crystals | 2, 4 |
| crystaline cluster | few long crystals | 3 |
| needle crystals | crystal porcupine | 4, 5 |
In summary, fellow Commanders, if you have an itch to travel and be assured for finding something interesting, and want to hoard up on minerals, I heartily recommend adding BD-12 1172 to your itinerary. I have a variety of pictures to aid in the identification of the above notables that I would be happy to share upon request.