Nearing the Outer Edge of The Outer Arm Vacuus
12 May 2021Titus A. Cromwell
13,613.81 Light Years from Cubeo. 50 routine jumps today. Refueled twice. 751.10 Light years to exit the far side of The Outer Arm Vacuus. That's 18 routine jumps that I could make that in about 16 minutes if I didn't have to keep scanning down all these virgin systems. The scanning and mapping is what takes time.
I also have enough injections to get past the galaxy edge. I plotted the route to the outer most system in the galaxy once I exit the far side of The Outer Arm. Yesterday I estimated about 12 to 18 injection jumps to get out. My plotted course came out to 14 premium injections. Pretty darn good calculating.
48 of the 50 systems I mapped today had not been discovered. A few water worlds and terraformable planets.
Actually, I have enough injections to get past the last system at the galaxy's edge and get home to Cubeo. So no more prospecting for this trip. The plan for tomorrow is get to the outer Arm, 14 injections to the outer most star in the galaxy, then leave the galaxy and see how far I can get from the galaxy center, Sagittarius A*, before my fuel endurance makes me turn around.
The entire cross section on the Arm I am traversing is about 4,500 light years across. Most of it is uncharted. Once I get back I'll make another trip out here to chart up and down the arm to the farthest star at the tail end of the arm. You can literally spend years out here and never see another pilot or not find an uncharted system. An explorers gold mine.