Lost Souls 3 Expedition Log - 33080722
25 Jul 2022XpressioN
Interesting Points of Interest - Pt 1
Docked at the carrier I heard cheers from a group of commanders while walking down the hallway. Two of my friends made it to Elite V rank in exploration and were celebrating in a big fashion way. So far we covered 84kLy from the beginning of this expedition. Not all of us managed to make it at this point. Some stopped half way through and hitched a hike on one of the transit carriers back to the Bubble. Those brave enough made it waypoint after waypoint gaining exploration experience and satisfaction.
Spent a day, there in that system. The next couple of POIs and waypoint were announced. After dinner, it was time to leave. There was a mass jump event being organised on a planet at a nearby system, so I took the opportunity to meet up with some friends and get some SRV action.
The next Waypoint was only a couple of Light years away, so I planed to visit some of the nearest POIs. Now the stars density is increasing so there's plenty of interesting systems to visit. We're getting nearer to the Bubble, so the undiscoverable systems are getting rare. Having said that, I still made first discovery of quite a couple of systems in this sector.
The first POI after I left was RS Persei - a red giant of 1,265 solar radii and thus slightly larger than Mu Cephei. It is located inside the Chi Persei Cluster (NGC 884). The sun emitted large solar flares and huge bursts of electromagnetic radiation. Luckily enough technology advances led to the ships we've got today capable of withstanding the extreme of environments like this.
The giant is orbited by two landable hot and barren metal rich planets, one of which is still close enough to the star as to make fuel scooping possible while in orbital flight. Both planets are rich in the more exotic elements needed for advanced matter synthesis. I managed to disembark from my ship, however only for a couple of seconds to take a picture. The Artemis suit is really made of durable materials, one of a kind.
This red giant is located in a star cluster, the NGC 884. Also known as the Chi Persei Cluster, this is an open cluster of bright O-type and B-type stars and a part of the Perseus OB1 association. Several neutron stars and black holes can also be found as companions. The cluster is also notable for having several supergiants within it (FZ Persei, RS Persei, V439 Persei, V403 Persei and HD 14143). Neutron stars and Black holes always attracted me to explore. NGC 884 W 168 has two neutron stars orbiting each other.
I jumped to another system, this time to BD+56 566. This had an two B-type stars and a Herbig Ae/Be Star. These are young stars typically less than 10 million years old with characteristics of either A or B class main sequence stars. They are usually between 2 and 8 solar masses. The mass of the proto-star determines its spectral class when it joins the main sequence.
Herbig Ae/Be stars are more common nearer the galactic core.
Next was TYC 3694-1331-1 which had two O-type stars orbiting each other and 1,676 ls apart. An FSD jump away there is also BD+56 586 which consists of a B-type star orbiting a Neutron star.
That was a day full of blues. I needed a rest, so I turned off the lights and slept for a couple of hours. My next POI was that of the expedition. I'll finally dock on an Asteroid station, so it would be nice to meet new commanders there.
I had overslept, but glad I felt much better now to proceed with the voyage. Those blue lights might have effected me a bit. They're quite hypnotizing and the more you look at them, the more you want to continue looking at them. I was headed to the Heart and Soul nebulae. This is the second time I'm visiting these nebulae. Their placement, next to each other, makes them for a perfect couple of shots.
Couple of jumps more and I had finally made it to POI. Heart Sector IR-V b2-0 (Farsight Expedition Base). Farsight Expedition Base is mainly a mining outpost carved deep into a large asteroid orbiting a near gas giant in its inner ring system. The outpost is still crude and basic, and as of 04/3303 no outfitting or ship dry docking is available, so extensive ship maintenance is a problem. There is a Universal Cartographics office and some local contractors offer missions and passenger transport opportunities.
Granted permission to dock and had my Krait Phantom undergone repairs. Had it stocked with goods and necessities. I enjoyed the visit of this Asteroid base. An Asteroid Base is a station built inside a large, hollowed asteroid. They can be found in various deep space locations such as nebulae. Asteroid Bases hold 4 small Landing Pads, 8 medium pads, and 6 large pads. While they rotate like other station types, the rate of rotation is noticeably slower. Available services vary between Asteroid Bases; while all are equipped with a commodities market, refueling, repair, and restock, some may also have a black market, outfitting, and shipyard facilities.
Next part - Interesting Points of Interest - Pt 2