Horosha: Commanders Log: 3306-02-21
21 Feb 2020Rex-Cramer
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Ship: Horosha
System: Wregoe CW-L d8-8
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Our shakedown cruise is overall going well. It is however good that we took time to test out all major systems while we had a close eye on them. Exploration works well in the Cutter and our test excursions in the SRV have been very successful so far. HIP 52854 A1A turned out to be a rich source of Zirconium and Tungsten, both materials that I have need for when synthesizing ammunition for rail guns. We gave the landing systems and SRV hanger a good test and collected a decent amount of material while we were there. No issues developed in the use of these systems which were purchased with the ship.
First test run of the SRVs
The most interesting stellar sight on the voyage has been an 11 solar radius class M star with 0.5 solar masses in HIP 49887. That would indicate that the star is reaching the end of its life-cycle. Still well inside the orbit of Mercury in Sol but very large for an M class indicating that it’s core heat is increasing swelling it’s size.
11 Solar rasdius star, 0.5 solar masses
More than Norikura however, this ship used modules ported over from our Anaconda. It seems that in the transition, not everything was fully interchangeable and some problems developed relating to power. The plant from Narada was used in this ship and we’ve noticed there seems to be a firmware issue between the module and the ship which is leading the ship to see reduced power output and disable systems even with weapons retracted. Kayley is on it, she’s our power expert and she got the updated firmware through a relay before we were too far outside the bubble. She’s working on preparation to install in the field. It’s a bit risky but we are pretty certain it can be completed without undo risk to the ship. Going into limp-mode randomly is not something we want to keep experiencing.
The other problem module was also transferred from Narada. Our refinery was running well while processing low temp diamonds when suddenly I was getting errors flashed up to the HUD that material was still in the hopper. Checking it was noticed that the refinery was offline. I called down to the processing level and Edwin answered. Asking him what was going on, he explained that the power interconnects had been modified to adapt to the Cutters high power bus. However the strain relief had not been properly adjusted and the heat/deep cold cycle caused the nearly 3” aluminum bar it rides in on to snap and then arcing caused the bar to melt to slag until the air gap stopped the arc. Lucky for us the fir suppression system did it’s job and the molten aluminum did not land on anything else critical. He indicated he could get it back up in about 30 minutes. About 90 minutes later it was online again and we were able to continue mining operations.
Dead in the water, waiting on repairs to the refinery
Back in business
Back in business
Otherwise the ship is functioning well. The crew is eager to test out its limits. The increased speed at which we can skim under the rings hunting cores is appreciated by all involved in our mining operations. My primary concern was maneuverability within the ring material as the Cutter is a far heavier vessel than the Anaconda. However the 7D drives fully engineered are performing very well and it’s been simple to both maneuver to plant the charges as well as collect the resulting yield. I’m pleased with it’s performance in core mining and have little doubt it will function fine in laser mining as well.
One issue we have noticed there is the position of the lasers. Normal mining turrets have a 500m range but the position of the lasers above the nacelles eats up that range getting past the ship’s nose, meaning we must be very close to the rock to use them. I believe we may need to get access to the mining lance to compensate for that positioning. I can also look at moving the core mining tools to those positions as they are not as range-limited but that would make charge placement more problematic. Mining lance would be the ideal solution I believe.
Overall the trip is a success and the ship is functioning well. Edwin is checking the remaining module’s power intakes while we take a rest shift on a moon outside the ring system we are mining. Spirits are high, and the food tonight is good.
Landed for a rest cycle
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