Deep Space Survey mission to investigate the "Norma Donut"
29 Aug 2020Paulie Wotsit
The Deep Space Survey Mission Investigation of the Norma Donut Anomaly.
It was whilst studying a multilayered scan of the galaxy, tracking fsd signatures to find untravelled regions of the galaxy that an anomaly deep in the Norma Expanse became known. An area marked by a ring of signatures with a few hits across it (or are they above and below? The scans weren’t clear on that point.) It was decided then that the DSSMs first active mission was agreed upon. The DSS Shackletons Folly was despatched to the region to investigate further.
DSS Shackletons Folly during field testing, July 3306
After rigorous field testing and training a new crew, the Shackletons Folly headed to the anomalous region, estimated at being somewhere near a system catalogued as Phrausks FX-A D1-59, and scheduled to begin surveying the region in Sept. 3306.
Currently all systems are green, and deployment is on target.
[Cmdr Paulie Wotsit, mission leader, dated 08083306]
It was during the first leg of the journey to the Donut that Command realised that it was going to be a close call with fuel to reach the deployment zone, after engineering commed in with an almost frantic energy to say that we were going to be 1kly short of the final leg. Command decided that the plan to survey from entering the Norma Expanse up to our destination, through the old method of a long range asp explorer to scan and map for hotspots between waypoints. Yes, it put back the mission by a few earth days, but better late than never, as they used to say.
The order came through as we left the Inner Orion Spur and entered Hawking’s Gap to fit out the DSS Survey Scout for exploration and mining.
“Priority 1. Locate tritium hotspots.
Priority 2. Locate valuable survey data such as ELW, TF, WW, AW and Geological/Biological signals.
Make sure you bring us good news, commander"
It only took 3 days of searching before Cmdr Wotsit came across Thailooe WG-J d10-17. Planet 4 was perfect. Not only multiple tritium hotspots, but high value ones such as lowtemp diamonds, void opals, alexandrite…
Hotspots galore!
It was only when Cmdr Wotsit had returned to the ‘Folly that he received the message from engineering that due to some technical wizardry they’d somehow managed to DOUBLE the efficiency of tritium!
Today we reached the Norma Expanse after cutting quickly through Hawking’s Gap and into phase 3 of the journey out. Command has decided to continue scouting ahead with the AspX and playing chase with the Carrier. It makes sense keeping the fuel topped up, and the exploration data is more than covering the costs of running the carrier. That and the nice load of high value minerals we’re building up, should see us through.
Signing off for now, o7