Logbook entry

Entry 2 - Almost Ready for Test Flight!

• Power Plant: Despite the Phantom's expansive size 7 reactor bay, I went with the smallest power plant I could fit that would still meet my power needs. Since much of the mass of a ship usually consists of the power plant, this yields significant mass savings. Where appropriate, I've also selected the other modules in the ship to minimize power draw. In the end, the 2A power plant isn't quite enough on its own, but can be engineered to put out a bit more power, while still being lighter than a 3A or even 3D unit.
• Thrusters: Similarly, the Thrusters have been downgraded from size 6 a 4D unit. This was the lightest thruster system I could fit that would still give me sufficient thrust for planetary landings and the occasional boost. I'm hoping not to run into any combat, so maneuvering capability shouldn't be too mission critical.
• Frame Shift Drive: After negotiating with my Tech Broker for a while, I was able to source an experimental prototype 5A FSD drive that fits into the Phantom's FSD Housing. The unit is pre-engineered for extended range, and has a few other optimizations. As wonderful as Farseer is at what she does, I'm not sure I've ever seen her produce a frame shift drive that performs like this one. I think I will take it to her to see if she can make any tweaks to it, though.
• Life Support: No point in skimping on this. Out in the black, light years from any repair or resupply station, I need to have the best life support system possible in case things go wrong. Pulling out the 4E unit and replacing it with a 4A system was a no-brainer. I just have to see if I can upgrade this even further through an engineer. It is quite massive, though... perhaps I could work with the engineer to shave off a few tonnes?
• Power Distributor: Once again, I tried to save as much weight as possible here. The size 7 unit has been replaced with a 3D unit which would still meet my needs. I'll be trying to goose some extra juice out of it by taking it to an engineer... perhaps The Dweller would be able to help.
• Sensors: When we were pulling this stuff out, I was amazed at how much sensory equipment is packed into these ships. 40 tonnes. After speaking to the Faulcon Delacey rep, they were able to recommend a smaller 6D kit which sacrificed some structural integrity and a little bit of efficiency, but brought the mass down to 16 tonnes. Definitely worth the trade off.
• Fuel Tank: The 32 tonne fuel tank is perhaps a little on the large side, but if I'll be crossing the Abyss (or any other parts of the galaxy with low star densities) I'll want some overall range in case there are a string of stars that I can't scoop fuel from, so I left it as is.

• 6A Fuel Scoop: This should be obvious. To make the best time, I want to spend as little time scooping as possible. In combination with the conversion to fiber optic cabling and other weight saving measures, I was able to squeeze this in without any significant gain in net mass.
• 5H Guardian Frame Shift Drive Booster: Another low-hanging fruit. Sure, it's power hungry, so until I engineer the power plant a bit, I won't even be able to run it,  but overall the 10.5Ly boost is too good to pass up. Some of the secondary and backup repair systems will just remain powered off while the FSD booster is active, and vice versa.
• 5E Cargo Rack: I'm not anticipating hauling too much cargo on this craft, but I wanted the capacity to haul some critical supplies, if necessary, including the capacity to have some repair limpets on hand. I'm guessing it will be a good long while before I can reach a ground crew capable of doing any hull repairs.
• 5A Auto Field Maintenance Unit: As new as they are today, modules don't last forever, unfortunately. I'm sure I'll be putting some significant wear and tear on that frame shift drive, at the very least. This AFMU will serve as my primary module repair service. That being said, it will remain powered off until it is actually time to do the repairs, in order for the ship to remain within its power budget.
• 3A Auto Field Maintenance Unit: A secondary AFMU whose sole purpose is to repair the primary AFMU when that begins to run down. I'll have to bring enough supplies with me to be able to synthesize refills for these units, but I'll know more about exactly what and how much I'll need after the first few test flights.
• 3D Shield Generator: Essentially just a bump shield for planetary landings or space debris. Without any weapons loaded into the hardpoints, combat isn't really an option for this ship, so the shield can be comparatively small. Perhaps if I have the opportunity, I'll have an engineer reinforce the generator, but it's honestly a secondary concern at this point.
• 2G Planetary Vehicle Hangar: For surface exploration and occasional resource gathering. I considered trying to fit the larger size 4 hangar, in order to have redundant SRV's, but the trade off in mass and jump range was too much. So there is some risk involved here, but I should be able to bring supplies to repair the single SRV as long as I don't destroy it outright.
• 1D Repair Limpet Controller: This is here simply to repair whatever the AFMU cannot. It may be slow, and inefficient, but I'll have plenty of time on my hands out there, so I'm not worried about making repairs under a time limit. I just need to make sure I bring enough materials to synthesize the requisite limpets.
• 1I Detailed Surface Scanner: One of the motivators behind this journey is simple exploration, so this DSS unit will help uncover planetary points of interest, as well as any useful resources, should I need to restock. Not to mention, I'm sure the Cartographer's Guild would pay well for some of the data I would bring back.

Notable Omissions: Due to the limited slots available, I had to make some decisions as to what to take and what to leave behind. The biggest of these casualties are the lack of any Supercruise Assist or Auto-Docking modules. This means I'll be hand-flying everything, but considering what the normal workflow loop is going to look like, I'm not sure I'll have much use for either. Likewise for collector limpets. While it would be nice to be able to easily collect materials from space, the likelihood that I'll encounter any is relatively low, and if I absolutely need to, I can take the time to fly cargo scoop into the materials to collect them that way. In reality, much of the automation was sacrificed in the name of mass reduction, so I'll be doing a lot of the work myself.