CMDR PAUSANIAS - THE SHIP OF THE MIND EXPEDITION - DAY 91
08 Nov 2020Pausanias
TONIGHT MY SECOND EARTHLIKE AND I GET THE SRV STUCK UNDER THE CUTTERS ENGINE!Hi Cmdrs,
Today I went out into the field of Sulphur Dioxide Geysers I’d landed in front of last night. I didn’t find much I could collect but I did take this image of the SRV in the field, you may not spot it easily because it’s amongst all the smoke.
I didn’t stay there too long before resuming the journey to the Carrier. On route I came across this unusually coloured planet and as I approached I felt sure it was looking at me, can you see the eyes, nose and mouth here?
Then BINGO! Another Earthlike find, only my second one on this trip. I flew around the dark side to see if there were any lights emanating from cities but alas no, no life, not intelligent anyway. Maybe I was there a few millennia early, or maybe too late?
With just one jump to go to The Carl Sagan I dropped down to this moon as there were Geological Signals on it, quite a few in fact. Upon landing the Cutter, and deploying the SRV, the area was littered by these glowing red rocks.
Sometimes I’ve seen rocks that look like they are glowing but it’s just an effect caused by the local sun, go around them to their other side and they look normal. Not these, I went 360 degrees around these and they continued to glow, I can only conclude that the moon itself is heating the rocks.
Here is a much bigger one, same thing though, driving all the way around it shows it glowing from all angles.
The area where the Geological Signals resided was extremely uneven so I landed the Cutter on a flatter area a little way from the Signals. This made the journey to the Signals in the SRV very difficult, I had to climb up a very steep hill which I struggled with but eventually I was successful and ended up on a plateau near the Geysers. They turned out to be Water Ice Geysers.
In this image this one is gushing green gas. Once the gas stops it then gushes water before fizzling out. The thing is in the gas spewing stage it is coming out under extreme pressure. I didn’t do it but if I’d have driven the SRV into the jet I’m sure with the 0.6G gravity it would have shot me off the moon, perhaps.
I thought getting back to the Cutter would be easier because it was down hill, and it was, I used the thrusters to ‘fly’ down the hill, landed badly and ended up rammed under one of the Cutters engines, I was stuck, couldn’t move anywhere, see this image.
Having tried a few tricks I’ve learnt I was left with one option, dismissing the Cutter. I did this and it released me from my predicament, I righted the SRV and recalled the ship, got on board and left to do the last jump to the Carrier system.
Upon arriving I scanned the entire system finding around 12 planets with ring systems. I decided to drop off the 12,500,000 first and then look for Tritium leaving the Carrier in the system whilst doing it. Out of 12 planets not one had icy rings, they were either rocky or metallic. I decided to just go to the Carrier and call it a night.
Total Carrier jump distance since 10th August: 36,000 ltyrs - (Personal note: 69 jumps on 2 Nov)
Total Ship jump so far: 62,909
Total planets Level 3 scanned: 23,504
Total exploration data: 609,000,000 credits
Total systems with my name on: 3375
The Cutter is now 26,524 ltyrs away from Sol!
Distance to Beagle Point: 47,359 ltyrs
The adventure continues . . .
P