M.R.S.C. Mercator - Carrier Log, Day 61 - Day 90
19 Sep 2020FalconFly
Mining and Reconnaissance, Strategic Carrier
The Mission :
The M.R.S.C. Mercator departed into the Arcadian Stream on 20 Jun 3306 for a long-term Exploration Campaign. On Station at a sequence of Waypoints, its Primary Objectives are :
- discover any NSP (Notable Stellar Phenomena), as none was discovered in this Galactic Sector yet
- discover a new Green Gas Giant, which are easily amongst the most rare and elusive Objects in the Galaxy
Secondary Objectives :
- conduct Mining Hotspot Surveys and report high-quality Double Hotspots to the IMU (Intergalactic Mining Union)
- support Explorers in Deep Space with onboard Services
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Mission Time : 61 Days
The first normal and full Day within the new AOR....
Although Operations naturally aren't that different, feels fresh and new.
After spending 2 months around the previous Waypoint, that change clearly was required.
Time will have to tell what this new location delivers, focus will likely remain on scanning Systems while Mining will take a backseat.
After only a short time on Station here, obviously NTR - Nothing to Report yet... but another Earth-Like World was found nearby already.
I'd say it's off for a good start !
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Mission Time : 62 Days
A tiny Milestone has been reached : the new AOR within 20LY around the Mercator has been fully scanned.
As this new Area of Responsibility at this Waypoint is dynamic in nature, it has now been increased to 50LY.
Given the far lower Star Density down here, seems realistic. Plenty of time to fill it with meat.
Although both Mining and related Hotspot Survey has been practically put on hold more or less, I'm thinking about trying to locate a Double Tritium Hotspot.
With the already reported Hotspots not being far away (for a Carrier), a 2x Painite or 2x LTD Hotspot would work just fine for me as well.
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Mission Time : 63 Days
Despite some RL tasks, making good progress in the local area.
E-Mass is already checked off the ToDo List within 50LY, next up is the usual Nav/C/D Pattern.
A few more potentially interesting Hotspot Candidates were added but nothing fancy was discovered. If anything, it brings the amount of total documented Hotspots for the Arcadian Stream up to 2276.
Total amount of Systems scanned in the current AOR reads 259; while that's still based on the originally planned 100LY radius, it means things are moving along nicely.
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Mission Time : 64 Days
A bunch of more Systems have been scanned within the 50LY AOR Volume, which is slowly filling up with visited Systems.
Not many D-Mass Systems left, so no more point in the Nav/C/D Scan Pattern. The rest requires to simply fill in the blanks, which should only take a few more days.
During the evening, a Carrier Distress Signal was received, which was very close to the Mercator's 1000LY SAR radius.
After quick coordination the Mercator was relocated to rendezvous with the other Carrier, which reported a Low Fuel condition.
RV Point was the 2x Tritium Hotspot in Coests SF-Y c17-90 near Waypoint Alpha.
Within less than 2hrs from initial response, 3648t Tritium were successfully transferred by the CSV Hanjin.
Nearing the end of the current Mission Day, the Mercator has jumped back to Waypoint Bravo.
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Mission Time : 65 Days
Following yesterday's SAR Operation of the Mercator to assist another Carrier - and the recent changes to Tritium effectiveness in mind - it was time to make a new Bingo Fuel Calculation.
With the current payload, what does it take to move the Carrier back to its Point Of Origin? That figure now reads : 3687 tons.
With safe Reserves added, future movements (scheduled or unscheduled) and payload increase taken into consideration, the new Bingo Fuel is : 4500 tons.
After a few Tritium Mining runs, the current Fuel Level of the Mercator is at a comfortable 8374 tons.
That's easily enough to maintain active SAR Status.
As a byproduct, the yields in a generic Tritium Hotspot were assessed - and damn, they were very good.
Clearly far better than expected, which is good news. Mining Tritium definitely works if required.
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Mission Time : 67 Days
Things moving a tad slower than normal but otherwise still made some progress...
A little more Mining was performed and some more Hotspots added to the Survey.
As the 20LY AOR Milestone was passed recently, a good time to assess total amount of Systems down here and compare it to Waypoint Alpha.
While near the Galactic plane around Alpha the 100LY Volume was calculated to approx. 43600 Systems, the Situation down here near -1000LY Elevation is vastly different.
Within 20LY, there's a precise 87 Systems at Waypoint Bravo vs. 346 at Alpha.
So that's some 1359 Systems expected within 50LY and 10875 Systems within 100LY around the center.
With 320 Systems scanned within 50LY, that makes that 50LY task 23.5% complete. And just like that, I even have a reliable progress indicator. Not bad.
With 23 Days remaining at Bravo in mind, the AOR will likely reach and fill 50LY - but not more.
So at least in the Arcadian Stream, -1000LY elevation from the Galactic plane cuts the System Density down to a 1/4th.
That's very useful Data to keep in my mind when it comes to making realistic projections concerning AOR sizes and expected total amount of scan volume.
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Mission Time : 68 Days
Despite alot RL tasks, was able to fill in a few more blanks.
As of today, the 50LY AOR around Waypoint Bravo holds 400 scanned Systems.
Although not being "in shape" quite yet, the tiny speck this area was not long ago is beginning to reflect the intense Exploration activity.
Based on my own established Metrics, the Mercator is now at 29.4% complete concerning the current area.
Other than that, NTR - Nothing to Report.
So far, the area did not quite live up to expectations and scores almost a perfect zero on the Surprise Scale.
It did not even yield any useful Double Hotspots and my Mining Survey for the Arcadian Stream begins to become huge at 2322 documented Hotspots to date.
I'll re-check the AOR for potential Painite Super-Candidates tomorrow, maybe that turns up something.
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Mission Time : 69 Days
A little Mining was performed for a change of pacing...
The AOR was checked for potential Painite Super-Candidates - but so far, none exist. They've been very rare at Waypoint Alpha already, so that was a possibility.
Viewing some of the still untouched standard Metals and Minerals, another price reduction was decided.
Everything upto and including Platinum is now sold at 25% Galactic Average, maybe that does the trick. Chances aren't bad, as these new prices are extremely competitive.
However, as a result such Ores won't be refined and collected in the future, since the accumulated tonnage is in no realistic relation to their value to the Mercator's Operation anymore in this new price region.
While at it, no SAR Salvage was sold to the Carrier so far. Hence, the offered prices were increased somewhat.
On a related note, multiple SAR/Salvage Test Flights were conducted over various bodies - but as of now not a single Point of Interest was located anywhere around both Waypoints.
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Mission Time : 70 Days
The Mercator has performed a minor jump within the AOR and now resides at Coests UA-O b49-7 for a short while.
Distances to the nearest unexplored Systems at the AOR center began pushing the limits of the Carrier Scouts, which aren't equipped with large JumpRanges due to their design.
Luckily, that's precisely where the conventional TEVs come in handy.
All original Tactical Exploration Vessels of the Fleet were retained with their inherent, larger JumpRanges. These are now perfectly filling the performance gap beyond the Carrier Scouts.
The overall goal is to finish up the northern part of the AOR, which begins to feel like manually picking flies off the inside of a sphere.
That way, Systems closely bordering the AOR limits can precisely be picked off one by one, even if that means frequent returns to the current anchor System. The shorter distances merely mean quicker turnaround times for this procedure.
As of now, 516 Systems have been scanned within 50LY.
The first and - so far - only potential Super-Candidate for a 2x Painite Hotspot in the area was checked.... and (big surprise) turned out yet again as a total dud.
Makes me think whether I'm just exceedingly unlucky or if those ones simply don't contain a Hotspot of any type despite being literally optimal from the looks of it (?)
So far, however, none had anything to offer. Not a single Hotspot. That's rather odd and stands out. Needs more samples I guess.
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Mission Time : 71 Days
The Mercator now resides back at the center of the AOR after a few hops.
To compensate for the slower progression of the last days and weeks, actions today ran under a haste flag. Got a nice bunch of Systems done.
As expected, no surprises. It's still almost 20 days, but I'm thinking about moving the big rig even further down - since that's where the Gru Phrooe Sector is.
After this AOR is complete, I'll definitely want to leave the Coests Sector after all, feels about time.
Although nothing moved on the Mining front, maybe time to review some total Statistics.
Namely, the Distribution of Hotspot ores sampled so far.
At 13.2% of all Hotspots, Alexandrite takes the lead of the Mercator Mining Survey with Painite surprisingly marking the end of the tail at a mere 5.1%.
Tritium observed so far isn't far behind at 5.8%
Certainly not all-encompassing - but it provides a very good clue on how frequent a specific Hotspot content generally is.
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Mission Time : 72 Days
Another day of good progress...
The AOR is now approx. 50% complete with 678 Systems scanned.
A new technique for precisely hollowing out the 50LY sphere from inside out is now being applied, which drastically helps while adding only minimal overhead in terms of workload.
With 18 days remaining on Station, the Mercator is slightly ahead of schedule.
On top, the remaining amount of Systems looks to be a tad less than expected. I won't know until the last Systems within the AOR are scanned, though.
Should be interesting to compare the projected amount of Systems vs. actual existing amount.
AOR itself has built up nicely and visibly, with only the outer boundary still lacking definition.
But : that's what the new technique is now filling in very precisely.
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Mission Time : 73 Days
Business as usual and making solid progress.
With 761 Systems scanned now, the 50LY radius AOR sits at approx. 56% complete.
Other than that, though, nothing to report.
So far, the entire AOR seems devoid of any Biologicals or anything else of interest, making it far less interesting than I hoped.
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Mission Time : 74 Days
Some more Tritium was added to boost the Mercator's Fuel Reserves.
Multiple Carrier Distress Signals popped up - but both were well outside of the 1000LY SAR range.
It does seem, however, that Carriers running out of Fuel even at considerable Range from their destination occurs more often than one would expect.
Don't want to be "that guy"... but there's a good reason for precise Fuel Calculations and the resulting Joker and Bingo Fuels to make hard decisions upon.
One should never operate a Carrier in Deep Space without knowing those important Fuel figures by heart.
The AOR is now starting to fully fill out its 50LY radius, a few hundred Systems more and I expect to see a near-perfect round circle.
At the moment, still more of a potato - but getting there.
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Mission Time : 75 Days
System count inside the area has reached 837, so with 15 Days remaining on Station the campaign here is at 61.6% complete and ahead of schedule.
The new procedure to precisely hollow out the spherical volume works extremely well, resulting in being able to take exact and portioned bites out of the remaining scan volume.
Although at half time basically, not expecting any surprises here anymore. It's still the Coests Sector after all, just like Waypoint Alpha - and in a sense it shows.
I'm seeing a "borg cube" standing out in the distance and consider checking it out - however, since it's isolated and highly visible, unsure if that doesn't mean tapping into a more densely explored space.
Most areas with a clear visible signature to them typically are well-explored places.
However, the available public Data doesn't indicate anything densely explored nearby. The Mercator's own footprint marks the only densely explored regions within ~1500LY.
I might take a day off from the current AOR and give it a visit after confirming its exact location and distance.
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Mission Time : 76 Days
System count now sits at exactly 900, meaning only approx. 33% AOR volume remaining...
By now, I'm almost sure nothing of interest will come from the remaining Systems here in the current AOR.
Only the comparison of estimated Volume vs. actual Volume will be interesting to compare - with the estimation sitting at 1359 Systems.
At least another ELW was discovered today, which is always a nice thing. Soon, the lateral boundaries of the AOR will be fully scanned, leaving only leftovers at its top and bottom.
The "borg cube" ended up being just an artifact, thus ceased being a suitable new Waypoint Candidate.
Instead, the Gru Phrooe Sector it'll be as originally planned.
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Mission Time : 77 Days
Mapping out the last and outermost chunks to fill in the remaining blanks. 984 Systems done, approx. 72% complete.
As nothing of interest has been found so far, the Mercator might depart earlier than scheduled as there seems little point in extending the AOR size in this location.
I'll add some minor Mining runs, maybe another buyer turns up.
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Mission Time : 78 Days
Some Tritium and LTDs were added to the Storage...
Other than that, System count has passed the Milestone of 1000 and increased to 1077.
Passing that Milestone was assisted by correcting the results of an error in the uplink to the public Databases I encountered on two occasions.
While I expected the Data to be locally cached and re-transmitted to the Servers after the connectivity issues ceased - this never happened.
Manually syncing the Logs from the key days in question added almost a day's worth of work to the System count - which maybe explains why the AOR kept looking less round than it should.
Will have to see about that in about 2 Days, when the latest Data is visualized.
Other than that, all normal-normal. No signs of a Green Gas Giant or any NSP anywhere. Or any Surface Biologicals. Area seems absolutely dry for all I can tell.
Another notable difference to Waypoint Alpha near the Galactic plane is the distinct lack of A-Mass Systems.
Today I believe I scanned the first and so far only single A-Mass System within the AOR.
Getting there, though.... the former speck that mutated into a "potato" has already transformed into something circular as expected...
Waypoint Bravo in the upper part also shows the denser 100% scan scheme - whereas the larger Waypoint Alpha in the lower part with its prohibitive ~43500 Systems or so had to settle with considerably lower scan density.
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Mission Time : 79 Days
AOR around Waypoint Bravo is now complete!
This occurred considerably earlier than expected.
The 50LY AOR has been fully scanned and clocked in at 1152 Systems.
The estimation projected 1359 Systems, indicating some 15% variation being easily possible when extrapolating a 20LY radius onto a 50LY radius.
Although only a minor Detail, that knowledge should come in handy in the future.
Including the pre-scouting and Systems residing just outside of the 50LY boundary, the total Campaign count for Waypoint Bravo clocks in at :
- 1210 Systems scanned
- 7 Earth-Like Worlds
- 15 Ammonia Worlds
- 103 Water Worlds
- 2 Water Giants
- 861 Gas Giants
I'll now look around for the next Waypoint and that will be scouted first as well, so the Mercator will remain on Station for a little while.
It's definitely time to leave the Coests Sector.
Right now, after scanning so many Systems, some relaxing Mining seems in order.
No dice on the Primary Objectives after two completed Waypoints. The Arcadian Stream is huge, though... plenty of more opportunities to check.
Update : the Mercator has moved to the Gru Phrooe CI-L c24-8 System and now resides at Waypoint 3
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Mission Time : 80 Days
At its new Waypoint at Gru Phrooe CI-L c24-8, the Mercator will slowly develop & grow a new AOR over time.
System Density is as low as expected, so at the end the AOR could span over a considerable radius down here.
No fixed time or schedule at the moment, though, as plenty of other tasks and errands require time and progress will likely be highly variable.
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Mission Time : 81 Days
Patches really ensure things never get boring.
After witnessing and confirming catastrophic yields in Icy Rings, on top aided by a brand new Pulse Wave Scanner malfunction.... The Mercator was moved again.
The old position over - what should be - a rich Icy Ring full of Hotspots now suddenly was a "Coldspot" offering nothing worth calling "yield" anymore.
The new placement in the Gru Phrooe OO-F d12-30 System at least has Painite on offer, which always is a good fallback.
With Icy Mining currently more or less dead in the water, seemed the only smart choice.
And since the current AOR around Waypoint 3 has barely developed yet, there's no issues with moving the anchor a few LY.
While that means no more surplus Tritium will enter the Cargo hold until further notice, the current reserve is sufficient to maintain both full Operational and SAR Status.
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Mission Time : 82 Days
Quite a bit of Painite has been added to the Storage.
But other than that, it was time to get back and an AOR going.
Currently almost nothing to see and so far no surprises - but at least it's another Sector after over 2 months.
Some action is being reported back in the bubble with a few Stations on fire again.... but 17800LY away, all of this is of no concern.
Update : well, some interesting change after all...
Marx, maintainer of the List of Earth-Like worlds V2, needs 2 ELW Systems tagged into EDSM - so off I go for a little detour.
Sitting several thousand LY outside of the AOR, that's just the right job for the TEV Aurora.
Once more, the Mercator proves it holds the right tools for every conceivable job!
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Mission Time : 83 Days
After a 15000LY round-robin to assist with missing ELW Data, the Aurora has successfully returned home from its Out-of-Area Operation.
Felt good to make a short trip into the adjacent Galactic Sector.
As a byproduct, numerous new Neutron Systems were added to the public Databases, which will improve and optimize Neutron Highway plotting services depending on such Data.
Now it's back to slowly populating the still small AOR with Systems.
Back in the bubble, things are apparently moving again after a long time of "no news is good news".
Apparently, Tritium production from Outposts will receive a full Station upgrade over the next week.
A non-issue for the Mercator - but at least something that's going on in the otherwise silent bubble, been a damn long time since any news broke at all.
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Mission Time : 85 Days
AOR size has reached 40LY radius as of today, now it is being extended to 50LY.
The little speck in the top right is slowly growing after 187 Systems scanned.
But overall - apart from an above-average amount of Neutrons and a few White Dwarfs - the area has nothing to show in terms of Biologicals - or NSPs.
On the NSPs (left graph) :
Looking at the public Data for Lagrange Clouds, the Data would suggest that the Arcadian Stream technically should hold a "Likely" rating when it comes to possible presence.
After all, most adjacent Galactic Sectors contain some.
Data is very scarce - but to me it looks like there still is something to be found.
And on Biologicals on the Ground (right graph) :
Given the observed and surprisingly low exploration coverage in this Galactic Sector - seems to me there should be plenty more to be found.
If my theory is correct, moving the Mercator around the blank spots might be the best bet.
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Mission Time : 86 Days
Found the very 1st Earth-Like World in the current AOR, it isn't exactly rich in that regard compared to other areas...
While filling out the 50LY radius, I figured I'll extend it to 100LY - but restrict that to a C+ Scan Pattern.
Too many boring B-Mass Systems for my Taste and it significantly drops the amount of Systems to scan.
So this current AOR will by a hybrid, 50LY fully scanned and its outer 50LY radius subject to an optimized pattern.
I'll likely stick to the optimized Pattern, unless I want to quickly get some "1 Million Icy Bodies scanned" Achievement of sorts.
Seen enough of these now, time to go for the gusto.
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Mission Time : 87 Days
Discovered more ELWs today, even Binary ELWs around a B-Class Star. Don't get to see that too often....
Other than that, the 50LY radius AOR is almost complete, only a few leftover Systems remain.
Once these are scanned, the new outer shell adding another 50LY radius will be selectively scanned, cutting out all B-Mass Systems.
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Mission Time : 88 Days
Milestone achieved : the 50LY AOR is complete.
Populated by 353 Systems at a Galactic Elevation of -1491 LY, its further extension to 100LY radius will commence using an optimized Pattern.
From the looks of it, that'll still leave plenty of Systems but cuts down the total amount by some 50%.
In the meantime, some more Painite is being added to the Carrier Storage.
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Mission Time : 89 Days
The amended scan Pattern for the AOR now extended to 100LY radius is progressing as planned.
Finishing that up will likely take up the next week, since there's still a considerable amount of Systems.
As of now, 424 Systems are done.
The 3rd AOR (top right) is coming along nicely - but after finishing that up, it's time to leave again.
The upcoming 4th Waypoint will reside in the Oephairgh Sector, which would move the Mercator at least some 1500LY.
However, the recent Out-of-Area Operations gave me an idea for a Plan B :
Instead of scanning random places for weeks at a time and with unknown success - I could take the Aurora out for a spin and sample long routes across the Arcadian Stream for presence of Biologicals.
Once detected, the Mercator would follow and setup camp at a (hopefully) more promising location.
That'd make things far more dynamic and with any luck optimize my chances, all while combining conventional Exploration far outside an AOR with Carrier Operations once a new target candidate has been identified to build an AOR around.
The Mercator itself is more or less blind to promising AORs, that only becomes apparent after scanning weeks worth of Systems. However, a TEV (Tactical Exploration Vessel) like the Aurora could be sent out to positively identify promising areas. I then becomes the eyes of the Carrier, which follows behind.
I kinda like that idea.
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Mission Time : 90 Days
Darn... it's been 3 full months now. A long time, longer than I've ever been in Deep Space.
Still, everything still Green and a Go for Launch with the Campaign progressing nicely and no end in sight.
With the M.R.S.C. Mercator now at its 3rd Waypoint, still not much to report, as the Areas of Responsibility are more or less trial-and-error by design. Only their pristine nature was assured beforehand and that had to do.
Picking the next AOR hence will follow another procedure to maximize my chances.
Despite being huge (or due to that very fact), the Arcadian Stream appears vastly pristine through vast stretches. Hence, no point in being too picky, almost every place here is a good place to start.
Overall, it seems 3 entire AORs had not more than maybe a dozen Systems that had another CMDR's tag on them.
Looking back, everything worked out fine - even better than I expected.
And the intense Mission Preparation definitely paid off big time - those Engineers visits were exhausting but well worth it.
As all three Carrier AORs are in close proximity, time for a small summary :
- 1st AOR : 3169 Systems scanned, 100LY radius
- 2nd AOR : 1210 Systems scanned, 50 LY radius
- 3rd AOR : 450 Systems scanned, 100LY radius (in progress)
That makes for a total count of 4829 Systems scanned so far.
While it didn't turn out a Green Gas Giant or a NSP (the Primary Mission Objectives of this Campaign), it produced a few other nice things - amongst it a total of 34 brand new Earth-Like worlds.
