Entry 54 - 07.25.3303
25 Jul 2017MBaldelli
Current System: Oochost YS-S c20-0I'm currently between stars, heading for the B of a binary in Oochost UX-X b48-0, which is about 223k LS from the entry point. Looking at the System Map, I could understand why the Commander (who shall remain unnamed) only cherry picked the first two planets (both of them HMC) with the rest ignored. The vast majority of them are icy and airless rocks. But then again that's the life of the Deep Space Explorer; not all of us have the luxury of cherry picking planets for the quick pay out. We're here to explore after all; be if lifeless rocks, HMCs, Terraforming Candidates, MRs, Gas Giants and everything else.
Yesterday I approached all my scans with a sort of zealot's fervor and while my flight log might show only a couple of handful of star systems the amount of planets in there (and all the LS distances crossed) were pretty expansive. From what I'm seeing in my logs, more than 137 planets had been scanned. Quite impressive given I usually do significantly less than that per day while I'm out here in the Deep Black. I even took advantage of landing on a couple of the planets and moons to do a little surface mining with the SRV. I intentionally chose low gravity targets to take advantage of understanding the SRV controls as well as the physics of surface mining. Honestly, while it's longer trying to search out materials for mining than actually performing system surveys, but at least it's a change of pace from constantly sitting in the cockpit of the Leif Eiriksson day in and day out.
Looking down at the CnC Panel, I'm noticing that the SRV panel status is showing 45% fuel. Seems that before I go down to another planet for more mining, I'm going to have to inspect the tank as it should be at 100% given that I fuel and restock before I get back on the ship after each planetary excursion. When I get the time, I'm going to need to configure the camera suite because I would have taken more pictures when I was planet-side, but the suite I was used to had been expanded and improved upon weeks ago and I never got around to re-configuring the controls for them. I know, I know... Very lazy of me.
I continue to see Unidentified Signals more than 1300 LY out from SOL. While I continue to maintain my personal policy of ignoring them, one of these days I might actually go investigate one to confirm whether I'm being tracked by pirates or some other adversarial type(s). Seriously if it's pirates, what's the point? I carry nothing of any value and harassment is just that.
Well, more surveying to do. Now that I'm sufficiently below the galactic plane, I'm definitely seeing less and less scanned and cherry picked systems. Which is once again making me feel like an explorer and less as a clean-up pilot.