Expedition Log, Coalsack Nebula-Shapley 1
20 Sep 2017User78245
Date of Commencement: 12 September 3303Date of Completion: 17 September 3303
Starting Point: Garay Terminal, Deciat
Ending Point: Farseer Inc., Deciat
Distance Traveled: 1956 light years
Equipment Used: VFS-03 Esmay Suiza
Mission Statement: To explore and survey the Coalsack Nebula and Wolf-Rayet star Shapley 1, and points of interest along the travel route. Turn in relevant stellar-cartographic data to Engineer Felicity Farseer at Deciat.
Remarks: The Coalsack Nebula is a absorption nebula of dark material. Unlike the Pleiades Nebula which could be seen for light years around, I had trouble visually tracking the Coalsack, but quickly figured out how to watch for what should be there that wasn't. I've never felt truly alone until I was inside the Coalsack; the cloud absorbs the light of all but the closest stars, even the galactic disk.
Shapley 1 was the first time I've ever seen a Wolf-Rayet star up close. The star is among the most massive I've ever personally seen up close, but it's shedding stellar material at a catastrophic rate. The material forms a beautiful loop around the area, coinciding with the placement of the galactic disk and giving it a ghostly hue.
There were some other interesting systems I found along the way. HIP 63835 was a grab-bag of practically every possible unique stellar object you can think of, including a O-class blue giant and an A-class blue-white, a G-class, 3 K-classes, 3 L-class dwarves, 5 brown dwarves, 3 black holes, a water giant, and a small host of high metal content planets. HIP 59112 had 6 water worlds, 4 of them candidates for terraforming; got a nice payout for that data. HIP 62154 had 3 water worlds and 2 terraformables, while HIP 75778 a water world and 2 additional terraformables. HIP 64063 had two F-classes orbiting a mere 9 light seconds apart, with a ringed water world in orbit around the stars; I bet the view is spectacular down there.
I had a thruster go bad on me one jump out of Shapley 1. After taking a look at it from the SRV and coming up with no solution, I did a full systems reboot of the ship and that seemed to do the trick. That workaround got me all the way to Nugua and I had the ground crew change out the thruster there before moving on to Farseer Inc.
Felicity puffed up like a proud parent when I handed her my scan data. 17 million credits for that little diversion. "Now let's talk about your loadout before I let you go," she was telling me. "I know you're just out of the Alliance military and just trying things out for the first time on your own. Alliance likes their long distance support ships fully combat ready, but following regulations when you don't have to anymore can get you killed out there. You're not an Alliance salt anymore. Lose the armor plating, the weapons, the defenses, all of it. Strip down your internals to the lightest possible you know your ship can stand. I know it sounds counter-intuitive, but the number one rule of a successful explorer is this: Weight is money. Anybody who hassles you out there is just doing it out of boredom, they're not going to waste time following you into witchspace if you run. Spend all your credits on the best FSD, fuel scoop, and auto-field maintenance units you can fit in your ship though."
So I have some homework: fitting out an exploration-ready Asp Explorer. I don't have the patience for putting the Esmaya into refit every time I get the urge to head back out into the frontier though. Instead, I'm going to have another Asp purpose-built for exploration from the ground up. I think it's time to head back home to Lave and go shopping.
Shapley 1 wasn't my longest trip out of the Bubble, I did a rescue mission with the 351st that beat that by a hundred light years, but that was part of a larger group. Of course there was the Pleiades, but I was watched the entire time and was rarely more than 75 light years from some form of civilization. No, Shapley 1 was the longest I've ever done completely solo and unsupported.
End log.