(5,494 hours) - Phase 7 - Newton's Vault & The Conduit
26 Aug 2020Evolution
--------------| Overview |
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The overall mission can be found here.
The log is structured into the following sections:
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| Phase 7 |
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This phase has taken 30 hours effort since the Phase 6 update.
This phase of the expedition was to continue through Mare Desperationis in the Newton's Vault region and cut through the Norma Arm, heading to the far side of The Conduit region. Point to point and excluding detours, that would be 211 jumps / 10,228.51LY to PRIA AOB SA-J B50-1:
21 jumps in, the WRUEGNEE NY-H C-23-2 system was reached and had a HM planet to map. I stopped off there to have a break for a couple of hours:
8 jumps later in the system FLYUA BLIAE TB-C B33-0, the end of Phase target was changed from PRIA AOB SA-J B50-1 (182 jumps / 8,912.24LY) to MYOANGEIA AT-U D2-244 (142 jumps / 6,883.90LY). The old and new targets were in the same region but the new destination was nearer and has a fleet carrier (DSSA Unicorns Rest). That will allow the data totals to be reset between phases 7 and 8. The course adjustment can be seen here:
An Ammonia world with a thick atmosphere at 7.69x Earth of Oxygen and Ammonia was found after 11 jumps in the system WRUENGNEE IF-R C4-1. Viatorem was flown into the exosphere to take some readings and the atmospheric composition can be seen below:
Another 11 jumps later (51st of the day) and in the system OOMBAH HL-B B47-0, I checked Viatorem's mapping interface and aimed towards OOMBAH AA-A H84 to visit a black hole at the bottom of the galactic plane. The galactic network (EDDN via EDD / EDSM) was investigated and luckily, there was no record of that location. There are some explorers who fly off grid with their transponders off though, so I just had to try to go ahead and hope it was a new location. Unfortunately, a route couldn't be plotted but I headed in the general direction, knowing I could enable the FSD booster and synthesis so hoped it would be enough. A 16 jump / 547.97LY route was set for OOMBAH WA-D D13-0.
5 jumps in / 11 jumps left, a massive Ammonia world with rings was found furthest out (4,541.65LS) from its star in the system OOMBAH NU-D D13-2:
Two terraformable worlds and a large Earth Like world were found only 2 jumps later in the OOMBAH PP-D D13-3 system. One of the terraformable worlds was actually the moon of the EL. The EL had a unique appearance with various landmasses showing vegetation inside its polar region - global warming? The planet can be seen below:
When I arrived at the end of the course, the black hole target was then 86.19LY away. I enabled the FSD booster and a level 2 synthesis boost was used to reach OOMBAH AA-A H64.
OOMBAH AA-A H84 was reached and I was glad to see it hadn't been visited before. It's incredibly rare for there to be a black hole this far below the galactic plane so it felt like an honour to discover it. I submitted an entry to Galaxy Mapping Project for that location here, called it 'Eye of Atretochoana'.
Despite the difficultly in reaching the last location, a route was possible to OOMBAH WAS-D D13-1. The route involved travelling slightly further down and back up to OOMBAH WA-D D13-1. When that system was reached, it contained a water world which can be seen below:
From there, another mini route was plotted to bring me back to the height of the previous main route. The new target was OOMBAH LO-Y A96-0, being 20 jumps / 500.34LY away. Possibly due to some radiation damage from the black hole, Viatorem was having trouble plotting a direct route and created one looping back on itself but as the objective is exploration, I stuck with that route.
With 5 jumps left and 15 jumps done, the system OOMBAH MJ-F D12-2 was reached. The system contained a terraformable High Metal world, terraformable Rocky world, a Water world and an Earth Like world. The EL world can be seen below:
I arrived at the target system and disabled the FSD booster for the journey onwards. Viatorem was stopped off next to the main star - a Class Y Brown Dwarf:
This point in the journey would be taking me through the last area of Mare Desperationis. Looking at the route map in EDD on the following day, it wasn't well aligned with the previous main route, so a mini route was taken of 5 jumps / 215.42LY towards OOMBAH FQ-B B47-0. When I arrived, the end of phase destination MYOANGEIA AT-U D2-244 was re-plotted. The remaining journey was then 119 jumps / 5,889.82LY. This screenshot is very rare as it shows the exact millisecond before hyperspace on the first jump:
With 33 jumps done (38th of today), I arrived at SLATCHAA AY-B which contained a High Metal world and Water world. The WW was unique for various reasons - it was a candidate for Terraforming, only had 0.01 atmospheric pressures, was a very dark colour and didn't have any polar regions:
Unlike most of the trip, a lot of the systems on this day either only had stars or gas giants with moons (as you'll see reflected in the daily totals). That was convenient as it allowed time to carry out some time-consuming improvements to the ship's COVAS (EDDI) and then for quicker progress to be made.
12 jumps later (50th of the day), the system SLATCHAA AM-Z B6-0 was reached and Viatorem was moored up for the night, next to a rocky ice world:
16 jumps into the route on the next day, HYPHOKEIA KL-U A57-4 system was reached and had a terraformable HM world worth mapping. I decided to map its moon as well which had geological sites. Both planets can be seen below:
The ship was landed at one of the moon's Geological sites so the Carbon and Vanadium supplies could be filled again (since using the lvl 2 FSD boost the other day):
Viatorem was taken off but before departing, the fighter was deployed and taken through some of the canyons to enjoy the scenery. This image shows the aesthetics of the area - about 1km away from the site just visited:
After 35 more jumps in the system EACTAITHS ET-N B6-24, I'd just left Newton's Vault Region and crossed into The Conduit where only 23 jumps remained. Body 2DA was visited to replenish the 1 Germanium and 1 Niobium that I was missing (leaving 1 Cadmium still to find). In this image from left - right, you can see the parent gas giant, the Myoangooe Nebula, the blueish / grey appearance of the sister moon, the moon itself and the increasing galactic light. It's finally, definitely getting a lot brighter than it's been for a long time:
Initially, a site was chosen to be overlooking the sister moon but unfortunately, it became clear that it was in a massive canyon of 7km down and there was nowhere to land either. I flew around the moon and found a much better place to collect the 2 elements:
After finally landing and collecting the elements, it was getting late so I didn't head off again that night but left the last 23 jumps / 1,175.06LY for the next day to reach (DSSA Unicorns Rest).
3 jumps in on the next day, the system MYOANGEIA VJ-X C28-34 was reached where planet 1 was metal rich and worth mapping. The planet had geological sites and also contained Cadmium so I took Viatorem down to collect the last one needed:
After collecting the element, all material capacities were at 100% again. It was time to head back and press on with the final part of the phase:
MYOANGEIA AT-U D2-244 was reached and it was shocking to see how close DSSA Unicorns Rest was! Only 3MM or 3,000 km - wow! Being conscious of the 268 hours I've invested in the journey so far (literally and that's just in game), I carefully proceeded at a slow pace:
Luckily, the carrier was reached safely:
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| Progress Stats |
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The progress values for Phase 7 were:
Combining the totals from the 7 Phases gives the overall progress of:
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| Route |
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This section shows the route I'd taken via EDSM
Shown just for Phase 7:
Shown for Phases 1-7:
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| The plan ahead |
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Phase 8 of the expedition will be to continue towards the core from this direction. Starting from the Conduit, through the Outer Orion-Perseus Conflux and then into the Izanami region.
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| Ship details |
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Exploration ships are usually as light as possible which sacrifices some usage when they reach their destination.
Although Viatorem is an exploration ship, it can also be used for other aspects as well. Some features of Viatorem include:
The ship description and full information can be found on INARA here and Coriolis here
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Thank you for having a read through. Feel free to give me a shout if you have any comments or questions.
Stay safe and fly safe.
o7, Evo