Cmdr Pingmonster's Interstellar Travelogue

[Manticore]

Pingmonster's Report From The Bridge:

Destination: Beagle Point and Beyond Mission Log #1
Ship: Asp Explorer PIN-12 Kinnara

Distance to Beagle Point: 39k LY
Distance to Colonia: 7.5k LY
Distance to Sol: 29k LY

Farewell to all that-Leaving my Colonia fleet behind at Robardin Dock/Carcosa System

I must admit it's great to be on the road again. I've already been through a number of nebulae and I'm making good progress. Civilisation (for what it's worth), Thargoids, missions and ranks will all be there when I get back. I've already thought about not returning to Colonia at as I plan to return by going "east" of galactic centre and then "south"; probably returning to The Bubble first. But that is some months away and, for the moment, I am just enjoying the flying.

Engineering Debrief: Kinnara took some heat damage when we flew too close over the top of a white dwarf (entirely my fault). That scrubbed a few percent off systems here and there but, with dual AFMU's and plenty of materials in reserve, that is no problem at all. The Asp Explorer is a sturdy and serviceable ship and I still consider it to be the best choice for this expedition.

Planet of the glass volcanoes-This whole world is pockmarked with dormant silicate magma vulcanism sites.

In every nebula I hit it's my intention to get out on, at least, one or two, planets or moons in the SRV and "stretch my legs".........

Significant Finds Mapped:

Spoiler

The first leg of the route out continues.........

o7!

 

[Manticore]

Destination: Beagle Point and Beyond Mission Log #2
Ship: Asp Explorer PIN-12 Kinnara

Distance to Beagle Point: 36k LY
Distance to Colonia: 10.5k LY
Distance to Sol: 31.5k LY

Systems discovered: 128

Disaster Strikes!

There was a bad omen when I started this mission. I was only three jumps away from Colonia when I took some heat damage and thought that it wasn't a great start to a long journey so..............

I always say that you have good days and a bad days out here and sometimes you have a really bad day. There was no really bad day but I had two bad flying days both during surface landing events. I must admit that both of these events ended badly due to my inattention; bad flying that has not happened much in recent times, but there you are. The mission has been suspended and I've returned to Colonia for repairs....

Engineering debrief: The first surface event took the shields down and hull integrity fell to 93%. That was o.k. and the mission was still feasible on those numbers. The second surface event took the shields down and hull integrity dropped to 78%. Any further damage to the hull, the only ship component I couldn't repair outside of a dock, would be an exponential drop in integrity. With such a lot of the galaxy left to travel the mission became unfeasible and the ship would really be at risk of destruction in any further emergency.

Navigation debrief: Suspending the mission and returning to Colonia was to be done as quickly as possible. On the return journey I used neutron star jet cone boosting all the way so many of the significant finds are neutron star systems.

Significant Finds Mapped:

Spoiler

On returning to my Colonia base, Robardin Rock, Carcosa repairs were done, shields and the two AFMU's have been upgraded. I will be returning to the mission on the navigation track where I left off before I ran into trouble.

o7!

 

[Jermus]

I really love how well looked after your reports are.

Godspeed on the journey to Beagle Point and fly safe!

 

[Manticore]

I really love how well looked after your reports are.

Godspeed on the journey to Beagle Point and fly safe!

Thanks for those kind words once again Cmdr. I'll being flying a lot safer this time!

o7!

 

[Manticore]

Pingmonster's Report From The Bridge:

Destination: Colonia Dispatches #4
Ship: Type 6 Transporter Gladys
Credits earned: Two hundred sixty million (approx.)

Waiting for the Galaxy to Change

After the first, almost disastrous, attempt at the the Beale Point and Beyond expedition I decided to wait in Colonia until the galaxy changes. I've spent the past month first; testing new ships, equipment, engineering and economies, and secondly doing some surface scan missions and making some credits around Colonia for the hell of it.

"You have entered a trespass zone"-Doing surface missions and salvage around Colonia. Spending time on the surface now because, when I head off to Beagle Point, I'll be spending a lot of time in space, on the bridge.

Other than that I'm still proving to myself that 4A FSD's are not available in Colonia. I've visited every inhabited system out here but still can't find good outfitting.........

Colonia Dream Spaceport-Ratraii System

Bonestell Point-Ratraii System

Fort Mug-Eol Procul Centauri System

Rock-Chrysus System

Vera Rubin Complex-Garuda System

Dove Enigma-Colonia System

McDonald Platform-Hamlet's Harmony System

Robardin Rock-Carcosa System and my home base in Colonia, soon to be left behind....

So I'll be leaving for Beagle Point in a day or so. I hope I have more luck this time...........

o7!

 

[Jermus]

Good luck with the second attempt

And the last picture is absolutely lovely! Desktop wallpaper material.

 

[roryclague]

Great composition in these as always; the Sagittarius Eye should hire you as a photojournalist. Fly safe out there and keep up the excellent work!

 

[Manticore]

Good luck with the second attempt

And the last picture is absolutely lovely! Desktop wallpaper material.

Yes I do like a good photo!

Great composition in these as always; the Sagittarius Eye should hire you as a photojournalist. Fly safe out there and keep up the excellent work!

That has actually been talked about briefly with those concerned. I'm just pretty lazy on writing at the moment.

Thank you for those kind words Cmdrs (once again) and o7!

 

[Manticore]

Pingmonster's Report From The Bridge:

Destination: Beagle Point and Beyond Expedition Mission Log #2
Ship: Asp Explorer PIN-12 Kinnara

Distance to Beagle Point: 32.2k LY
Distance to Colonia: 14k LY
Distance to Sol: 34.8k LY

Leaving on the second attempt

After that disastrous first attempt that resulted in returning to Colonia for repairs it was time to set off again from my Colonia base; Robardin Rock, Carcosa system.

Route Map-Stage 1:
The route tracks to through nebulae well above the plane of the galactic and also identifies other interesting astronomical objects including black holes.

Spoiler

Heading back to where I left off last time....

Engineering Debrief:

I'm traveling pretty well and making good distance quickly. I'm being careful with Kinnara as I'm using neutron star boosting all the way. She's a good ship but took a 1% hit on the hull when things go a little too hot near an n-star. I'm carrying two AFMU's as the (fully engineered) FSD starts to malfunction at anything less than 80% given n-star boost FSD integrity degradation. Immediately repairing the FSD once a malfunction is reported actually saves on AFMU resources. I have plenty of materials for replenishing AFMU's and can prospect for more, when needed, further down the road.

On the Road Again

Navigation Debrief:

Using neutron star boosting means that a lot of systems being discovered are just that; neutron star systems.

Significant Finds Mapped:

Spoiler

Back in the Black-The expediton continues

o7!

 

[Nick Sticks]

Safe journey Cmdr, o7!

 

[Manticore]

Safe journey Cmdr, o7!

Thank you Cmdr. I always had a soft spot for Alice Cooper (particularly when it was still the Alice Cooper Band up until Muscle of Love).

o7!

 

[Nick Sticks]

Thank you Cmdr. I always had a soft spot for Alice Cooper (particularly when it was still the Alice Cooper Band up until Muscle of Love).

o7!

Yes that was the last real band album. I liked Welcome to my Nightmare but Goes to Hell was my last one.
Until last year when I bought the excellent Paranormal double album with the remaining members reformed for a few songs and actually playing at the brilliant Wembley Empire Pool gig in November.

 

[Manticore]

Pingmonster's Report From The Bridge:

Destination: Beagle Point and Beyond Expedition Mission Log #3
Ship: Asp Explorer PIN-12 Kinnara

Distance to Beagle Point: 21k LY
Distance to Colonia: 25.2k LY
Distance to Sol: 44.6k LY


The Last Nebula-From the last nebula en route I will be traveling out and above where the stars a fewer.

Route Map-Stage 2: On the chosen route this is the last, lonely, nebula that I have found. From now on, and traveling above the plane of the galactic, the star density gets very low. The waypoints chosen are based on the navigation computer finding available routes that comply with Kinnara's jump range. If I get into a bottleneck and cannot proceed I will either backtrack or travel back down into the galactic plane.

Spoiler

Black Hole-Scheau VByoe AA-A H 18

Engineering Debrief: Kinnara has been running smoothly. I have had to do four FSD repairs using the AFMU. FSD integrity degradation due to jet cone boosting hasn't been as big an issue as I thought it would be. There are plenty of materials stored for AFMU resupply.

A few Water Worlds.............

Significant Finds Mapped:

Spoiler

Over half way there-Nothing else to do but press on towards the objective.......

o7!

 

[Manticore]

Pingmonster's Report From The Bridge:

Destination: Beagle Point and Beyond Expedition Mission Log #4
Ship: Asp Explorer PIN-12 Kinnara

Distance to Beagle Point: 12.1k LY
Distance to Colonia: 34.1k LY
Distance to Sol: 53.3k LY

The Lonely Stars-Out here and above the plane of the galactic the star density is super low. The Asp Explorer has great views from the bridge canopy and, if I look up, I'm looking at very few unreachable stars, dust clouds and intergalactic space.

Only one route to take-Always moving forward towards the objective

Route Map-Stage 3: I am now heading over to a Beagle Point access route; the "Shackleton Path".

Spoiler

Postcards from the edge

Significant Finds Mapped:

Spoiler

Travel on into the abyss

o7!

 

[Manticore]

Pingmonster's Report From The Bridge:

Destination: Beagle Point and Beyond Expedition Mission Log #5
Ship: Asp Explorer PIN-12 Kinnara

Distance to Beagle Point: 13.4k LY
Distance to Colonia: 39.4k LY
Distance to Sol: 55.7k LY

Crossing Centaurus-Finding a path to Shackleton's was not as straight forward as I had first envisaged......

Navigation Debrief: Still traveling well above the plane of the galactic there was no straight line to get me into the "north" Outer Arm and onto the last stage to Beagle. Star density is so low out here that, after relogging, the navigation computer would refuse to reacquire a previous route and I would have to set new waypoints. Kinnara has been pushed to her 45ly jump range moving through a string of Class K, F and M stars.

Then I hit upon a neutron star (with the occasional white dwarf star) superhighway. I passed through forty-five neutron star systems strung across, at least, 7k ly's covering some vast sectors in Centaurus. Many of these boosted jumps were strung together with the occasional fuel star between a whole series of n-stars.

Given the low stellar density I was not able to stop and survey any other nearby n-star systems at every jump. I couldn't afford to be stuck at an n-star requiring the use of jumponium to get back on route if the navigation computer decided to glitch out; and it would be even worse to run low on fuel. So stops were only made when I came across the fuel stars that were few and far between.

Route Map-Stage 3 (Revised): Living dangerously well above the plane of the galactic.... the revised route.

Spoiler

On the neutron star superhighway.............

Significant Finds Mapped:

Spoiler

ELW's in the abyss-One of these was found orbiting a nuetron star.

Close to the edge-Now into the "north" Outer Arm and pushing on to Beagle Point

o7!

 

[Jermus]

That are quite some significant finds, commander!

Good to hear from you and that your journey is still going as planned(-ish)

Fly safe,
CMDR Jermus Karlsen

 

[Manticore]

That are quite some significant finds, commander!

Good to hear from you and that your journey is still going as planned(-ish)

Fly safe,
CMDR Jermus Karlsen

Thanks Cmdr. This route is the real adventure, and that, as you well know, is why we explore! o7!

 

[Manticore]

Pingmonster's Report From The Bridge:

Destination: Beagle Point and Beyond Expedition Mission Log #6
Ship: Asp Explorer PIN-12 Kinnara

Distance to Beagle Point: 1.171k LY
Distance to Colonia: 45.643k LY
Distance to Sol: 64.499k LY

The "North" Outer Arm

Now out into the Outer Arm the distance to Beagle Point is shrinking. I've well and truly crossed over 60k LY's from Sol and the first part of the mission, attaining Beagle Point, "is in sight".

Route Map Stage 4-The first mission objective

Spoiler

Significant Finds Mapped:

Spoiler

After six weeks in the black-the first phase of the mission is almost complete

o7!

 

[Manticore]

Pingmonster's Report From The Bridge:

Destination: Beagle Point and Beyond Expedition Mission Log #7
Ship: Asp Explorer PIN-12 Kinnara

Distance to Beagle Point: You are here!?!?!?!
Distance to Colonia: 46.246k LY
Distance to Sol: 65.279k LY

Beagle Point-Friday 13 April 3304

​

After a year of planning for this expedition, a bad omen at the start of the first attempt at the expedition and a small disaster that had me suspend the expedition and return to Colonia for repairs before making a second attempt I suppose it's, coincidentally, some type of lucky omen and good fortune to attain Beagle Point on Friday the 13th.

Landfall-After the disastrous first start to the expedition I vowed not to make landfall again until I was at Beagle.

Postcards from Beagle Point

Searching for materials-I want to spend the weekend at Beagle and amp up my stores of jumponium materials before beginning the second phase of this expedition...... the jumponium will definitely be needed to take me as far out into the intergalactic void as I can safely go and return.

I can see our home from here-Most of the Milky Way in view but I won't be heading back there just yet. I want to see how much further out I can go....

o7!

 

[Flimley]

Keep up those engineering debriefs Cmdr. Interesting to see when modules begin to malfunction and require attention. I will embark on my own little exploring trip back though this thread.
A quick question though Manticore, on your epic excursions do you manage to use only one SRV ? I’m always keeping two on board and wondering if one will suffice these days.

Flimley.