Smallest Moon I've Found

[Bennoj61]

This is the first moon with a radius under 200 km I've come across, so I'm going to circumnavigate it. The journey should be a bit more than 1200 km. I started from Geological Signal 4 and am headed due north. I'm not expecting anything too thrilling, since it has geological sites it won't have random things to shoot at, and I'm too far outside the Bubble for there to be any POI like crashed ships, etc. But it's a personal goal I set sometime back and this is the first opportunity I've had to do it.

 

[Hooplah]

Good luck. with 0.05G I wonder how far an SRV could be launched into space.

 

[Straha Yeagar]

Good luck. with 0.05G I wonder how far an SRV could be launched into space.

All the way out of orbit!

And there will be plenty to shoot at, even with geologicals, and don't rule out crashed ships, and crashed Nav Beacons...those happen even in the remotest parts of the galaxy.

Also...be sure to join the club!

The Planetary Circumnavigation Club

Having just completed my own circumnavigation of a small moon in an SRV I decided to do a little bit of research and have come across enough other people crazy enough to perform this right of passage that I thought I'd create a new thread to celebrate their achievements. If you too have driven...

forums.frontier.co.uk

 

[Bennoj61]

Given this morning's news, maybe I should come back next year and hike around it... It's less than half the distance of the Appalachian Trail.

 

[Straha Yeagar]

Given this morning's news, maybe I should come back next year and hike around it... It's less than half the distance of the Appalachian Trail.

So long as I can hike around it using my SRV, I'm all in

 

[Chris Simon]

Aw. Cute.
Good luck! I suspect you are going to be airborne more than on the ground so I hope you've got enough repair mats.

 

[Hedy]

Nice find. You don't find the smaller ones that often. I recently discovered a bunch of tiny ones, the smallest having 0.04G. Forgot to try the SRV launch but maybe next time.

 

[Bennoj61]

Just to be clear, and part of the reason I posted the shot of the system map view, I am not the first discoverer, although I may well be the first to map it depending on how long it takes me to get back to a port. It's just the smallest planetary body I've come across since I decided to circumnavigate one with a radius below 200 km (about 6 months ago).

 

[Straha Yeagar]

Small bodies tend to be moons of moon of gas giants, and moons of metal rich bodies. I have found a number of bodies under 200km, with my smallest being just under 138km

 

[Bennoj61]

And there will be plenty to shoot at, even with geologicals, and don't rule out crashed ships, and crashed Nav Beacons...those happen even in the remotest parts of the galaxy.

I guess I had never traveled far enough on previous bodies with geological signals. It took around 30 km before my scanner started showing signals, but then started showing the usual outcrops, mesosiderites, etc. Then a bit further on the first of four technological signals I've come across so far.

Downed commsat:

Dawn:

I've only managed 160 km so far, but if I have time to log on this evening I should be able to hit the north pole of this moon.

 

[Bennoj61]

I didn't quite make it to the north pole last night, had to log off with just a bit more to go:

Also came across some NPCs, one who had met an unfortunate fate:

But two sunrises a day can't be bad...

 

[Bennoj61]

Yesterday I passed the halfway point on my journey.

As of this morning I am around 10 degrees below the equator headed for the south pole of this moon.

 

[Bennoj61]

This morning I passed the moon's south pole and am now about 3/4 of the way around.

 

[varonica]

Small bodies tend to be moons of moon of gas giants, and moons of metal rich bodies. I have found a number of bodies under 200km, with my smallest being just under 138km

There's a hard limit of 137km radius for procedurally generated bodies so that's good going, I have never bothered to launch my SRV into orbit but you can get a good head start by having a geyser give you a push on those small bodies.

 

[Bennoj61]

The final push!

The view with 100 km to go

Back around to the equator

14 km to go, the fumaroles from geological signal 4 come into view

Back where I started!

 

[IPFreely]

If you have ever been to Pleione in the Pleiades region you have seen the 2 "rocks" outside the asteroid station, I have landed on each in a T-9, just to see if it could be done - Took a pic of that event but lost it somewhere in the hard drive, hahaha, Anywho, try it yourself.