Charon Circumnavigation

Ian Phillips

Volunteer Moderator
I've decided to get in on the circumnavigation action and have chosen Charon. I wanted to do Pluto, but it has an atmosphere.... but who knows. maybe in the future?

Anyway Charon has a radius of 604 km, giving a circumference of 3.795 km. I think I'm going to do a lot more than 3800 km before I'm finished.

Whilst searching for a place to start I found a pointy mountain and though " Ooooh. That would be cool, starting and finishing from the top of that"

So I landed close by and started up.

It's really steep and made of ice. I chased after some mats and got lost, so after an hour of driving around I fell off the mountain side.

Did I mention that I'm playing in VR?

Falling off a mountain and bouncing down it, whilst having the view RED out a few times convinced me to take it easier! I recalled my ship and went looking for another place to start from.

Then I found a pink spot, with a crater smack in the middle, and a humungeous canyon close by.

Charon Pink spot and canyon
Lg6vnEC.png


So thats where I landed, here are my official starting point coordinates:
Starting point
69.3697
39.1685
OcDlqDV.png

KWKr5U2.png


My first challenge was to get out of the crater, which actually went very easily, to my surprise!

Charon - out of the crater
JsAyjol.jpg


And looking the other way, there was Pluto:
WRvHOhV.jpg


I'm parked on the edge of the crater, and will be heading for the start of that big canyon, on heading 200. I'm not sure how long I'll be able to drive the SRV each time I continue, because..... VR. We will see.
 
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Welcome to the party! I actually considered circumnavigating Charon a few months ago, it’s a rather lovely and interesting ice world. Enjoy the drive, it can actually be a lot of good fun. I’m sure I’ll do another one some day.

Good luck, and stay safe!
 

Ian Phillips

Volunteer Moderator
I've worked out where I need to get to in order to do a complete circumnavigation. Basically I need to get to the exact opposite point of the world from my starting point.

Starting point
Lat 69.3697
Long 39.1685

Opposite point
Lat -69.3697
Long -140.8315

If this isn't correct, I'm relying on someone to inform me :D

I've driven for about 40 mins this evening, over fairly flat ground and not had any problems with motion sickness due to VR.

So I got confident, barreling over flat ground and came to a slight uprise. "Time to try flying this thing".

OHHHH MY GOD! as I flew over the lip of a DEEP crater with steep ice walls. I managed to land on a side wall and get out of the crater, wondering where the hell that crater had been hiding!

This happened a couple of times, basically you can't see that there is a huge hole in the ground that you are about to jump into. The crater walls all seem to be of uniform steepness, drilled into the ice. The biggest one I have come across was where I had in mind some advice to just go straight and not detour around obstacles. I was about to follow that advice and go across a crater, when I saw the sunlight on the crater wall to my left. Almost vertical. I detoured!

Right now I think I am at the start of the great canyon I was aiming for but cannot be absolutely sure. The surface view available from the system map shows that I am close, but as it is night where I am, it is difficult to see clearly.

I'm shutting down for a while and intend to watch a film. After the film I can see if there is sunlight to guide my way.
 
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Ian Phillips

Volunteer Moderator
Having watched my film (old remastered 2010 film) and bedded down for the night.... it is even darker now that I've woken up.

Decided to simply turn left and hope that I'm in the canyon and have turned on the SRV lights and sallied forth. The darkness does make everything close in around me, and that in turn increases the motion sickness from the rough terrain I'm crossing.

If I needed evidence that I am not far away in the deep black, I witnessed a ship parked on a ridge being attacked and blown up.
DnIcYUR.jpg


I tried to find the wreckage hoping to find materials, but in the dark lost the site.

Shortly afterwards I flew over the edge of one of those hidden craters and knocked my self out. When I came to and climbed out of the crater I almost drove straight into some sentry sentinals that were guarding a treasure hoard.
7I7hCAz.jpg


I skirted the site, not really being interested in a fight.

Given the night is likely to last 3 days, this is going to be a slog until I can get better vision. Suddenly being catapulted into deep craters in the dark is pretty wearing on the nerves!

PS. Has no-one ever complained about the cramped toilet faclities in an SRV before?
 
I've worked out where I need to get to in order to do a complete circumnavigation. Basically I need to get to the exact opposite point of the world from my starting point.

Starting point
Lat 69.3697
Long 39.1685

Opposite point
Lat -69.3697
Long -140.8315

If this isn't correct, I'm relying on someone to inform me :D

This isn't correct.

To do a complete circumnavigation you end up at exactly the same co-ordinates.
Don't forget, you are going all the way around the planet - think like Phileas Fogg.

It helps if you start somewhere obvious like at the center of a large crater etc.

Have fun with your journey.

Don't forget to let Alec know!
https://forums.frontier.co.uk/showthread.php/390451-The-Planetary-Circumnavigation-Club
 
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Ian Phillips

Volunteer Moderator
I started in the centre of a pink crater, and perhaps should have made it clear that finding/passing through the opposite point is a prerequisite to making a circumnavigation, not the end point :D

I meant that if the 'opposite' coordinates aren't correct, I need to know!
 
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I started in the centre of a pink crater, and perhaps should of made it clear that finding/passing through the opposite point is a prerequisite to making a circumnavigation, not the end point :D

I meant that if the 'opposite' coordinates aren't correct, I need to know!

Yes, your antipodal point coordinates are correct.
 
I started in the centre of a pink crater, and perhaps should have made it clear that finding/passing through the opposite point is a prerequisite to making a circumnavigation, not the end point :D

I meant that if the 'opposite' coordinates aren't correct, I need to know!

Got you now.

Also, Straha20 knows best!
 

Ian Phillips

Volunteer Moderator
Now at
60.9415
42.0340

Steering at high speeds (over 25) is a skill I haven't yet mastered so I spend a fair amount of time skidding sideways and bumping into rocks. but it does have advantages. After skidding a full circle I will sometimes track down some materials to repair my damaged hull. I will be giving the SRV some love (with a hammer) to knock some of the dents out when I get it into the ship's hanger.

Have recalled my ship and am intending to take a shower :D

Thank god for lowgrav suction showers!
 
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Woohoo! Fun to see a world with significant ice and some really enormous canyon systems. Looking forward to the crossing when you get to that part!
 

Ian Phillips

Volunteer Moderator
The ice is a problem. Driving at speed is possible, but steering at speed is extremely limited. Every time I get some speed up, I need to avoid the larger rocks and then end up skidding sideways. The hidden craters are also frequent OMG moments as they are deep, steep and seem to coincide with going fast.

Tonight I'm still wielding the magical '(+2) Hammer of Dent Removal' and am also aiming to get some rest, but hope to get some good driving time in over the next couple of days.
 
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Ian Phillips

Volunteer Moderator
I've hit a problem.

My guns have stopped working!

I found a mesocrite (?) or something like that and stopped to see what materials it would provide, as this is the first one of these I have found on Charon. I started to 'mine' it and the guns stopped after a few rounds. I've reloaded but they simply don't work at all anymore. So, I've recalled my ship and am trying the ancient engineering trick of 'turn it off and back on'.

If that doesn't work I'm going to have to re-think my approach to the rest of the journey as I will be limited to the materials I have now. Seeing as I can lose 10% hull by hitting one rock (and I hit rocks very often), I won't be able to continue at a fast pace, which will make the trip very long.
 
PCC post now added.

Busy?

Been anywhere interesting? :D

For anyone curious here's where I began commenting after my day at Frontier HQ.

https://forums.frontier.co.uk/showt...-for-Q4-hype?p=7049465&viewfull=1#post7049465

I wouldn't recommend reading the most recent posts on that thread tho' - it became a despressing cesspit of negativity after the first 6hrs or so. Some people really are frickin' dementors and really don't deserve the Q4 update. I hope they hate it!

Brrrr ... sorry, Ian ... back to circumnavigation, a far more relaxing proposition than reading the forum today.

[yesnod]

I've hit a problem.

My guns have stopped working!

I found a mesocrite (?) or something like that and stopped to see what materials it would provide, as this is the first one of these I have found on Charon. I started to 'mine' it and the guns stopped after a few rounds. I've reloaded but they simply don't work at all anymore. So, I've recalled my ship and am trying the ancient engineering trick of 'turn it off and back on'.

If that doesn't work I'm going to have to re-think my approach to the rest of the journey as I will be limited to the materials I have now. Seeing as I can lose 10% hull by hitting one rock (and I hit rocks very often), I won't be able to continue at a fast pace, which will make the trip very long.

Pips? Have you turned them off? Too close to the target to aim them?
 
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