Nostalgia Trip - A 250000LY trip remembering my whole exploration career from start to finish.

[Kolato]

Shortcut to log entries

Spoiler

Episode 1 - The slow walk to eagle
Episode 2 - Earthlikes Ahoy!

Those who do not remember the past are doomed to repeat it.
Although in this case i do remember it, and i'm repeating it willingly.



Nostalgia Trip - Reliving the glory days of my career.


Exploration like no other profession in Elite has had a strong impact on me. While bounty hunting has certainly been fun and trading profitable, none of those proffessions ever shaped my elite experience like exploration has. If it wasn't for exploration i'd most likely have quit by now, but instead i am repeatedly drawn in again and again to experience what the galaxy has to offer.

It's been quite a while now since i began exploration, 2 years and 64 (give or take a few) days at time of writing. During that time i've traveled 700000LY, visited over 20000 systems, pioneered the 1st quadrant, been to beagle point, Sagitarrius A* and the far reaches of space. I've scanned earthlike worlds, earthlike moons, binary earthlikes and earthlikes around neutron stars. I've partaken in Distant Worlds, Distant Stars and countless meetups with friends and strangers alike.

Being an explorer has been a joy, especially during those early days of exploration where most of us had no idea what we were doing - i'll never forget struggling with "badlands" or not seeing the difference between water worlds and earthlikes.


The plan

The plan of this mission is very simple, to visit, document, and enjoy all the systems that have been important for me during my exploration career.
The execution however is all but simple. There are 23 waypoints on this expedition, streched out over a route that is approximatley 250000 lightyears long, with more waypoints likely to come during the expedition.
It's a trip that will likely take months, which is further extended by the fact that i will NOT be using the neutron highway, as i want to experience the journey as much as the destination (although i will use an engineered ship)

My ship

After having carried me 700000LY and through 20000 systems already, i don't see why the AEV Dormant Star shouldn't be able to do it again. This one ship has lasted through my entire career, and has served me from when i was just a ranger, to Elite. If you want to see her full loadout, check the prologue video. But for the most part here's what you need to know about her:

- She has 6 Heatsinks
- 4A Shields + 1(A?) Booster
- ADS + DSS + WS
- 7D Powerplant + 5A Power Distributor
- 3x TURRETED mining laser
- 2x AFMU (5A + 6A)
- 2x Class 4 SRV bay (Cap 2x2)
- 1 Class 5 Fighter Bay (Imperial fighter)
- 5D thrusters (sufficent enough for most worlds)

I will also be documenting all the legs of my journey by posting updates on this thread, as well as through my YouTube channel- you can watch the prologue here:
[video=youtube;gZo86jxDgVU]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gZo86jxDgVU[/video]



Not a lot more to say really apart from this:
So long and thanks for all the fish!


~Kola

 

[Erimus Kamzel]

Good luck Kola o7.

Send postcards!

 

[CMDR MERANGO]

Ye Gods - good luck to ya CMDR. Ye shall now be known as Shackleton. But, unlike him, please come back in 1 piece.

Hats off to ya.

CMDR

 

[Kolato]

Good luck Kola o7.

Send postcards!

Will do - stopping by beagle point on the trip so i should have plenty of photo OPs

 

[Macros Black]

Have fun, CMDR. Though I can't imagine why someone would venture on such a long and arduous trip...

 

[Kolato]

-- BEGIN TRANSMISSION --
Establishing GalNet Link...
Waiting for confirmation.
Tracing hyperspace trajectories.
-- LINK ESTABLISHED --

Log 1 - The Slow Walk To Eagle


// Backstory

The Eagle Nebula is one of the places you think is a lot closer than it actually is. Making my video log for this leg of the expedition i constantly talked on how it was 4000LY from Sol, while in reality it is actually closer to 7000LY. It's maybe the memories of passing it early on the way to Sagitarrius A*, or the fact that it now has a planetary outpost which makes it feel so much closer than it actually is. Regardless it's in the grand scheme of things not that far away, and with a 49LY jumprange ship it should have gone fast. Should.

The problem with being a returning explorer is that you get easily distracted. From interesting rock worlds, to ringed brown dwarfs and pretty earthlikes, there are lots of things that grabs one's attention. It's a polar opposite problem from what i had in my earlier days, where i would push my ship to the limit trying to get to as many waypoints as quickly as possible. I didn't care if there was a pretty water world or interesting planetary formation there, what i cared about was the really rare stuff, planetary nebulae, ELW the like. I wasn't there for the journey as much as i was there for the destination.

All of this brings us back to the Eagle Nebula. Being just another nebula on the way to Sagitarrius A* one wouldn't expect it to be that significant for anyone in general. There are plenty of other nebula that are almost identical to it in aesthethics, so apart from location it is pretty insignificant. But nostalgia trumps logic, and the eagle nebula is in my eyes one of the prettiest and most nostalgic nebulae in the whole galaxy. It's not prettier than others, and neither have i discovered anything inside it, but it is an important place for me regardless, just because of that special location. My first experience with the eagle nebula was back on my first trip to Sagitarrius A*. Being pre-horizons and so early on in the exploration timeline the trip was slow and cumbersome. I remember being amazed at how erimus managed to cross the galaxy in such a little amount of time, when now the same feat is being done in the span of hours. Regardless i made my way slowly and surely corewards, seeing barnards loop & the bubble get smaller and smaller behind me as i went further into the galactic centre. But as i ventured further and further out, something became larger and larger. After 7000LY the Eagle Nebula stood and looked me in the face, menacing. It was one of my first experiences with a major coreward nebula, and one which i will not forget. The scope of that thing compared to all other nebulae i had visited before was truly fascinating, and i remember standing there in awe of what i was seeing.

My second experience with the eagle nebula was one of depression. I was burnt out, longing for something to do. I had just completed an enormous trip and was at the borderline of quitting the game because i just felt that it was all so repetitive. I tried staying in the bubble and doing bubble stuff, but i just couldn't, and i therefore set out, without direction to the eagle nebula. I pushed on, and it didn't take long before i had arrived at the nebula. Seeing it i felt pointless, i asked myself "What now?" and waited. Luckily what would happen next turned out to be one of the most enjoyable exploration trips i've ever done. Sitting there i was contacted by a friend, who asked if i wanted to meet him and do some exploration. Being just a few 1000s lightyears from eachother we winged up and started flying. Before we knew it we had traveled 10000LY and were in the core, it was a magical moment and i had a really good time. I think that one session completley revitalized my love for elite.

My third, and last notable experience with the eagle nebula was on the distant worlds expedition. Now seen as a legendary expedition, i struggled to keep interest in it during my participation. Once we arrived at eagle i had a bit of a wake-up call. Remembering the winged exploration session upon seeing it, i decided that despite me being utterly burnt out and not really enjoying the expedition, that i would push on further and try to make something good of it. While i ultimatley failed at this, i still remember the rush of motivation that came from seeing it to this day.

//Actual Log


Having launched from Eranin, i immidientley set course for the eagle nebula. As the trip to the eagle nebula takes one close to the galactic highway to both Sagitarrius A* and Colonia i figured the chances for undiscovered bodies was quite low, and i therefore decided to just try to push it as hard as i can not worrying too much about scans. After around 4 jumps i had made it out of the bubble and was in deepspace, surveyed deepspace, but still deepspace. Being so close to the bubble there was nothing really of interest here. Yes i could have stopped by coalsack, but i felt that was better left for another day.

After a bit more than 1000LY i stumbled accross the first undiscovered body of the trip. It was nothing special at all, just a rocky world with some red canyons. In more or less all ways it was utterly worthless, but the sight of it's parent gas giants made it a pretty if common sight.

Having scanned and taken a few picturs of the body i pushed onwards. Being so close to the bubble i kept finding scanned system after scanned system. Each and every planet i found that was interesting were already scanned and i therefore decided to just take pictures of them and leave.

After having spent the night resting on an oddly blue world, i set out again and after 4000LY finally found something of interest. A pretty blue undiscovered earth-like world, shining bright from it's parent star. It was a very oceanic world, with continents far apart and in little numbers. The wind also appeared relatively quiet, leading me to the thought that this would be a nice vacation planet, if it hadn't been for the low temperatures as witnessed by the planet's enormous poles.
I was happy regardless.

After having traveled almost 7000LY which felt like 10000LY due to constant distractions from brown dwarfs, SRV excursions amongst other things, the eagle nebula finally stood before me. I Jumped in, and after a quick fiddle with the system map found Eagle Landing, the planetary outpost which i would rest for the night on. It's certainly a nice thing to have civilization so far out. The ability to feel at home when Sol is 7000Ly away is certainly nice, and makes me wonder if i'll stop by colonia once that comes around. I sold my data, equalling somewhere in the region of 4 million credits, and entered the hangar, heading to sleep.

ATTACHEMENT(S): 1

[video=youtube;NwF29fHiPfI]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NwF29fHiPfI[/video]
DESCRIPTION: VIDEO LOG EP1

-- END TRANSMISSION --

 

[Kolato]

-- BEGIN TRANSMISSION --
Establishing GalNet Link...
Waiting for confirmation.
Tracing hyperspace trajectories.
-- LINK ESTABLISHED --

Warning! Systems are detecting this post was sent approximatley 2 months ago, as a result the contents may be outdated and/or late

Log 2 - Earthlikes Ahoy

// Backstory

Discoveries come in all shapes and sizes. From tiny rocky worlds with no atmosphere and uneven shape, to gigantic black holes spanning tens of lightseconds in diameter. However more important for us explorers, and this log, is rarity. Rarity is measured differentley by different people. Some may just base it off exploration payout, equating a large payout to a rare body. While others base it off personal experience, noting what they do and don't see often. Me? I'm somewhere in the middle. I find earthlike-worlds to be moderatley rare and always a nice find, but higher paying bodies like neutron stars i barely even scan due to their extreme frequency. As a result most earthlike worlds in my book goes unnoticed, forgotten. But despite that the waypoints in this part of the expedition are both earthlikeworlds, although for they're in this list for slightly different reasons.

// Actual Log

After a quick maintenance check on my communications array, this leg began fram eagle landing, where i had spent the previous night. Until Colonia this would be my last stop at civilization, so i made sure to sell all my data and repair all my ships modules. Setting off i was initially dissapointed. While i did get a few good cinematic shots (as seen in the attachement below) from some pretty-ish high metal content planets, most of what i found was just bog standard stuff. While i do enjoy the Eagle Nebula i've never really had good luck with the surrounding area, and that remained the case today as well. Regardless i pushed onwards, and after not too long i had arrived at my first waypoint.

Earth-like worlds around neutron stars were a rare sight back in the day, and still remains an odd and unusual quirk of the ways of the universe today. It is amazingly strange how an ecosystem can not only survive but thrive under such a cold yet deadly star, and it makes discoveries like these fascinating. I spent quite some time observing the earth like world from orbit, and while i couldn't see any life on the planet's surface with my ships limited sensor capabilities, it was clear that the lush green forests had not only sustained their size since last time i visited, but grown!

Moving on i got some better luck than on the first part of the leg. I found a molten lava world with a ring very reminiscent of Zaonce 3, a planet system where i had spent a lot of my early days doing bounty hunting operations.

(A picture of Zaonce 3, curtesy of Ollie Clark)


I spent quite a bit of time admiring the scenery, before finally making my way to the last waypoint of the leg, and it was just as far, if not more pretty, than i remembered it to be.

While neither of these earth-like worlds were rare or special in their own right, the scientific questions they posed, or the stunning vistas they delivered both made them memorable and notable earth-like worlds of my exploration career. They sat no record, made no significant impact, but for me, both of these were fantastic discoveries that were well worth revisiting.

ATTACHEMENT(S):

[video=youtube;kTQATmF8Jxk]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kTQATmF8Jxk[/video]
DESCRIPTION: VIDEO LOG EP2

-- END TRANSMISSION --

 

[Shinji Ikari]

Have fun, CMDR. Though I can't imagine why someone would venture on such a long and arduous trip...

C'mon we are in a trip slightly longer, you know the answer

 

[Kolato]

MINOR UPDATE!

Where have i been?
Quite unfortunatley my computer hasn't been "Up to snuff" for the last 3 months or so and i have sadly not been able to do much in the form of exploration as a result.
That and the sooner-than-expected fast approaching DWE2 may lead to some slight delays in the expedition. That being said i do want to go forward with this and i am far from done with the expedition, it will just take a bit longer than expected.