[Not] Yet another circumnavigation

[Taronas]

Weird title because I probably will not finish. But you never know …

Flying a rare goods loop for the current CG was quite boring and I started browsing the forum while in SC. Came across the awesome report of Ian Phillips and Jonas Treesong and then the whole PCC stuff. Wow, inspiring reading!

Once I had delivered the goods at the station in Olelbis I checked out the star system, just for fun. And there it was: Olelbis 3a. A 497 km radius Ice Body, somewhat similar looking to Charon in the other thread. So I went to check it out, putting two SRVs in the trusty T7, just in case …

I landed at the first best place that I came across on approach and ended up there:

Olelbis-Olelbis 3 a (20181117-220815)

Turns out I missed North Pole only by a tiny bit!


Olelbis-Olelbis 3 a (20181117-233901)_1

Up to that minute I had just 360km in the SRV. I took this landing spot as a good omen, an invitation to get those KMs ramped up a bit


Olelbis-Olelbis 3 a (20181117-221030)

So, I don't promise anything, let's just see how far I will get with that adventure. The Planet is supposed to have Major Water Geysers, that's at least something to look forward to!

It's CMDR Explorix, btw.

 

[Taronas]

Day 1: A rough start

Zooming into the planet map as far as possible I came to the conclusion that I should ether turn around 180° and go in that direction or face the first challenge immediately: THE WALL


Olelbis-Olelbis 3 a (20181117-220815)_1

If I could make this somehow I might have the guts to be an actual explorer after all, or?

Ok, I learned something about the SRV, about me, about Gravity etc.

Descending into the canyon I broke my personal SRV speed record for the first time. Even landed in one piece! Now, just go up the other side:


Olelbis-Olelbis 3 a (20181117-224344)

Ah, not quite that easy! I spend about one hour getting trapped on sharp spikes, in narrow holes, sliding back down the wall - all that fun stuff you all know about. Lesson learned: don't drive straight up a nearly vertical wall of ice!

Back to the ground and follow the canyon a bit, in hope to find an easier way up. Came across a parked Ship on the canyon ground (wanted NPC), but no Geysers yet. Didn't take long and there it was: a nice slope going up to the rim! Took only two tries and I was up. Got too enthusiastic in between with the jump jets, bounced off the 45° Slope and went all the way down, sigh.

Once up there the area was rather flat with scattered stone blocks. Driving was rather easy and so I covered some distance before I hat to call it quit.

that's my trip of today:

2018-11-18 00_54_21-TCE WORKSPACE

 

[Taronas]

Day 2: Easy Going

From the map image I decided to turn slightly right towards where the next big canyon is the smallest, in the "knee".

What's that "drive assistant" light up there, can I turn that off? Yea, more speed! It's so flat here around, just be on the lookout for those nasty rocks! And do use the jump jets! It's save up here! Passed by two smaller craters, a strange crashed object, another landed wanted NPC, collected lots of materials. Should have converted all Sulphur and Carbon at a Trader before, I'm already on the storage limit for that stuff!


Olelbis-Olelbis 3 a (20181118-133742)


Olelbis-Olelbis 3 a (20181118-135021)


Olelbis-Olelbis 3 a (20181118-143206)


Olelbis-Olelbis 3 a (20181118-154533)

Then the next lesson: I had collected some stuff, SRV bay full. So I called in my ship to transfer the cargo over. And take a nap in the more comfortable ship cabin. Now, see that Security ship over there? It came out of nowhere, scanned my ship and found: Illegal wares! I had to abandon a mission and still the related cargo in the hold, now counting as stolen! Ok, just a fine, nothing troublesome. But don't let the ship stand around for too long, it might draw in visitors!


Olelbis-Olelbis 3 a (20181118-163037)

More serious: I was approaching the Grand Canyon!


Olelbis-Olelbis 3 a (20181118-171301)

In order to continue towards the South, I had to cross this somehow. I continued a bit further along the ridge to a point where the canyon became somewhat narrower. But then there was no way around anymore, I had to cross. Downwards!


Olelbis-Olelbis 3 a (20181118-173415)

Wonder what awaits down there and how I will manage to get across!

As it turns out: somebody build a highway right into that canyon, let's call it Highway Nr 1


Olelbis-Olelbis 3 a (20181118-173700)

And even further down! Wonder how I will get out of that again?


Olelbis-Olelbis 3 a (20181118-174514)

"Ende der Ausbaustrecke" as the Germans would say:


Olelbis-Olelbis 3 a (20181118-174940)

And: Done! (looking back from the other rim)


Olelbis-Olelbis 3 a (20181118-175804)

Actually that was all much easier than anticipated. Yes, there are still areas like the following but in general, the terrain was not that hard up to now:


Olelbis-Olelbis 3 a (20181118-190254)

And there I am: 250km from the start I called in the ship again for the night


Olelbis-Olelbis 3 a (20181118-191533)


Somewhere along the way I stopped and installed me StatusDisplay and set the target: South Pole! It's showing ~1330km to go. Wow, seeing that number … and that is only half the way! But seeing the number go DOWN when speeding along is quite satisfying

Good Night

 

[Alec Turner]

Just spotted this thread, subscribing now and will read properly later. Good luck!

 

[Nick Sticks]

Good luck!

Some great pictures there!

 

[Macedonica]

Ditto - good luck!

 

[Kris]

Good luck

All these circumnavigation threads get me thinking about making another one too. And this time icy world too like you do. Your target choice looks very good, beautiful moon in these screenshots.

 

[Orvidius]

Good luck! I love that we've had a whole bunch of planetary circumnavigations lately. This is the perfect time to do them too-- while waiting for 3.3 to go live.

 

[Taronas]

Thank you all for the encouraging words!

Good luck

All these circumnavigation threads get me thinking about making another one too. And this time icy world too like you do. Your target choice looks very good, beautiful moon in these screenshots.

I start to regret my choice already ...

Good luck! I love that we've had a whole bunch of planetary circumnavigations lately. This is the perfect time to do them too-- while waiting for 3.3 to go live.

Yea, that was the idea. And then until three hot fixes have been deployed to fix the initial update.

Now, Day Three:

After familiarizing myself a bit more with the StatusDisplay tool I fixed the target: to the actual Antipode of my starting point instead of just 'South Pole'. That made the distance grow a bit again, unfortunately :-(



It was all easy-peasy going again.

Olelbis-Olelbis 3 a (20181119-180354)

42m/s!

At least for a while.
Then I reached the next Grand Canyon:

Olelbis-Olelbis 3 a (20181119-182721)

Getting down was kind of fun. "I can fly!!!"

Olelbis-Olelbis 3 a (20181119-183607)

But it's a Trap! There is no way out!

Olelbis-Olelbis 3 a (20181119-190756)
(Yea, called in the ship to store some cargo that's lying around at the canyon floor. )


I tried but so far failed miserably. Tried jump jet boosting but failed to get far up. That's where I'm stuck now :-(

Olelbis-Olelbis 3 a (20181119-190054)_1

So, with the ship already there, I could just get in and get away from that horrible place, sigh.
What have I got me into myself here?

I need better maps of the area. Should I follow the floor East or West? Sigh :-( And I'm afraid the walls in the South are not even the opposite side of the canyon yet. Just some small gorge within. I guess I should really follow the floor east. In the overview photo it looks as if there might be a way out. Ok, let's drive.

 

[Kris]

Love the second to last picture.

This is first time i read about StatusDisplay, must install it too (especially since 3.3 beta doesnt display SRV distance traveled any more).

 

[Ian Phillips]

Awesome

You look like you have light all the time! The scenery looks nice too.

Robert Maynard developed the status display in response to my problems on Charon, trying to keep to a Great Circle for the shortest route.

Generally I found that the inclines/crater walls are deceptive - they look to be almost vertical, but when you get to them they are usually pretty easy to drive up. Mountains are a different beast though.......

 

[Taronas]

Awesome

You look like you have light all the time! The scenery looks nice too.

Thanks, and Yes, always light up to now. But that might be a bad thing, what if the other side is always in the dark? I think at that point I would quit. Or üperhaps wait for the night vision stuff. Although, at the rate I'm progressing I might not have to wait long at the end.

Only 90km today, StatusDisplay tells me 1.285km to target.

Oh and btw, heading east was the right thing to do back then. The gorge got narrower and narrower and I was afraid it would be a dead end when it suddenly opened. Since it also had turned right about 90° along the way I was actually heading towards the southern wall of the Canyon. And once the view opened: there it was! And it was as hoped: a somewhat bumpy >= 45° slope out of the misery. Still tough at the beginning but I made it out!

Only to be greeted by this a couple km later:

Olelbis-Olelbis 3 a (20181119-203353)
But there is kind of a bridge here, crossing was easy this time.

And then I hit this one:

Olelbis-Olelbis 3 a (20181119-213504)

I arrived somewhere at the deep part on the right in this picture. Again, following east along the ridge, proved the right thing to do. The canyon turns slightly southwards and there on the left end it looks again like a "bridge" where crossing should be relatively easy.

Yea, called in the ship for some repairs and some rest. Looking forward to the next day. So far the trip has been awesome - ignoring the few moments of despair To start this tour was the right thing to do.

 

[Alec Turner]

Hi there commander, glad to see you're still going strong (at the time of writing anyway).

Just wanted to let you know that your ongoing circumnavigation has now been entered into the official records of the Planetary Circumnavigation Club and we'll be following your progress with interest!

(click image for details)
​

No pressure but welcome to the club commander. I hope you stick with it but quite understand if you don't. Driving all the way around an entire world is a feat of endurance that only the most determined of SRV drivers have managed to complete.

 

[Ian Phillips]

I've just paid a visit to Olelbis 3 a.

Those chasms are MUCH more severe than anything except mountains on Charon, and I could avoid them if I wanted. You have got yourself quite a challenge!

 

[Nick Sticks]

I went there this afternoon to the mountain in the valley shown above.
Very dramatic scenery, looked fantastic.

Spoiler

 

[Taronas]

Hi there commander, glad to see you're still going strong (at the time of writing anyway).

Just wanted to let you know that your ongoing circumnavigation has now been entered into the official records of the Planetary Circumnavigation Club and we'll be following your progress with interest!

No pressure ...

Thank you but I feel thats a little too early. And now, "without the pressure" it's even more to worry about ;-)

I've just paid a visit to Olelbis 3 a.

Those chasms are MUCH more severe than anything except mountains on Charon, and I could avoid them if I wanted. You have got yourself quite a challenge!

Thanks for scouting. Now, where is the good news? Anything encouraging perhaps?


Day Four: "Getting dark already"

Off to crossing the CHASM, as Ian put it. Getting onto the "bridge" I made out yesterday was the easy part.


Olelbis-Olelbis 3 a (20181120-182306)

Getting off, on the other hand, not so much :-(

DEAD END


Olelbis-Olelbis 3 a (20181120-185641)

Nothing worked in that situation. Couldn't go back or forth and even the jump jet did nothing besides raising some dust.

I confess: I went back to the menu and logged in again and got un-stuck by doing so. Is this considered cheating?
After hardly driving, mostly jumping around aimlessly for about one hour - really close to giving up! - I made it out somehow. Thank you Ian for not warning me earlier ;-)


Olelbis-Olelbis 3 a (20181120-193834)

Yea, that hole direct behind the SRV. I WILL COME BACK ONE DAY WITH MY 760t T-9 AND WILL FILL YOU TO THE BRIM WITH %$"§$! REVENGE!!1!!11

After calming down, counting the missing repair kits used up on the way (7) I went on southwards. For a while it felt like driving through moonscape, somewhat bumpy terrain, some hills, some wide valleys. In one of those there was a small mountain in the center (more crater than valley?) and I even went up there, completely voluntary, just to take this awesome desktop background photograph:


Olelbis-Olelbis 3 a (20181120-202159)_1

Then the landscape finally became rather flat again and I could bring some distance between me and the nightmarish hole.

Meanwhile I couldn't help but notice that the SRV headlights were becoming more and more visible on the rocks in front. It's getting dark, already! <shock/>


Olelbis-Olelbis 3 a (20181120-213109)

After about 100km I called in the ship for tonight. The last sight of the day might give me bad dreams of what's to come tomorrow:


Olelbis-Olelbis 3 a (20181120-213758)

According to the ship statistics I'm at 892km, having started today at 746km. That's 150km driving for getting 110km closer to the antipode. Where did I spend the other 40km?!?!

I'm trying to figure out how this "flyving" thing is working, not much luck so far. More experimenting required. (yea, wanna try to learn this on my own for now)

Finally a somewhat positive note: I had a couple visitors today. Some where watching me struggle in the hole, Some system security, later an Orca. And then a T-9 accompanied by a small ship that I could not target, an SLF?
All NPCs though. Still better than nothing. And they were all friendly

See you tomorrow, perhaps. Have to think about what I'm even doing here.

CMDR Explorix

 

[Nick Sticks]

Good going Cmdr!

 

[Taronas]

Thanks Nick!

One more thing: looking at the map



I might just head south-west, along the canyon towards that big cratery thing. Out of curiosity and hope it might be easier to cross. Yea, need to sleep about that.

Opinions, anybody?

 

[Nick Sticks]

You know you really want to!

I bet it looks good.

I'm only 7 jumps away if you get stuck.
(As long as you're on PC)

 

[SushiCW]

Excellent! Always happy to see a new circumnavigation to follow. I love how you're throwing yourself into it, on a beautiful and challenging world!