Star surfing: would you dare...?

[Calaban]

Would you dare to zoom through this stunningly beautiful Archway?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1ZxrVlegJ28

Even a Planet Earth should fit no problem.

Whats really neat about ED is that while seeing this, I realized this could very well be an experience in the game that I could achieve...


Thank you for widening my horizons in this mind blowing direction, Frontier!

Oh, so what would Star Surfing be? Here is my interpretation:

Star Surfing is an extreme Sport, started by Rich-kid thrillseekers and others of the adrenaline junky state of mind.

It started with ships illegally modified in workshops to override the mass locking safeguards of the Frameshift Drive. The modifications allowed very close passes to a Star's surface without dropping out of supercruise. While this worked around stars, the failsafes still worked normally around planets and stations. This was because a Star's mass shadow is more "dilute" than smaller, denser bodies.

Of course, having disabled frameshift safety overrides is a great way to get dead... But this was the only way to Surf a Star. Nothing was to stop a ship from slipping inside the star's plasma, to a quick and fiery death, other than pilot skill, and that was part of the thrill!

The act of Surfing is to "buzz" a star in frameshift Supercruise, at around 1000k/sec. The pilot would look for, and dart around, flares and magnetic field lines erupting from the stellar surface. The titanic scale and force of the field lines would greatly affect the ships course, tugging and twisting and flinging it around like a dry leaf. Surfers would dart to and fro between prominence's, in a continuous dance among the forces found there.

To navigate this tumultuous and deadly environment with any resemblance of grace and style was the peak of the Surfing Art. It is now a full extreme sporting spectacle, with televised events and sponsors bringing the stunning acts of skill and daring to the masses.

 

[insanephoton]

If my ship could survive being that close to a star, then yes

 

[Zenicetus]

Cool idea, but I think it would break immersion. Unless your hull is made of Unobtainium(tm) and shields are working a heck of a lot better than they do in combat against lasers, you'd fry before you even got close to a flare like that. Not to mention the magnetic field intensity.

The idea of "star surfing" is cool, but I think if we see it at all, it would be done with gravity wells outside the stellar corona or other dangerous areas like black hole polar jets. Somewhere in the design docs I think there is a mention of being able to fly slingshot trajectories around gravity wells like planets while in Supercruise. Maybe stars too? Either as an escape/pursuit technique against enemies, or just for fun. That could get interesting, if you screw it up.

 

[Korr]

Dare? I already tried it!

Set course, went to bed, came back a few hours later and I had mysteriously died still about 4LS away

 

[Sysmon]

Should make fuel scooping interesting.

S

 

[Valkor]

I was actually thinking about this kind of stuff today... we'll be experience some of this stellar/cosmic phenomena? meteor swarm? supernovas and such? that would fit perfectly the "passenger shunting" business panorama... people wanting to reach a particular planet/system because they'll see some incredible event foreseen to happen...
Dang, getting a closer look to a comet on its path must be terrific!

 

[Zvanya]

This made me think of the short story "Neutron Star" by Larry Niven. A scientific ship made a close approach to a neutron star and the passengers were killed by tidal force smashing them against one end of the ship. The next guy to try it survived by staying in the center of the ship, but was almost pulled apart by the tidal force

 

[SirFreddie]

Awesome, majestic, beautiful...But I've got to get on 4 passenger flights in the next month and if any of these phenomena are pointed in my direction during the flight we're all dead on the plane...EMP +

 

[Valkor]

This made me think of the short story "Neutron Star" by Larry Niven. A scientific ship made a close approach to a neutron star and the passengers were killed by tidal force smashing them against one end of the ship. The next guy to try it survived by staying in the center of the ship, but was almost pulled apart by the tidal force

"... and the company refuses any responsibility for any damage or fatal injury caused by humongous tidal force emitted by solar activities or such. For this reason, bean burritos are highly forbidden on board and violators will be jettisoned at once."

 

[Zenicetus]

This made me think of the short story "Neutron Star" by Larry Niven. A scientific ship made a close approach to a neutron star and the passengers were killed by tidal force smashing them against one end of the ship. The next guy to try it survived by staying in the center of the ship, but was almost pulled apart by the tidal force

I think the Puppeteers slightly revised the indemnity clause on General Products hulls after that one. And hey, where are the General Products hulls in this game anyway! If I'm going off exploring to the Galactic Core, that's what I want.

Awesome, majestic, beautiful...But I've got to get on 4 passenger flights in the next month and if any of these phenomena are pointed in my direction during the flight we're all dead on the plane...EMP +

It depends on how much gets fried, and if the whole ATC network goes down too. GPS will be out, but if the flight crew still has radio comms, basic instruments and ATC is still there, they can be vectored to a quick landing at an alternate airport. I think air transport crews still have paper charts onboard too, not just their iPads and whatever's loaded into the FMC. As long as the flight controls are working, the donks are still running, and they can see something outside the windscreen, there's a chance of an emergency landing.

Someone more knowledgable than me will have to comment on this, but I think there are fall-back modes for modern Airbus and Boeing cattle cars that revert to full manual control, with hydraulics on the flight surfaces instead of fly-by-wire. I could be wrong about that. In which case, you're screwed.

 

[Krow]

Only if my ship was made of Marshmallow.
Nom...

 

[Zvanya]

I think the Puppeteers slightly revised the indemnity clause on General Products hulls after that one.

If I remember correctly they were fine with that incident since the hull was completely undamaged. There was a story in which a General Products hull was actually destroyed - it took an antimatter solar wind to do it though

Can't remember the name of that one.