The Circumnavigation of Mercury

Andrew Linton

Andrew Linton
Circumnavigation of Mercury​

I have now completed the circumnavigation of Mercury, starting on the equator at the terminator and driving East. Thanks to all those who followed, helped, videoed, encouraged, and supported me in this venture. Special thanks to Alec Turner for teaching me to fly, and Nick Sticks who pointed out the trick with screenshot events to get the location into the journal.

Current Status

Final Stats.png


Terms of Reference for a Project to Circumnavigate Mercury
​
Background

The Solar System is home to eight major planets and a large number of minor planets and asteroids.

Sol System.png


Mercury Cartographic Data.png
Mercury is the planet closest to Sol with a semi-major axis of 0.39 Astronomical Units.

The notable features of Mercury, from the point of view of a potential circumnavigation, are that its gravity is 0.38g, its orbital period is 88 days, and its rotational period is 58.6 days.

Mercury rotates in a way that is unique in the Solar System. It is tidally locked with the Sun in a 3:2 spin–orbit resonance, meaning that relative to the fixed stars, it rotates on its axis exactly three times for every two revolutions it makes around the Sun. (Wikipedia)

Mercury.png
The elements required for SRV repair and refuel are abundant in the outcrops and meteorites found on the surface.

With a radius of 2,440km, the circumference of Mercury is 15,330km.









Objectives

The goal of this project is to drive an SRV along the equator and complete the circumnavigation of Mercury.

Scope

The project is limited to its main goal. Gathering materials, commodities, escape pods, and bounties at crash sites will not be part of the mission.

Constraints

It is necessary to complete the project before the departure of the Mercury's Wings fleet carrier expedition to the Outer Scutum-Centaurus Arm. The date set for that departure is 22Nov3306.

Resources
  • The SRV and a full stock of iron, nickel, phosphorus, and sulphur - for repair and refuel.
  • VoiceAttack, to ease some operations like toggling night vision and supporting the Landing Guidance package.
  • EDDI, to keep EDSM updated.
  • The Landing Guidance VoiceAttack profile, normally used to land at a specific latitude and longitude, in this case used to advise on the heading and range to the next longitude marker.
  • Twitch and OBS to stream the journey and provide documentation of the attempt. This was abandoned when it became apparent that this software was pushing the graphics card to its limits. Travel is now recorded on HDD.
Risks
  • Repetitive Strain Injury
  • Visual Disturbance
  • All the ills that derive from sitting still in front of a screen
 
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Alec Turner

Alec Turner
Awesome stuff sir!

I don't know if you're aware of the Planetary Circumnavigation Club ..


(click logo for details)

.. but I'll mention your endeavour in the forum thread and Discord server. On completion of your circumnavigation you'll get an entry in the OP of that forum thread and will also qualify for a unique EDSM Planetary Circumnavigation Club achievement eBadge!
 

Andrew Linton

Andrew Linton
Ian Phillips said:
Circumnavigation threads are usually housed in the Exploration forum. Do you specifically want it to be here, or shall I move it for you?

PS. Just found and re-read my own circumnavigation thread. It was fun!
Click to expand...
I did not know that; I'd be happy for you to move it if that's where you think it belongs.
Congratulations on your own circumnavigation! They're fun when they're over - but it's like Yanick, the founder of the Mercury 7 Explorers' Squadron said: "We choose to do these things, not because they are easy, but because they are hard."
 

Andrew Linton

Andrew Linton
Notable Event #2. Nearly lost another SRV at -71.5 longitude. I only had 3% left and was still falling from 15 metres altitude, and this was after I said I would keep the hull above 50%. If I were less reckless I would wreck less.

1%.png
 

Florenus

Florenus
Andrew Linton said:
Notable Events en route #1. SRV destroyed while still at 40% hull and not doing anything acrobatic or impactful.
Click to expand...
Looks like some serious bug. We had those before (especially damage multiplier bug with other players in the instance), but they were fixed long time ago... unless recent updates introduced new problems, or reintroduced old ones. I hope it's not common.

Anyway, good luck and have fun.(y)
 

Andrew Linton

Andrew Linton
Florenus said:
Looks like some serious bug. We had those before (especially damage multiplier bug with other players in the instance), but they were fixed long time ago... unless recent updates introduced new problems, or reintroduced old ones. I hope it's not common.

Anyway, good luck and have fun.(y)
Click to expand...
Thanks for the feedback about the explosion. I can live with it but it was just so unexpected.
 

Alec Turner

Alec Turner
Andrew Linton said:
Notable Events en route #1. SRV destroyed while still at 40% hull and not doing anything acrobatic or impactful.

Source: https://youtu.be/1Su-FBFhbqw


This was quite a shock. I flew to Daedalus in the corvette and bought four more SRVs. I haven't lost another one since, but see Notable Event #2
Click to expand...
Wow - yeah that's weird, I've never seen an SRV explode quite as unexpectedly as that. A bit worrying for a planetary circumnavigation! Fingers crossed it's not a recurring problem.

Florenus said:
Looks like some serious bug. We had those before (especially damage multiplier bug with other players in the instance), but they were fixed long time ago... unless recent updates introduced new problems, or reintroduced old ones. I hope it's not common.
Click to expand...
I've been doing a lot of SRV driving in recent weeks for the Elite Racers 8WD SRV Endurance Championship and I haven't seen anything which would lead me to believe the recent updates have changed SRV damage calculations (or reverted the damage multiplier bugfix).

I can only conclude that sand people must be camped out in the dunes taking pot shots at Andrew's SRV.

GqxnU.jpg


Be careful out there man!
 

Andrew Linton

Andrew Linton
I've created a new way of presenting journey statistics using Google Sheets. After exporting 'Location' events from EDDiscovery, I can do the calculations in the sheet rather than editing them manually - and the hull of the SRV only dropped to 60% while setting it up. 😉

Journey Stats.png
 

Andrew Linton

Andrew Linton
Long distance SRV driving is a lot like snakes and ladders; when the Mauve Adder bites you're taken back to your last known position i.e. before connection was lost. For me this is typically five kilometres to the West. I get to drive over that same terrain once more. The main difference from S & L, though, is that there are no ladders.

I'm certainly glad I didn't have to repeat any of the degree between longitudes -25 and -24; it took me 41 minutes to cover the 42.6 km over extremely mountainous ground. That's my slowest degree so far at an average speed of only 17 metres per second.

The fastest degree took 23 minutes at an average speed of 31 metres per second.

I keep choosing asterisms just above the horizon as a visible cue to my desired direction of travel. I've used what looked like Orion and the square of Pegasus, but I've made up my own names too, pace Ptolemy; there was 'Knight's Move' and 'Pythagoras' and 'Leading Lights'.

I'm currently at longitude -23. A momentously momentous moment for me will be to reach longitude -20 as that will be quarter distance: 90 degrees travelled. This should happen today.
 

Andrew Linton

Andrew Linton
Journey Stats.png


One quarter distance reached! Just need to do that three more times.

re: naming constellations in the eastern sky; given the SRV's propensity for 'changing ends' I'm almost as familiar with the western sky as the eastern. Once the SRV decides to skid, there's very little you can do and you always come to rest facing 180 degrees to your direction of travel. Way it goes.
 
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