The Circumnavigation of Mercury

Andrew Linton

Andrew Linton
(0,106)

(0,106).png
 

Andrew Linton

Andrew Linton
I'm getting the strongest impression that I'm not so much driving 360 degrees around Mercury as driving the same 10 degrees 36 times; the hilly regions in particular seem to have almost identical formations:
  1. There's the one with the big boulder at the summit.
  2. There's the hill with the double top.
  3. There's the one where I skim the left-hand shoulder, followed by the one where I skim the right-hand shoulder, followed by the shallow ridge.
  4. There's the sequence of three broad flat-tops that, if I get it just right, carries me to the flat land beyond.
It doesn't stop me from crashing head-on into the same dune time after time.
 

Andrew Linton

Andrew Linton
(0,112)

Travelled 11 degrees today, covering 468km. 138 degrees to go and 5,876km.

(0,112).png


This is where I am in the sysmap view, with Ehrlich City in the same hemisphere.

112 degrees with Ehrlich City.png


...and this is where I was on 28Jul3306, at longitude -96.

(0,-96).png
 

Andrew Linton

Andrew Linton
(0,114)

🎵 "It's a new dawn, it's a new day, it's a new degree for me, and I'm feelin' good." - except dawn is about 130 degrees away.

(0,114).png


...and Earth has broken free of that quadrilateral of distant stars it was passing through.

Earth quadrilateral.png
 
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Andrew Linton

Andrew Linton
(0,115)

The next big waypoint is (0,130), which will be two-thirds distance; maybe some time tomorrow.

Since my last explosion I've become more paranoid about the evil rocks out to destroy me. If the terrain is particularly rugged I'll repair at 60% hull. It's those bigger descents where you end up having two massive collisions that take two huge chunks of integrity out of the hull, they're the ones that kill you.

The alternative is to drive more carefully, but - nah.

(0,115).png
 

Rudi Raumkraut

Rudi Raumkraut
Andrew Linton said:
Thanks for the suggestion.

I looked into that early on and tried a few standard and premium repairs. I still seemed able to damage the hull pretty effectively and when I saw that Mercury doesn't provide some of the materials needed for standard and premium repair - (vanadium, palladium, zinc, tungsten, tellurium), I decided to stick with what I could easily replace i.e iron and nickel. At that time I didn't know how many repairs I would need, so I was being cautious. Towards the end of the journey, when I know I'll have enough materials, I'll splash out on the more expensive repairs.

Another argument would be: burn them all now and fall back on basic and mining iron and nickel when I have to. Just remembering the grind to accumulate them, and a tendency to hoard and conserve, makes me want to stick with the current plan.

View attachment 185010

View attachment 185011
Click to expand...
If I remember correctly the ship is autorepairing your srv in premium quality when you dock it, not sure if that was fixed, and I guess you don't want to recall your ship for every repair, but just a hint :)

Edit
Or is this just working with premium ammo!? Can't remember :D
 

Andrew Linton

Andrew Linton
Rudi Raumkraut said:
If I remember correctly the ship is autorepairing your srv in premium quality when you dock it, not sure if that was fixed, and I guess you don't want to recall your ship for every repair, but just a hint :)

Edit
Or is this just working with premium ammo!? Can't remember :D
Click to expand...
I don’t know if the repair you get on docking is premium, but in any case, as you say, I don’t want to keep recalling the ship.

I’ve brought the ship down twice to go and look at the terminator, and once or twice to confirm which body is Earth and to locate the other major planets.
 
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