The Unknown Expedition - Artefacts to Beagle Point

[marx]

Unknown Artefacts, Meta-Alloys, and now, Unknown Probes. People have performed many kinds of experiments with them (well, not with the probes yet), including taking an artefact to Sagittarius A*. Now, with the help of Professor Palin's Corrosion Resistant Cargo Racks^{[SIZE=1]TM[/SIZE]} (Patent Pending), I plan on going even farther with them: to the newly-renamed Beagle Point. Since I'll be carrying so much unknown stuff, I've decided to name this the Unknown Expedition.

Why am I posting this here? For two reasons. First, so that if anyone would be interested in coming along or meeting up somewhere, they could know about this. I plan to leave on July 1. So, if you'd be interested, let me know!
Second, because I don't actually have an Unknown Probe yet, so I'd like to request one from anybody who does and wouldn't mind parting with one for this experiment. I'll also try finding one of my own, but if I can't get one by Friday, I'll be leaving with only artefacts and meta-alloys aboard. From what we've gathered so far, both the UA-s and UP-s point at Merope, but inside Merope, the UP-s point at Merope 5 c while the UA-s point at the star. So if either would point to another system elsewhere in the galaxy, I'd expect that they'd both do it.


If anyone's curious about the planned route, I'll visit a certain formerly permit-locked sector first (which has been unlocked even before Engineers, so don't expect much), then it'll be on to Beagle Point. I'll go to Rendezvous Point and Sagittarius A* on the way back, as I don't want to accidentally lose any cargo before I get to BP.
I plan to be back by the end of July, when the next major update to Engineers is scheduled to come.

Lastly, the motto of the expedition:

"What could possibly go wrong?"

 

[disorganise]

A month to get there and back? You're game if you've not done long distance before, well......it's much further than you think....and then a bit more!

Chances are I'll still be trundling around BP2 when you get here so come say hi. I've never seen a UA other than a video steam and certainly never a probe.

Good luck on your journey and may the jumps be kind o7

 

[Erimus Kamzel]

It'll be interesting to see how this pans out. As far as I know, no one has taken a UA beyond the galactic core yet so you'll be testing the untested at least. Good luck with the trip!

 

[who?]

If you can do it in 1 month, fair play to you.

I'm still 3-4 days out from the bubble, and I left on the 18th Jan. Maybe if you're buckyballing and not scanning much!

 

[marx]

Thanks! I've been on long distance expeditions before, and I think this'll be doable. Of course, if it takes more than a month, then that's that - I won't be in a rush. I could Buckyball it straight to BP, of course, but I'd rather keep an eye open along the way. I find that better for my sanity. (Not to mention the cargo I'll be carrying.) Having a 45 ly jump range will also help - I could go higher, of course, but I'd rather be prepared for anything, which is why I'll be flying a heavily modded combat-explorer Anaconda, and not a paper build. Curiously enough, I had no problem with those before, but having flown one in Engineers made me slightly nervous.

 

[CMDR CHIGGY VONRICTOFEN]

Unknown Artefacts, Meta-Alloys, and now, Unknown Probes. People have performed many kinds of experiments with them (well, not with the probes yet), including taking an artefact to Sagittarius A*. Now, with the help of Professor Palin's Corrosion Resistant Cargo Racks^{[SIZE=1]TM[/SIZE]} (Patent Pending), I plan on going even farther with them: to the newly-renamed Beagle Point. Since I'll be carrying so much unknown stuff, I've decided to name this the Unknown Expedition.

Why am I posting this here? For two reasons. First, so that if anyone would be interested in coming along or meeting up somewhere, they could know about this. I plan to leave on July 1. So, if you'd be interested, let me know!
Second, because I don't actually have an Unknown Probe yet, so I'd like to request one from anybody who does and wouldn't mind parting with one for this experiment. I'll also try finding one of my own, but if I can't get one by Friday, I'll be leaving with only artefacts and meta-alloys aboard. From what we've gathered so far, both the UA-s and UP-s point at Merope, but inside Merope, the UP-s point at Merope 5 c while the UA-s point at the star. So if either would point to another system elsewhere in the galaxy, I'd expect that they'd both do it.


If anyone's curious about the planned route, I'll visit a certain formerly permit-locked sector first (which has been unlocked even before Engineers, so don't expect much), then it'll be on to Beagle Point. I'll go to Rendezvous Point and Sagittarius A* on the way back, as I don't want to accidentally lose any cargo before I get to BP.
I plan to be back by the end of July, when the next major update to Engineers is scheduled to come.

Lastly, the motto of the expedition:

"What could possibly go wrong?"

You know where I will be for the foreseeable future. If you have the time, I'll pause my survey and hop over your way for a meetup!

 

[Macedonica]

I will keep a wary eye up on the heavens for you at Beagle Point 2. Hopefully, you will arrive before I finish the Trans-Polar Beagle Point 2 Expedition. Just don't drop an Unknown Probe on my SRV :S

 

[marx]

Yesterday, after having spoken with some people about their experiences with finding Unknown Probes, I decided to set out without taking any of those with me. They are simply far too rare for now, and even if I found one, it would have been better served to leave that in the bubble for experiments. So I loaded up on three Unknown Artefacts and one Meta-Alloys, and set off on the expedition.

As a last-minute change, I switched my 6A power plant to a 5A one, thereby saving 10T of mass, and had Marco Qwent put an overcharged mod on it so it'd be up to par.
Here's my ship in his base's hangar (click the image for larger size):

Spoiler

And taking off, hardpoints deployed for the photo (which would probably have annoyed traffic control, if it weren't automated):

Spoiler

I flew off to Merope 5 c first, to get some meta-alloys and look at canyons for a bit. I found an intact (already known) barnacle, got one seed from it, but found nothing else. Here's a ship-and-SRV selfie:

Spoiler

You might notice that the tire tracks go under one of the landing legs. I was so eager to get going that when I first recalled my ship, I accidentally drove under it before the ship touched down. Citing a blocked landing zone, the ship took off - and when I recalled it, it landed in the exact same spot as before. I made certain to back up, of course.


After this, I blasted off into the black, not even looking at system maps until I was well clear of the bubble. I was carrying valuable cargo after all.
For my first destination, I visited Pearcy's famous Earth-like world in IC 1396 Sector RU-F d11-7, and marvelled at how close it is to its landable binary pair moon (the distance between them is only 10 Mm), and how close the gas giant they are both orbiting is. The night sky of the Earth-like would be absolutely dominated by the moon, and the gas giant would also be a very large presence, though the nearby Elephant's Trunk nebula appears larger.

From then on, I continued to my second destination westward. But the next day, I heard the news that Jaques has been found. I quickly looked at the galaxy map: his new system wasn't very far off from my originally planned route, and I was a bit under 20000 ly from him. So I changed my plans, and decided to head straight to his station instead. I wonder if it's kind of a move to bring artefacts to it, after what happened, but hey - this is an opportunity too good to pass up. If it does cause any more trouble to him, sorry!


After a couple of jumps, I was glad that I altered my course, as I came across a pair of Earth-likes - which were part of a trinary configuration. The third planet looked quite interested: rather than being a water world that's just "out of bounds" to be habitable, it's actually a high metal content planet that could be habitable, if its atmosphere didn't have ammonia in the oxygen's place. Perhaps it was an aborted attempt of Thargoid terraformation? (...Thargoformation?) But then, the habitable zones of ammonia worlds are much farther than those of Earth-likes.
Flying closer, the planet looks like it still has some bodies of liquid:

Spoiler

I wonder what exactly might be in those.

So now I'm off to Jaques, though I'll probably make some small detours along the way to gaze at some of the nebulae. If things go well, I expect to arrive there before the week's over. Should anyone else plan to go there too, let me know! It would be nice to meet up with people all the way out there.

Assuming the artefacts in the hold don't do something to me too. I hope Professor Palin lined those cargo racks with tinfoil at least. But hey,
"What could possibly go wrong?"

 

[marx]

Pro tip: whenever you take module damage, always check the cargo hatch damage afterwards. Because next time if you happen to get cooked while scooping, it just might go low enough for the hatch to spill its contents into supercruise.
But hey, at least we have an answer to "what could possibly go wrong?" now. Next time, I'll be much more careful - I was rushing too much now. On the bright side, I found some more Earth-like worlds along the way, including my second ringed one.

So the trip to Beagle Point is postponed now. After having visited Jaques station and very much liking its environment, I'll head back to the bubble to resupply, then to help out SEPP and Jaques afterwards. I'm fairly certain that both would yield more results than just hauling artefacts to BP. And if Jaques gets repairing and Universal Cartographics back up and running, I might just end up rebasing there: it's a great location, and somehow I immediately felt at home there. And hey, if a colony does get going there,
"What could possibly go wrong?"