I'm going to try out a possible vector for the UP, after putting together some of the suggestions from other CMDRs today (Rizal, MassBStruction and others) and my prior postings.
I am really warming to the idea that the UP might be a baby Barnacle which was sent a long way to plant down on a specific spot on Merope 5C. So in this scenario, the UA find possible plant sites, pinpoint where to plant, and the UP are sent from somewhere to plant down at a specific spot. The specific spot is probably chosen well in advance as it might be expensive to send a UP out just to set down at any random point. So it could have a flight plan and a specific destination as seen in Figure 1.
Fig 1: Possible Flight Plan Destination?
Using the rings-as-a-line and orbital plane intersection described earlier (
https://forums.frontier.co.uk/showthread.php/276077-UAs-Barnacles-and-other-mysteries-Thread-8-The-Canonn/page414?p=4320914&viewfull=1#post4320914 ) points to a specific location on the surface. Diagrammatically, the rings are highlighted in blue, and the orbital plane in orange in Figure 2.
Fig 2: Message with highlighted rings and orbital plane:
Note the circle which is slightly off-centre is where Merope 5 would be, in relation to being directly below Merope 5c. Ordinarily this would be seen as a dotted circle as in Figure 3, when approaching Merope 5c with Merope 5 behind.
Fig 3: Approach following along the orbital plane
Flying along the orbital plane the Merope 5 circle approaches the Merope 5C navigation circle. The objective is to place the Merope 5 circle off centre biased to the left of the centre of the Merope 5C navigation circle.
Fig 4: Approaching intersection point
Unfortunately today is not an intersection day, so this current image is only an approximation within 5 degrees of the Time 0 intersection as shown in Figure 5. Note the more accurate likely site is in the upper right of this image.
Fig 5: Approximate intersection site, -5 degrees Latitude (approx) due to time image taken is not Time 0
Flying to the approximate site and looking toward the actual site, we see what looks to be a prime Barnacle site (Figure 6). This can be verified in about 1.5 days time, when the intersection Time 0 occurs. I am confident this site will be directly below if the above flight plan is followed in 1.5 days time. From prior measurements at nearly time 0 (+2 hours) and estimating the off-centre Merope 5 navigation circle the corrected site is approximately (-7, 58)
Fig 6: View of approximate intersection site with allowance for axial tilt at true intersection point.
So the approximate location as per using the offset Merope 5 navigation circle of Figure 2 and the intersections puts us in what looks to me as a prime Barnacle site. This site could be surveyed to see if there are geological features which resemble the first panel of the message (rotated 90 degrees) as shown in Figure 7 and Figure 8.
Fig 7- First panel, rotated:
Fig 8 - First panel, potential geologcal features:
A separate test may be possible to see if there is some indication from the Unknown Probe that this is the destination. It has been previously reported that the UP sounds unhappy on the surface of Merope 5C. It could be it is unhappy that, after travelling so far, it did not land in the correct spot. I propose recording the UP again at some random sites around Merope 5C and this proposed site, and supply the audio recordings with random numbers for file names, and the supplied to independent listeners for comparison, so the happiness can be independently verified. If there is an agreed happy sound, and the file was recorded at this site it might indicate that this is, indeed the destination. If there is no difference in the recordings it does not necessarily mean the site is not the landing site, but it would be good to find out what the UP thinks of it, if anything
Therefore:
- I propose that the region around (-7, 58) could be the potential destination of the Unknown Probe.
- The more accurate location is to be verified at Time 0 - I'll try to be on time this time
- A test of UP happiness may be carried out to see if the UP indicates this location is of interest, or produces a change in the UP surface reaction
If this is indeed the destination of the UP, then looking up gives an approximate search vector for systems which may be candidates for the origin of the Unknown Probe. This search vector will always be the same regardless of the date so long as the site latitude and longitude is calculated at Time 0. Personally I plan to remeasure the site to get a more accurate location and see if some of the features in Figure 8 exist. Then work out from that location a vector perpendicular to the site at Time 0 an Exploration Plan for candidate systems to visit.
Cheers
Rixaeton [wacko]
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