After taking a look at my bucket list of things yet to do in Elite, I've been inspired by cmdr Alec Turner and his recent circumnavigation of a planet for charity to write off one the most prominent entries on it, sitting just between "Find something to blame T.j. for" and "Reach Beagle Point in an E-rated sidewinder. No scanner, eco route"...and that is (you'd never guess, eh):
- Circumnavigate a planet/moon in the SRV
The Elite galaxy offers us an overwhelming deal of planets and moons, of every size and composition, full of awesome, varied landscapes and cosmic vistas. Celestial bodies sporting enormous craters, huge canyons, cliffs, valleys, orbiting binary or trinary star systems, dwarf/neutron stars, bathed in eerie, alien lights, you name it.
And then there's Enceladus. Rather smooth surface, rather unremarkable land features, rather annoying icy surface full of small rocks and boulders at every step, orbiting a gas giant surrounded by a glorious ring system that given Enceladus' orbit, almost perfectly aligned on Saturn's equator, comes down to a rather invisible thin line when seen from its surface.
So why in the galaxy did I choose to embark on a full trip around such a boring ball of rock and ice? Hell if I know, but I have more or less 1600 km of road ahead to ponder the errors of my way. [hotas]
Who knows, along these 1600 km I might still make interesting encounters, or stumble across some interesting features after all. That E ring around Saturn doesn't create it on itself, there have to be ice and water jets somewhere! (yes I already know there are indeed some and their positions should be well known by now, but please be kind with my empty fantasies, would you?).
More so, yes it's dull, but it's also not some unknown Eol Prou WW-HG211-L, Synuefe 88-F-KJHAD or HECK-TH-ATIS-FFSAKE-7B. It's Enceladus. Motherckufing Enceladus, orbiting big frickin' Saturn. That's VIP stuff over there.
Formalities aside, let's get down (literally) to business:
- First thing I needed was a place where to start my trip: as already explained, Enceladus is a bit lacking on peculiar or distinguishable land features, but there are some nonetheless. What better place to put an X on a map, than already finding a huge X put in place for you by mareal forces over millions of years:
A downside of using the big X as a point of reference and a straight polar route, is that being Enceladus tidally locked in its orbit around Saturn, the ringed giant will appear to be static in a fixed point of the sky. Unfortunately, that fixed point in the sky happens to be just a little below the horizon eastward of my route, so no big majestic views of the mighty planet along my ride, but I'll have it watching over my shoulder the entire time.
- On trajectory for my elected starting point in my reliable do-it-all Python Doorstopper Almighty, unfathomable Saturn looming in the background. Can almost hear Gyorgy Ligeti's "Requiem" resonating from the ship's frame:
From there it will be an easy ride to the north pole following 0° bearing, then an equally easy ride on the other side heading 180°, back to my very big, very easy to find X. Easy to find from orbit at least, it's a very shallow slope when on the ground:
The intial lat/long coordinates will help me to know when I'll be back at my starting point anyway.
The Scarab doing the undertaking will be of course my trusty "The Tumbling Initiative" of Buckyball fame, now sporting a full gold-plated livery for 780% added weight, but 18*10^8% more cool factor:
- Starting odometer value: check. Repair mats reserves: check. Refuel mats reserves: check. Sanity check: heck.
________________________________________________
And off I depart in the black!
- "Following the light of the sun we left the old world". So poignant, so moving, my eyes filled up with tears. My mouth, my nose, my ears, everything full of tears. Turned up I didn't properly start life support, cabin condensation is an ugly b*tch.
- Enceladus may be a barren flat place, but at least I shouldn't ever find myself short of materials to help in my voyage:
- See? It's not so devoid of activity after all, not even 20 km in my trip and this appears on the (near) horizon: friend or foe?
Friend luckily, still wouldn't have wanted to mess with the array of turrets and sentry drones displayed. Bonus drone photobombing:
- Saturn peek out from behind the horizon, a tiny sliver of light indicating we are a good way from daylight yet, the ring plane discernible just left of M33 (Triangulum Galaxy):
- Another shallow ridge passed, another chance encounter: a stack of containers left there by someone with no intention of giving them out easily, given the display of drones guarding it. This particular specimen has "Don't mess with me" written all over it:
- The road ends on the 40th parallel for today, just a quick 40 minutes, 50 km leg to get the trip going. Now setting up camp here to spend the night in my comfortable golden cocoon: in a leap of inspiration I'll call this waypoint "Camp Here":
Alone in the big dark:
I'll keep the thread updated soon with the next part of my travel: next stop, "Camp There". (sounds thrilling, isn't it?)
- Circumnavigate a planet/moon in the SRV
The Elite galaxy offers us an overwhelming deal of planets and moons, of every size and composition, full of awesome, varied landscapes and cosmic vistas. Celestial bodies sporting enormous craters, huge canyons, cliffs, valleys, orbiting binary or trinary star systems, dwarf/neutron stars, bathed in eerie, alien lights, you name it.
And then there's Enceladus. Rather smooth surface, rather unremarkable land features, rather annoying icy surface full of small rocks and boulders at every step, orbiting a gas giant surrounded by a glorious ring system that given Enceladus' orbit, almost perfectly aligned on Saturn's equator, comes down to a rather invisible thin line when seen from its surface.
So why in the galaxy did I choose to embark on a full trip around such a boring ball of rock and ice? Hell if I know, but I have more or less 1600 km of road ahead to ponder the errors of my way. [hotas]
Who knows, along these 1600 km I might still make interesting encounters, or stumble across some interesting features after all. That E ring around Saturn doesn't create it on itself, there have to be ice and water jets somewhere! (yes I already know there are indeed some and their positions should be well known by now, but please be kind with my empty fantasies, would you?).
More so, yes it's dull, but it's also not some unknown Eol Prou WW-HG211-L, Synuefe 88-F-KJHAD or HECK-TH-ATIS-FFSAKE-7B. It's Enceladus. Motherckufing Enceladus, orbiting big frickin' Saturn. That's VIP stuff over there.
Formalities aside, let's get down (literally) to business:
- First thing I needed was a place where to start my trip: as already explained, Enceladus is a bit lacking on peculiar or distinguishable land features, but there are some nonetheless. What better place to put an X on a map, than already finding a huge X put in place for you by mareal forces over millions of years:
A downside of using the big X as a point of reference and a straight polar route, is that being Enceladus tidally locked in its orbit around Saturn, the ringed giant will appear to be static in a fixed point of the sky. Unfortunately, that fixed point in the sky happens to be just a little below the horizon eastward of my route, so no big majestic views of the mighty planet along my ride, but I'll have it watching over my shoulder the entire time.
- On trajectory for my elected starting point in my reliable do-it-all Python Doorstopper Almighty, unfathomable Saturn looming in the background. Can almost hear Gyorgy Ligeti's "Requiem" resonating from the ship's frame:
From there it will be an easy ride to the north pole following 0° bearing, then an equally easy ride on the other side heading 180°, back to my very big, very easy to find X. Easy to find from orbit at least, it's a very shallow slope when on the ground:
The Scarab doing the undertaking will be of course my trusty "The Tumbling Initiative" of Buckyball fame, now sporting a full gold-plated livery for 780% added weight, but 18*10^8% more cool factor:
- Starting odometer value: check. Repair mats reserves: check. Refuel mats reserves: check. Sanity check: heck.
________________________________________________
And off I depart in the black!
- "Following the light of the sun we left the old world". So poignant, so moving, my eyes filled up with tears. My mouth, my nose, my ears, everything full of tears. Turned up I didn't properly start life support, cabin condensation is an ugly b*tch.
- Enceladus may be a barren flat place, but at least I shouldn't ever find myself short of materials to help in my voyage:
- See? It's not so devoid of activity after all, not even 20 km in my trip and this appears on the (near) horizon: friend or foe?
Friend luckily, still wouldn't have wanted to mess with the array of turrets and sentry drones displayed. Bonus drone photobombing:
- Saturn peek out from behind the horizon, a tiny sliver of light indicating we are a good way from daylight yet, the ring plane discernible just left of M33 (Triangulum Galaxy):
- Another shallow ridge passed, another chance encounter: a stack of containers left there by someone with no intention of giving them out easily, given the display of drones guarding it. This particular specimen has "Don't mess with me" written all over it:
- The road ends on the 40th parallel for today, just a quick 40 minutes, 50 km leg to get the trip going. Now setting up camp here to spend the night in my comfortable golden cocoon: in a leap of inspiration I'll call this waypoint "Camp Here":
Alone in the big dark:
I'll keep the thread updated soon with the next part of my travel: next stop, "Camp There". (sounds thrilling, isn't it?)
Last edited:
