What a nice expedition this is. A cozy number of about 400 people, all out in small ships. Having proved its mettle in the form of All In Good Time probing the ceiling of the Milky Way, I commissioned another Dolphin for this voyage, a sister ship named Samba Tranquille. She is working out quite nicely; her ability to moderate heat levels while scooping is an added joy; I have even been tempted to engage hyperjump while still inside the corona of the star. Tempted, mind you, but never enticed.

I have only managed to make contact with two other CMDRs on this expedition thus far; one distant HF comms reply, and the other was a Diamondback Explorer in high orbit, idle over WP2's basecamp-- and whose pilot was not responding to hails. Oh well, I'll have some friendly encounters soon, I think.

I am currently in the process of devising a detour to Colonia, since it lies between WP5 and WP6. It should not be too much out of the way to drop off all my cartographic data with the MCRN and rake in some cash. Plus I can swing by Colonia Dream and run my hands down the sides of Orchid Dreaming once again.

I may even decide to get a different coat of paint for Samba Tranquille; Stygian Tungsten may have superior thermal properties, but it sure makes it hard to see without a target designator.

It's funny, after long expeditions, the commute back to Colonia wasn't nearly as arduous as I remember. In any event, I dropped off my cartographic data at Pedersen's Legacy and made the hop over to Colonia Dream. And there, with its paint still blistered off and its registration only barely visible, was my Orchid Dreaming. A quick spin around the local systems and I felt back at home.

I'm retiring the Orchid Dreaming. Oh, I'll take her out for a spin now and then, but she's going to rest in her current state. There will be other Orcas, but only one Orchid Dreaming.

Now I'm back to painite mining, with a quick refit of the Black Star into a miner. I'm finding that the distribution of painite and low temperature diamonds in the asteroid rings is a bit sparse compared to what I'm used to. All to finance the final transfer of my A-rated modules from the bubble out here. Back home.

The first batch of modules for the Black Rose will arrive in three days, so I figure. After that, it's the modules for the Black Star, then the Hagbard Celine, and finally the Nestor Makhno.

The A11X expedition completed, I steered Cybele's Reverie back to Shinrarta Dezhra for stripping and decomissioning. She, along with All In Good Time and Golden Apple are being torn down and their A-rated modules stored for transfer to Pedersen's Legacy in Mobia.

Nestor Makhno was similarly stripped of all non-essential equipment, D-rated and given a C-check by Jameson Memorial technicians during exploration refit. At the completion of these tasks, we're underway and into the black again.

Currently docked at Hillary Depot

"Water Magma" showed up on a preliminary scan of an ice world near Mira, so I had to investigate. Three geosites later and all I found were generic water fumaroles. But I did snag this vista, so it's not all bad.

The Cutter just can't cut it. I can soak up a healthy amount of damage... but then what? It can't turn, so maximum time on target is best achieved with turreted weapons, which means they're not pumping out as much damage as they could otherwise.

It's also a bit too wide to try to shove into the mailslot of a burning station, so my plans for it to be a damaged station rescue vehicle are, to coin a phrase, up in smoke.

So back to the dealer it goes, and a big ol' wad of cash is back into my pocket.

Pared down the rest of the fleet, too. Now I've just got the modules, all packed up and ready to ship to Colonia.

My painite mining has been so lucrative that I re-purchased the Cutter, A-rated it and engineered it for maximum shield resiliency. I'll hop into a combat zone and see how it fares, but most likely this is a temporary arrangement before my move back to Colonia. It's put a mighty dent in my wallet, but if it can recoup the depreciation, it'll have been a fun exercise. I still dislike how slow it handles, both in supercruise and real space, and even engineered its jump range isn't anything special, but if it can prove its mettle in a combat zone, it might not be one gigantic waste of a ship.

But that's after the Apollo 11 Anniversary expedition-- a nice little jaunt to commemorate the first step of humanity outside its cradle.

Landed at Beta Site camp. This place has been pretty well picked over by previous visitors, but there's something here that tickled my curiosity. Indulge me.

Near the entrance to the camp is an array of two towers. These are oriented NW and SE, with the corners of their square bases pointing in the cardinal directions. There are three types of antennas mounted on these towers, and for most intents and purposes, they are identical; my text will explain their differences.

The lower antennas are two lens-type microwave receiver antennas. These are mounted NW and NE on the NW tower, and SW and SE on the SE tower. These are fixed positions. The top antennas are two reflector-type microwave receiver antennas that are mounted N-S on the NW tower and E-W on the SE tower.

The middle antennas are two C-band horn microwave receivers with the feed horns rotating around their vertical axes. The NW tower's horn antennas rotate faster and slower than those on the SE tower, which rotate at a moderate rate.

Given: microwave transmissions work primarily on line-of-sight, and when geographic obstacles like the horizon get in the way of the signal, these can be surmounted by bouncing the signal off the atmosphere with a process called tropospheric scattering. This planet has no gaseous atmosphere, and it is unknown if the exosphere of this planet-- composed of planetary dust-- is sufficient to effect tropospheric scattering. Therefore, it is reasonable to assume that the fixed antennas are set to receive signals from a known point. This point either exists within the line of sight of the antennas or is at a sufficient altitude above the local geographic features.

The rotating C-band antennas posed more of a curiosity. Each array of antennas rotate clockwise and counter-clockwise. Their varying rotation rates suggest a search pattern, from coarse to fine. This is adequate for triangulation, albeit the antennas might achieve better results if they were spaced farther apart. Whereas these antenna may provide rudimentary bearing and range information in the horizontal plane, they do not provide any information about the vertical plane, so these are inappropriate for targeting and fire control. Rather, these appear to be an element of a listening post set to detect microwave transmissions in the 4.0 to 8.0 gHz range, with what may be a short-range communication and positioning capability.

In any event, this site is well and truly abandoned, with little of salvageable value. After the survey of this system is complete, the MEC [i]Eostre[/i] will head back to the bubble and the test of the as-yet-unnamed Beluga will begin.

Made it to the Heart Nebula and spent my rest period at Farsight Expedition Base. Proceeded on to the Soul Nebula, and found this speedy little High Metal Content planet zipping around a K-class star.

No anomalies or significant findings to report.

MEC [i]Eostre[/i] is a stable exploration vessel, if a bit sluggish in supercruise. I have yet to encounter a situation where increased supercruise agility is necessary, but that may possibly be a strike against the Cutter and for the Beluga in the Very Large Deep Range Exploration Vessel contest.

Currently cooling my heels at Base Camp in Soul Sector EL-Y d7. The place is... well, pretty rough around the edges. It's very far out from the jump-in point and my scanners have all but burned in the red "WANTED" sign from how many outlaw ships there are out here, but they've got uh... certain commodities... that you can't find elsewhere. I'll lock up the [i]Eostre[/i], put on some tunes and partake in some of the local herbal concoctions and set out again a few hours later than I had originally planned. :whistling:

I'm overnighting at Gorgon Research Facility.  No matter where you go, you'll find Italian food. The local calzone went down well but isn't sitting right. I may be here a bit longer than the typical 8 hours I take for a rest stop.

There are few unexplored systems along my path. The direct route between the Formidine Rift and Sothis may be pretty well traveled. This 800ly diversion may net me a lower trafficked route. A few more binary systems than I'm used to seeing, but other than that, nothing out of the ordinary.

The vessels in the fleet should serve a primary purpose. The specific purpose is irrelevant so long as one exists; ships should not be purchased simply to own them. Hangar space may not be a finite resource but there is little point to having over thirty ships strewn all over the cosmos.

Hence, my fleet will conform to the following purposes:

Deep Exploration -can handle a AFMU, repair limpet controller, moderate shield, discovery scanner, SRV bay and SLF hangar -Multi-crew -Jump range with Guardian FSD booster 40ly. -SLF hangar may be sacrificed for jump range if the benefit is significant.

Short Exploration -Discovery scanner and SLF -Optimized for farthest maximum jump range

Ferry -Large capacity for bulk passenger transport. -No less than 20ly laden jump range

Mining -Full suite of mining tools, with two mining lasers. -Collector limpets -Jump range unimportant.

Courier -Low heat signature -Higher than average supercruise agility -Small or medium sized, only

Attack -Potential damage output -Greater shield, hull and module strength

There may be more than one ship per class if the situation warrants it; if a ship is too large, a smaller vessel may fill the gaps.

Naming:

Exploration ships will carry the prefix MEC for Mobius Exploration Corps; Ships oriented towards military or logistic purposes will carry the prefix MCRN for Mobius Colonial Republic Navy. Registration numbers either will be assigned by a specific expedition (480-DW, e.g.) or any ABc123 / AB-123 combination. Names are randomly picked but should at least obliquely reference the general qualities of the mission; references to peaceful haulage are not appropriate for military craft.

To be updated and refreshed periodically.