Day 5 (26th May 3305)

After reaching Semotus Beacon I visited body B 8 b. A small rocky world, nice for flyving around it in an SRV. I arrived at the south pole and after a bit of a bumpy start with mountains it took me about three days to reach the north pole (around 1200 km). That was half a circumnavigation under my belt. After this though we had a talk among us crazies attempting this circumnavigation: Some back and forth later we decided to circumnavigate not body B 8 b but B 9 f. The farthest reachable and at the same time landable body from sol. There were only two tiny problems about this: B 9 f is almost twice as big as B 8 b and on top of that an icy world. 4239 km over icy terrain with some canyons, some bad canyons and some Oh-my-god-why-am-I-doing-this canyons. The journey cost me most of my SRVs but I finished successfully!

After this ordeal I needed some R&R. So I decided to go to B 8 b where the terrain is much better for an SRV and complete the circumnavigation there… It didn’t end “well”… My first attempt wasn’t bad: I was going fast and at a good altitude. Too fast and too high as I learned when I found my SRVs altimeter cut out telling me I was at -1 m after crossing an altitude of 28 km… So, yeah... I managed to get my SRV into orbit. Or, to be more precise: I reached escape velocity, not a stable orbit but catapulting myself off into deep space. As the planet was getting smaller and smaller I decided to call my co-pilot to pick me up again. I went back to the planet and started again from a point where I still had control over my SRV. Sadly, The spirit of circumnavigation wasn’t with me. My last SRV got crushed from what seemed to be almost 100 % hull down to zero. I don’t have any more SRVs now on this journey until I pick up new ones at a station, the closest being Explorer’s Anchorage around 40,000 ly away…

After this trip to some planets it is now time for the journey back. A route plotted through 25 waypoints, totalling almost 100,000 ly. It is mainly through the Scutum-Centaurus-Arm, a region where not much seems to be discovered yet. After that we travel through Hawking’s Gap and Centaurus Reach, visit the Carina Nebula and meet up with our friends in the Eight Bu(u)rst Nebula. Sol, being our final destination is what this journey back home is named after: Destination Sol

I’m really looking forward to seeing all these good friends again! Before that however, lies another journey of almost 100,000 ly.

We are explorers after all.

Day 105 (28th April 3305)

The distance from Luna’s Shadow to Beagle Point is about 13,000 ly in a direct line. The views along the way were impressive, again. But it wasn’t the views that pulled my heart strings out here. Thomaski’s Point, a beacon out here in the black to remind us that our journey will end one day. CMDR Thomaski reached Beagle Point but wasn’t meant to make it back home.

Then, at Beagle Point floats the memorial beacon for Zy CMDR Crispy Toast’s Beagle. Still, this is not the origin of the system name. CMDR Erimus Kamzel’s ship the DSS Beagle, named after his copawlot the Beagle Jack is the origin of the name. Jack passed away shortly before the Distant Suns expedition started during which CMDR Erimus reached Ceeckia ZQ-L c24-0 which was later renamed by Universal Cartographics to honour this achievement.

To all copawlots, explorers and madmen out there, to all the loved ones we lost and those in agony and grief over these losses: I raise my hand to salute you all and send you the strength to go on with your journey, may it lead you to farther shores and better days.

o7

Appendix (kind of):

After reaching Beagle Point and saluting all the brave ones that went ahead of us, I already left for our next adventure: The destination is Oevasy SG-Y d0, also called Semotus Beacon or Ishum’s reach where CMDRs Primetime Casual, Sabic, Soundo and me are planning to circumnavigate body B 8 b.

This ends the log about my adventures on Distant Worlds 2. There will be more entries to this log though, Distant Worlds 2 was about the journey towards Beagle Point, the journey back to the bubble still lies before us.

We are explorers after all.

Day 98 (21st April 3305)

The Aphelion is a region on the opposite side of the galactic core and mapping it was one of the objectives of the Distant Worlds 2 expedition. For this purpose the journey between waypoints 10 and 11 was the farthest and longest until now at almost 15,000 ly (straight line) and two weeks of possible travel time. I still decided to visit every off-route POI and some more which made my journey more than 37,000 ly long. It was well worth it.

The purpose of Distant Worlds 2 is the journey, not beagle point after all. All the things to see and discover along the way. On top of that I had my most peculiar discovery yet: A water moon orbiting between two rings of a gas giant. I can only speculate about how this is possible.

Normally, planetary rings form when moons orbit inside the roche-limit of a planet where they get torn apart by tidal forces and their debris form the ring. My best theory at this point is that the gas giant catched the water world in its gravity well. At this point either the water world had a moon on its own or there was another moon of the gas giant further out than the orbit of the water moon. This was then ripped apart either by the gravity well of the gas giant or the water moon from getting too close to it. I dubbed it "Water inbetween" and submitted it to the galactic mapping project and I hope they will take it into their catalogue of special planetary features.

We have left the galactic core. It's getting darker again out here and the everlasting brightness is behind us. We have around 13,000 ly left to beagle point and, depending on how the organisers split it up, 2 or 3 weeks until we reach our destination at Beagle Point.

And that means it is time to slowly start thinking about the journey back home, back to our friends and families. My friend CMDR Primetime Casual and me started throwing ideas around on which route to take and where to meet our friends a bit outside the bubble. The Scutum-Centaurus-Arm piqued our interest because it seems there has not much been discovered yet and we could take a route between the known ones and maybe find some new.

We are explorers after all.

Day 84 (7th April 3305)

The route from waypoint 9 at the Cerulean Tranquillity to waypoint 10 close the Morphenniel Nebula had some very nice views to admire. I was able to catch a sunrise on one side of a planet while the Zinnia Haze was on the other and made for a great contrast. The Magnus Nebula was another great sight along the way.

There were other things this time that were more interesting to me though:

Permit-locked sectors. The sectors named Bleia 1 through 5 are not accessible for us members of the Pilots Federation. The ships’ computers won’t let us jump to whole sectors of space with hundreds of systems. One of these sectors even has a big nebula, totally inaccessible. There must be a reason for that! Other civilisations? Some strange stellar phenomena someone doesn’t want us to see?

I heard once that some of the Thargoid technology points towards the permit locked Col70 sector. There seems to be a reason for some of these permit locks after all. But what could be out here that we must not see? I think it’s highly improbable that it is something made by humans. These sectors were already permit locked when the first explorers came here a few years ago after all. Commercial frame shift drives then became what they (pretty much) are today. Why were these sectors already locked at that point when no human could have ever been here? What knowledge does the Pilots Federation have yet doesn’t make public? Are they maybe in contact with other lifeforms out here or are these simply sectors where a supernova is imminent and it is to protect commanders? If it is the second possibility: Why not tell us? Well, it doesn’t make much sense to think about these things in depth now because I won’t get an answer anyway.

At some point I will try to get an engineer to tweak my flight computer to let me access these sectors.

But before that I have to cope with that bloody route plotter that can’t circumvent these permit locked sectors! It can only plot straight lines and only from my current position! What is this? Some kind of torture? I DEFINITELY have to get an engineer to improve that. I need a working route plotter!

I am an explorer after all.

Day 77 (31st March 3305)

Goliath’s Rest, very high up above the galactic plane with the base camp in a small valley was a very nice resting spot with a great view upon a C-N-type giant star. The journey from there led us back down into the galactic plane.

The first stop along the route was Iris’ Missive a blue and green planetary nebula very close to a black hole and really beautiful when viewed through its lensing effect. At some point it even starts looking like a rainbow! The Blue Rhapsody Nebula was next on the list to visit where I did some jumps to find just the right angle to have the best view from the outside. While doing this I found a ringed water moon orbiting a ringed gas giant and got a bit distracted by the gorgeous view these two ring systems make.

Also while taking pictures of the Blue Rhapsody Nebula I saw a small blue nebula somewhere in the distance. I found out it is called the Lyaisua UE-Z E884 Nebula and could not withstand and went there as well. It is a very small nebula and not featured by the organisers of the expedition but it was only 120 ly to get there. I saw one of the brightest black holes I have ever seen (in case that even makes sense…) and it was well worth the little detour. The Forgotten Twins Nebula is a double nebula with a really nice blue colour but, to be honest, I have seen so many nebulae on this expedition… It is losing its novelty for me a bit...

Dances with giants though was something I have never seen before: Two gas giants orbiting each other in such proximity that you can see a double sunrise if you are lucky. Or very patient. My good friend and fellow explorer Primetime Casual had both and took a great picture of such a double sunrise.

Onwards to the waypoint at Cerulean Tranquility yet another blue and purple nebula but the view from Tranquility Valley on that gas giant with the nebula in the background is one to behold!

While sitting there and enjoying a little break as I arrived already on wednesday I got a call from fellow commanders Spacergirl and Nanja asking about a telepresence session and I gladly agreed. It’s always good to have some company to combat the ever present risk of space madness! As CMDR Spacergirl never had seen a black hole before I looked for one and found it only around 200 ly away from the waypoint. I took them there where we did some flybys of a small black hole of around 5 sun masses. The only thing left to do now since they left again is to go back to the waypoint and await the announcement of the next one. The journey must go on!

I am an explorer after all.

Day 70 (24th March 3305)

After the fleet left the galactic core and Sagittarius A* behind we set course for waypoint eight at Goliath’s Rest. Especially noteworthy for me was the crown of ice. One of the highest mountains known to humanity at something around 50 km height. This moon has some extremely deep craters as well and it is said that some commanders got lost in there for days.

I have always been a lover of planetary rings too. They make for the most beautiful views out there. Silver Highway is a special place where a moon orbits just outside the rings of its planet which makes it a really stunning view. The sad thing about this was though, I arrived during the night-time and only saw a part of this spectacular view. No illuminated rings for me to see…

Luckily, the next waypoints were not dependant on such things: Two very nice nebulae (Dark Eye and Braisio Juliet) awaited me and I just enjoyed the view out of the window of my sleeping quarters.

Further down the “road” was Breakthrough Echoes: One of its planets has three earth like moons which is quite nice already. But the most interesting thing for me were a moon and its moon moon orbiting each other at around 3000 km distance. It was also there where I met my fellow explorers Primetime Casual, AgressiveChip and Andrew Purslow. We shared stories about the expedition so far.

We moved to the waypoint at Goliath’s Rest together and had a drink or two too much in the bar of the Antagony... I was feeling a bit wasted and did not move from there until later.

But the journey has to go on and so I’ll be on the move again from tonight forth. Departing waypoint eight at Goliath’s Rest and slowly making my way to Beagle Point.

I am an explorer after all.

Day 65 (19th March 3305)

The three weeks around the core were a long time to stock up on all supplies we could possibly need, visit beautiful sights and have tons of fun!

When I first arrived at Explorer’s Anchorage I found a less than half-finished station: They hadn’t even started to build the habitat ring and only few solar panels to provide energy made the offered services quite limited. Through combined effort of the Distant Worlds fleet this was changed: A community goal started by the Pilots’ Federation to mine and deliver different raw materials to the station to expand services was started. Its success was overwhelming but I did not contribute to that again because I had more important things to do!

Pancaking my ship against a high g world, or: DistantBowl

Yeah… that same thing we already did in December but now with my 600 metric ton Anaconda, not a racing eagle with thrusters on steroids… What could possibly go wrong?

Funny thing was: I hit the planet only once and needed to be rescued by some friendly commanders who kept watch for mishaps. My ship did not look too good after that but that’s when insurance kicked in and after I paid the money I got my ship fully repaired. The fee of the insurance went up a bit but that is no problem at all for me at this point… Still, I will try to talk to my agent about a SpeedBowl insurance at some point…

While SpeedBowl was fun and all that it wasn’t all I did during this time. Prime World, an earth like world I discovered during my first trip to Beagle Point, only 450 ly from Sagittarius A (Yes, I named it after my good friend Primetime Casual) is a view to behold: Ringed and binary to a gas giant with the beautiful backdrop of the galactic core… We just could not resist and had a meetup there to take pictures and have fun with our good friends CMDRs Buur and Rheeney who joined us through telepresence (I’m honestly amazed that this worked…). And, when at the galactic core, the visit to Sagittarius A is mandatory of course.

Something strange happened during this time as well:

When I tried to scan the K-11 type anomalies in the system of Armstrong Landing my scanner reported the success of the scan but somehow my ship’s computer and database did not recognise that. I ran a full diagnostic on my systems but no errors were found. What is this? Is there some deeper malfunction in my ship’s systems or does the Pilots’ Federation not want us to keep record of these anomalies? Whatever it is: I at least took some pictures of these little balls of energy that look a bit like fairies.

And with this we leave the galactic core and Explorers Anchorage behind. The habitat ring is still not finished and I can still see from the outside the welding going on. It will be finished at some point but I won’t see that in the near future. The expedition sets course for Beagle Point now. I know this will be good and I’m really looking forward to it.

I am an explorer after all.

Day 56 (10th March 3305)

The Galactic Core... the centre of our galaxy... When I started writing about my experiences and feelings on Distant Worlds 2 I stated I wanted to come back here. And now we’re here. The expedition arrived at Armstrong Landing, a site not even 2 ly away from Sagittarius A*. That supermassive black hole is looming in the sky above us like some kind of impending doom. But that might only be me and my “problems” with black holes.

I took my time getting here from the last waypoint, visiting every POI off-route. The departure will be not until three weeks after the announcement so there is plenty of time. The most noteworthy for me was Black in Green: A black hole in a green nebula with a tourist installation nearby and I know why that was built there!

The other POI I just have to write about is Insinnergy’s World the first moon of a gas giant orbiting a little below the ecliptic of the rings. Landing at a specific biological site with blue tube worms will result in a great view at the rings. This is a gorgeous backdrop for a panorama of the tube worms while listening to the noises they make.

And then… Sagittarius A*, Explorers Anchorage and Armstrong Landing… these three systems are so close together that you could travel between them in supercruise. This is the galactic core I wanted to visit again! And it is every last bit as beautiful as it was in my memory. Everlasting light with too many stars to count.

But with this waypoint comes another big change to the expedition: Explorers Anchorage is the last station we will visit before the end of the expedition. The last possibility to stock up on limpets, AFMU ammo, food, well any kind of supplies. After this point we are completely dependent on what we took with us, find out there and the other commanders in the fleet.

I’m getting a bit of cold feet for the second time this year even though I already managed to survive a trip of more than 29,000 ly! But there are three other things that reassure me:

First, I did this trip already. Not the big round trip but I already managed to get to beagle point and back.

Second, I am not alone. There are more than 14.000 commanders who signed up for the expedition in total. Even though I have only a rough idea on how many of them actually made it here (at least about 20 % at this point ~3,500 commanders) there will definitely be someone to save me if need be. Or for me to save. I didn’t take these limpets here to carry them all the way back home. No matter what happens, I’m sure it will be fine.

Last but not least: Even in case something happens to me there are still these logs out there on their way to the bubble telling my story of exploration and adventure.

I am an explorer after all.

Day 42 (24th February 3305)

After reaching the point closest to Colonia on this journey last Sunday, the expedition started its journey corewards. This marks the end of the first stage of Distant Worlds 2. The community goal - to which all commanders on the expedition were invited to take part in – was a huge success. The station built with the collected materials has already been deployed but it is still in a very raw stage fresh from construction. Another community goal will be to deliver materials to build everything needed to keep a fleet alive. To outfit the ships for the journey towards the far side of the galaxy we will definitely need this station. It will be the last possibility to stock up on supplies before we have to rely completely on materials and synthesis.

But before that was this week’s journey to waypoint 6 at the Dryau Awesomes. A system with a black hole orbited by a white dwarf in very close proximity. When dropping into such a system from witchspace the ship might get dropped out of SC immediately upon hitting the exclusion zone of the white dwarf. If this happens in one of the jets of the white dwarf ships can take serious damage or even get destroyed! In this case though, the view was very much worth the risk.

The original base camp for this waypoint was on the first moon of the second planet. But it seems there were some gravitational anomalies causing ships to crash and even destroy them. That’s a bit of a shame as the view from that distance is exceptional. The new base camp is on the first moon moon of planet eight.

Some disturbing news was received by the fleet this week: It seems as if the Thargoids started a massive attack on human populated space. Because of the distance to the next station with a Pilots’ Federation uplink many messages were garbled and mostly inscrutable. We don’t know the full scale of the attack but what could be distilled from it was that around 15 systems are under attack and about ten stations are burning. Some commanders started thinking about going back to help evacuating the burning stations and fighting off the Thargoids but those are a small minority. Every commander on this expedition is free to do whatever he or she wants in that regard. There will for sure be some that go back to the bubble to fight but I will not do that for now. I signed up for this expedition and I am planning to stick to my commitment!

I am an explorer after all.

Thanks to CMDR Rheeney for Proofreading!

Day 35 (17th February 3305)

How can I start this log entry when I have no idea how to do it this time? Well, I already did, right? So, without any further ado: This part of the journey felt rather long. The course through the different POIs sent me zig-zagging up and down through the galaxy. There were some spectacular views again but I will give some special attention to the one called “Clockwork Rings”. It is not only a stunning view!

Commanders being commanders, especially CMDR “Rebuy” Soantii (I have no idea where the “Rebuy” could come from...), started to do planetary ring slalom through these. Many commanders started to imitate him. And through the communication channels of the pilots’ federation we started to discuss the possibility of making an event like speedbowl out of it. Have I done the slalom? No, the Antagony is too sluggish and my piloting skills might not be honed enough yet. Once I have access to a lighter ship again I will try though!

This week we will also reach the point closest to Colonia in this expedition. We will then leave the region of the Colonia Highway we used until now. And head towards the galactic core and the supermassive black hole Sagittarius A*. The brightness there is omnipresent. If humans ever start to live on planets there they won't have nights... Only the seemingly everlasting light of the galactic core.

When I started writing these logs a bit before the start of Distant Worlds 2 I thought: “How can you write something every week? And keep it interesting? (Hoping there might be people who read it)” I can say for sure that I managed the first part. I don’t really know about the second part though because getting feedback out here is pretty difficult. I send all my logs back to the bubble through the communication network of the pilots’ federation but I can’t say for sure if they reach their goal. I really hope they do. If I get stranded out here, my ship destroyed and lost in the black… At least these records will remain.

But I already managed to make one trip to Beagle Point! I can do it again. Especially because I’m not alone this time. There is a huge fleet out here on this trip. I’m sure this will be fine.

I am an explorer after all.