Rocket engines burning fuel so fast
Up into the night sky they blast
Through the universe the engines whine
Could it be the end of man and time?

Past the stars in fields of ancient void
Through the shields of darkness where they find
Love upon a land a world unknown
Where the sons of freedom make their home

-- Black Sabbath, In to the Void, Master of Reality 1971

Exploration, the action of traveling in or through an unfamiliar area in order to learn about it. Sounds like fun right? We are about to find out. A few of my ships have been engineered with Dirty Drives, which is a thruster modification that increases performance. But we've gone as far as our accessible engineers can take us. There is, however, one engineer, by the name of Palin, who can take these drives farther. He has the know-how to get the most out of the modification. But he won't work with just any old Commander. He must believe you have what it takes. One must prove oneself worthy to get the coveted invitation.

in his insanity wisdom he will only work with those intrepid Commanders who have the temerity to have traveled at least 5000 light years from their starting systems. Do this, and the elusive invitation and fully engineered Dirty Drives are yours (if you have sensor fragments, which I don't. Maybe I'll find some). But first, a little perspective. I began playing Elite last May. I took a long break before getting back in to it a month ago. I've played for several hundred hours. In all that time, and with thousands of jumps and space miles behind me, I've never ventured more than 518 light years! Five Eight Teen.

Needless to say, a five thousand light year trip is a magnitude or two beyond anything I've attempted to do so far. As daunting as it feels, it's really bush-league stuff, some Commanders have flown far in excess of 5000 light years. Some are gone for years. Some I suppose, never return. Returning home is certainly my plan. But one never knows.

This thread will chronicle this journey. For better or worse, for success or failure. Come along with me as I leap in to the void and earn my spurs as an explorer. What could possibly go wrong?

The Ship

Aside from the vast empty space between my ears, the most important cog in this trip machine is my ship. It will be my home, my transportation, my safety and my only companion as we hurtle through the far reaches of the galaxy. Yesterday I formulated a vision of how i wanted to outfit the ship. I then spent hours making it so. I will detail those steps shortly. The ship chosen for this awe-inspiring undertaking is the venerable Lakon Asp Explorer, henceforth referred to as Asp X. It is an '03 model, named Dawnbreaker. The Asp X is ideally suited to a expedition such as this. It has wonderful cockpit visibility to take in all of the breathtaking and panic-inducing sights. The jump range is fantastic, it's most impressive feature. It also sports a nice variety of internal space, to fit the various bits and bobs I want to take along. I have to go 5000 light years, yes. But this trip is as much about the journey as the destination, and along the way I plan to explore. To chart the unknown for humanity. To boldly go where no one on my solo account has gone before. To this end, the ship will be outfitted for the collection of data, and for safety. No compromises. I must survive to return and sell all that exploration data for huge space ducats! I'll be filthy rich advance mankind's comprehension of that which surrounds us.

To make the ship as I envisioned, it required some extensive engineering. It was already fairly well along, but for this trip I needed less of a bubble-runner, and more of a deep diver. The dockyard itinerary included work on thrusters, power plant, surface scanner and shields. The Frame Shift Drive (FSD), or the doo-dad that allows you to hyperspace jump, was already fully baked.

To facilitate this list of improvements, I needed some stuffz. I sat down with Inara and wrote down a list of all required components for the desired modifications. I then cross-checked the list with what I already had on hand in inventory. With the resulting short-list I plotted courses for each type of material trader and got what was needed. Satisfied that all preparations were in order, I set course for Farseer Inc to re-engineer the ship.

One of the changes I planned was to reduce power plant class in order to save weight and increase performance and jump range. So along the way I stopped and bought a 4A and replaced the 5A (G2 Overcharged, Stripped), which will go in to storage. The deep diver build will use far less power, and may as well save the weight.

Core Internals




The new Power Plant got G1 Overcharged with the Stripped experimental. That only saves a half ton, but it all adds up. Thrusters are 5A, G3 Clean Drives. Many commanders will save weight here and go 5D. But I want performance. I want speed to evade and react. I want the instantaneous ability to react to dangers. I want control in high-G environments. I could have gained a couple light years jump range, but it was never a question. Dawnbreaker is a one agile, mobile and hostile Asp. And I hope it can save my virtual life.

The FSD is G5 Long Range with Mass Manager experimental. With a few more D-rated modules I could have gotten JR over 50. But I'm happy enough with what I've got.



Life Support, 4A. No compromises, right? Again, many will go 4D here, save weight and jump further. I want the extra time. Out in the dark, I'm not expecting it will allow me to reach a station. But it will give me time to calm down, and think of a course of action, to carry it out, without the increasing weight of fleeting time. Sensors are 5D, G3 lightweight. Fuel tank is standard 32 ton.

Optional Internals



The fuel scoop, or the thing that will allow me to make it back, is 6C. I refuse to buy a 6A, as it costs as much as my entire ship. 6C is fine. Shields are 5D, G3 Reinforced. I tried various models, and this one is the best combination of weight and protection. Some commanders go shieldless, but that's madness. I need the protection from my own carelessness and stupidity. Have you ever landed on a 9-G planet? Neither have I. I need shields. 208mj is barely adequate, but will have to do. I stored the shield boosters to save the weight and power.

Two Auto Field Maintenance Units (AFMU) have been installed. For whatever reason they have no mass, so cost no jump range. I installed two, because an AFMU cannot repair itself. So this is redundancy. Must. Return. I've never used one actually, but they sure do make me feel better.

SRV hangar with Scarab is a given. I might need materials for repairs or synthesis. I may just want to have a bash about on an interesting looking planet. I may see something that demands closer inspection, such as ruins or crash sites. A two-bay hangar would be preferable, but it's an Asp X after all.

It has an Advanced Discovery Scanner of course (not shown) and a Detailed Surface Scanner with G3 Long Range modification. I believe this modification will save ooodles of time when I am charting system after system.

Weapons. I debated amongst myself whether I would strip the weapons. But no. This I cannot do. What if I want to shoot something? No, the weapons stay. As a compromise I did remove the outer set of pulse lasers. That leaves the chin gimballed pulse lasers (non engineered), and the two cockpit-side class 2 multi-cannons, both G5 lightweight, which dropped them from 4 tons a piece to half a ton per gun. One got auto-loader, but I ran out of mats for the other.

Utility slots are two heatsink launchers because I've read those can come in handy out in the black. Two slots are empty.

So that's the ship that will carry me in to the Void, and back again. Or such is the plan.

Still to be determined are the destination, and when I cast the lines and set sail. Open to suggestions on where to actually go. I really hope to get a first-discovery credit. I've wanted to do that since I bought Elite. Not sure this trip will be out there far enough, but it's an underlying goal.

I had considered making this a sightseeing trip, to get more space ducats out of it. But I decided I didn't need any extra demands placed on me, and anyway, to fit a passenger cabin would have meant a compromise either in fuel scoop size or shield protection, so that plan was scrapped. I can go at my own pace, and on my own tangents should I choose to.

Great start!
Reading all I try to understand the setup of the ship but it's a little foreign language to a nubbery like me.
(in all honesty I hardly understand the modules I have in my little Cobra fully)
Once I get more hours into this I hope to revisit this and create somthing similar and make a long journey too (I mean, 47 jump - seriously?).

Will keep an eye on this, well done DBond.

Thanks Oden, still not too late to come with

Yeah, good jump range right? The DBX and the Anaconda can go farther. But the DBX is limited elsewhere and the Anaconda costs a fortune and it's nuts anyway. It should weigh much more than it does, but until then, it's the king of jump range.

Somewhere in the middle is the Asp X, and it is just tailor-made for such an expedition. Versatile, affordable. Lovable. I've spent more time in this ship than every other ship combined. It's just great for so many things. It's for a different thread, or PM even, but if you want to discuss builds let me know. I'm no expert like some of the folks around here, but I know a little, and learning more all the time. I've been engineering for about a week now. When I began, Dawnbreaker was getting less than 30 jump range. So that's a nice improvement, though I have stripped out some stuff that would be equipped inside the bubble like shield boosters and additional weapons. Of course in the bubble I also run a 4D life support, so maybe a wash.

Haha thanks for invitation but with my 8 jump legs I stand no chance for adventures like this

OK, then this thread will have to do. I've read that you need at minimum 33 jump range to cross the 'Abyss' wherever that is.

Once you get A-rated FSD, you will be jumping at 20+. I think my Cobra was 23 at the time I sold it.

That ship looks fine for going anywhere in the galaxy. When I crossed to the far side of the galaxy, my range was only 32 LY or so.

And the "Abyss" as I recall is a fairly sparse region between the galactic arms, on the far side of the core, heading out toward the far rim. Ships with lesser jump range can still get on the other side, but they'll need to work their way around, heading down from the core region along the more dense part of the arm. A longer trip, but I've read of Sidewinders making it.

Even a ship with a 25LY range probably has a shot at crossing the Abyss region, using FSD boosting and synthesis. I used these a few times to make some long leaps to reach some very fringe parts of the far side of the Milky Way. Stars out there are 40 to 70+ LY apart.

Thanks Adlabs, Which mats do you ensure you have for synthesis and repair? I've never used jumponium, or done any of this really. Any tips for what materials to bring along so I am prepared for any contingency?

I don't know the materials required for FSD synthesis, off hand. What I do is open up the synthesis menu on the right hand HUD, choose the effect I want, and then it lists the required materials (and gives a convenient count of how many total uses I have available). I had gathered up enough for 10 or 11 100% boosts before I left, and taking along an SRV, I was able to gather more while out there. And of course, the SRV can only be refueled via it's own synthesis (it can't use your ship fuel). So you've got to maintain those two stocks.

I tried to keep an even number of available synthesis uses/materials for my desired FSD boost. This ensures that if you make a huge jump and there is nowhere you can reach on the other side, you can get back,

On my trip, the star were so sparse that I had to keep written logs of what stars I jumped to, and which level of FSD boost I used to get there. Many places out on the very fringe, when using FSD boost synthesis, a single careless choice in jumping means no return. There may be zero stars in jump range from your destination, without that same synthesis to jump back to the exact star you came from.

For repair, I typically never carry an AFMU when exploring. IIRC I traveled about 135,000LY on my longest trip, and only suffered about 4% damage, all by my own mistakes.

I've only used an AFMU when making "experimental" neutron star boost jumps, and I was never more than 2000LY from home, on those tests. Thus a single AFMU fill was good for the whole test, without any extra materials.

The materials trader in 3.0 will probably make setting up with ample supply of synthesis materials a breeze, compared to back in 2.0.

Thanks, just landed from a test hop. Deployed the SRV at the planet outside my home station, ran around and gathered some stuffz. Tried the refuel synthesis and it's simple enough. I mostly need phosphorous and sulfur for the basic operations. I now have what I need to do a variety of things, jumponium, SRV repair and refuel, multi-cannon ammo resupply, AFMU restock, life support (more oxygen?) and more. So I should be set.

I don't plan to take much damage either, but one thing I notice in the more recent versions is how the hull integrity is lowered just by jumping. Come back after a few hops and it's 98%. It's not hull damage, but integrity that can be seen in the advanced repairs thing. I wonder how this is handled? If I make 100 jumps what will it be? I won't be able to do anything about this I don't think, and maybe it's no concern anyway.

It turns out that I had actually failed to do the full G3 lightweight mod to my sensors. Corrected that which saved a couple of tons. I also re-engineered the power plant and thrusters to each have the thermal spread experimental. It didn't seem to make much difference. Cruising in SC in deep space and it ran at 24% heat. So I flew back and replaced the thrusters mod with lightweight which saved another 3 tons, but kept the thermal mod on the power plant. All of this alteration netted .4 light years, and now it's at 48.2, and it runs a wee bit cooler.

The AFMUs cost no mass, so I thought they would be good to take along. However I am also fearing finding occupied escape pods and having to leave them behind. Maybe I should swap out one for a small cargo rack, just in case I find anything I want to bring back.

I haven't gotten any recommendations on where to go, so I've chosen the Jellyfish Nebula, which is exactly 5000 light years away. I never see anyone mention this one, so I'm hoping it may be considered an exploration backwater and allow me to get a first discovery somewhere. We shall see.



Oh, look! Extraction economy. I can fly back a load of bauxite or something. Gotta maximize the credits per light year


I plan to post a number of screenshots from this expedition. I post a lot of shots from various games I play, like Europa Universalis, and BMS. I've never cared to go for cinematic quality. Those shots are often great to look at, but they lack gaming details. So the vast majority of what I post will be from the commander's-eye view, including all the UI and orbit lines and so on. I like to post these 'there I was' sorts of things, and I like to show things as I was seeing them. I feel like having distances, and speeds, pip-state, system names, HUD info and more is preferable to the cinematic shots. So that's what you're gonna get

Mission Update.

Lines were cast at 1700 hours, April 8, 3304 from Fowler Orbital in the Dvorsi system. First 1000 light year leg has been plotted, 24 jumps.

For comparison after the mission is over, here are my exploration stats and rank at the start.

As far as I'm aware, that value is the armor integrity. It will max at 100%, and deplete to a minimum of around 70% or so. What it represents is (as I understand), the abilities of your armor to withstand specific damages to their maximum potential. When the integrity has fully degraded, there will be a 30% or so drop in how much of those damage types your armor will resist.

For a combat ship, with resistances for specific damage types specifically tuned, this is a big deal. For exploration, I don't think it comes into play.

On my longer trips, it fully depleted, and never caused any concern.

Good luck on your trip!

Thanks, that's really good to know, and now I won't need to worry about it. And yes, the mission is off to a fine start. The first 1000 light years are behind me. Having a ship like this that can make such long leaps sure gobbles up the space miles. After 10 hops I had already beaten my previous max distance from game start. All has gone smoothly, no emergencies. And I think I may have chosen a good direction. After I passed 900 light years I began to find un-tagged planets. I won't know for certain if I will get credit until the data is sold. But many planets I've scanned had no commander's name on them. So unless I die, or someone is already on the way back with this data, then it looks like I may get a large number of first discoveries. We shall see.

I believe the red nebula seen at the top of the screen is my destination. It's like a light in the distance, calling me to it.



The first earth-like world in this journey



The first leg of 1000 light years through the galaxy




A terraformable water world. Beautiful. These are the planets we want to find!




I believe this hunk of space ice will prove to be Commander Sinisalo's first first-discovery. We shall see, if we live to see it through.

Nice pics.
WREGOE has earth like clouds and stuff, impressive.
I can already hear DBond voice: "And now a weather update, tomorrow sunshine with sudden gusts and plenty rain by the evening."

So far, the expedition has been a success. The first 3,500 light years are in the books. I knew that only like .03% of the Elite systems have been discovered, but I guess I thought it would be more difficult, or at least farther away, that I would begin to find un-tagged bodies. As mentioned though, once I crossed about 900 light years I began finding them. A lot of them. I've scanned dozens of stars and planets without tags. Entire systems will have my name attached. I am the only human to have seen some of these places, and that's pretty cool. All has gone well, and I suppose i had envisioned certain crises to arise, or Thargoids attacking me, or a neutron star sucking me in to nothingness. But it's been rather routine. Dawnbreaker has taken no damage of any sort.

I did choose in the end to replace one of the AFMUs with a cargo rack, but so far I've found nothing that I'd want to take all the way home. I've needed no synthesis, as no troubles have arisen. But I did bring the Scarab all this way, so I made one landing just to break up the routine at about the 3.200 light year mark. A few USSs have been encountered, but they usually have a single piece of salvage that I ignore. At the outset I had filtered the route by removing Y and T class stars. I reasoned that going with just KGB FOAM would perhaps synch my route with those who have traveled here before me, By including non-optimal stars I might find virgin systems. That sure seemed to work, but around 3,000 I took out M class as well. I was finding un-tagged systems yes, but fewer and fewer water worlds, ammonia worlds and ELWs. I'm finding those again, but most have been tagged. In the end it's a matter of money versus first-discovery. I will have plenty of both I think when it's all said and done.


The first entire system I found that no one else has seen.



Three suns










Maybe she's not so photogeneic, but she sure is a fine ship. Here, taking a well deserved break.

Wow, fantastic discovery of that moon outside the rings!

And yes, there are plenty of undiscovered systems quite near the bubble. I've got my discovery tag on entire systems, within 2000LY of Earth even as recently as late last year.

Thanks yes, at first that moon appeared to be inside the ring, but as I got closer I saw it was right on the edge. Decided to have a look around.

It's funny, as I fly across the stars, certain commander names are seen more than others. I get to a new system, hoping it's all mine, only to see someone's already been there. In the early part of the expedition it was a dude called Pilot Mark. It seemed like he knew where I wanted to go, and got there first.

The next part of the trip and it was Lt Frank Drebin, of all people. It got to the point where I was saying 'Drebin'. like Seinfeld said Newman. It's interesting too, to see how folks have come to a system and scanned it all, or just the star, or just the valuable bits. Some have come and scanned every body, regardless of distance. Others must have just been passing through, scanning the main star, but ignoring the other star right next to it.

In some cases I have taken the time to scan the entire system. Other times, I'm less thorough. I admit that sometimes if I arrive at a system and someone has already scanned the main star and maybe the first few valuable planets like HMCs, then I will scan the next closest rice world to make the next commander to arrive here have to travel just that little bit further to get his name on one

Mission Update 0400 Hours, 10 April 3304



Have arrived at the Jellyfish Nebula, and what an amazing and cool journey it's been! Very glad to have done this. As mentioned earlier, I know this is Elite exploration minor leagues, but to me it feels epic

Everything has gone smoothly. Navigation, exploration, hyperspace, everything, without a hitch. As we neared the Nebula it continued to grow larger and once inside, it was strikingly beautiful. Along the way I explored and charted system after system. It's lonely out in space and for a while I had galnet on loop. Much of what I flew through was uncharted, which is really cool when you think about it, and was one of the things that drew me to the game. I wanted a first discovery credit, and got way more than I could have imagined. As I proved, it's not hard to do. Just pick a direction and go.

It's difficult to say how much time the long-range modification to the DSS has saved. Stats say +120%. Does that mean an extra 20%, or double plus some? I guess it's the latter. Regardless, I'm sure it's saved time, even if it is a little heavier. Here I am scanning stars at 12,000 ls, and I've done so out to 18,000 earlier in the mission.



This five star system is all mine.



The last 1500 light years saw an increasing number of systems that had already been mapped out by earlier expeditions. The Nebula is a destination, and routes converge. I scanned regardless, though there was also much I left untouched. I was very happy to have posted the screenshot earlier of my destination at the Jellyfish nebula. I could not locate the populated system in the galaxy map as I approached it in the mission. If not for that original plot I may not have realized there were people here at all. And with the name displayed in that screenshot I was able to punch it in and get a course.

The Jellyfish nebula with just a couple hops to go. Almost there!



Off to the left is one star I can guarantee remains unscanned.



A couple shots of the Nebula, It's even more beautiful in motion.









Arriving in the system I saw no stations, planetary or otherwise. Where do these people live? Population is just 1500 according to that plot shot, but they must have a base somewhere. As it turns out they do indeed. Inside a rock!

It's a Beta Site, and is a station carved out of a big asteroid, complete with mail slot and all. Extraordinary, I say

The Beta Site on the system map



Final approach to the station. It's fantastic to see this after thousands of light years of solitude.




I flew a complete circuit around this looking for a landing pad.



It was slow to dawn on me that they had hollowed out the asteroid. OK, now it looks familiar. D'oh!




No frills around this joint.




I was happy to see they had Cartographics here, as I was eager to see how much data I had collected. So far it's about 20 million (not including first discovery bonus I reckon). I turned in just one, to ensure I got my first discovery. The rest I want to bring back, since it will serve me better in the bubble spreading rep around. But should I die a grisly death on the way back, at least I have one (or four, as the case may be)

Ha, how cool sin't that - first time I see a space station inside a rock