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I did it.

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Yttrium pls.

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Elite: Dangerous community votes 70% in favour of delivery times for ship transfer. 

The inevitable will happen.

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You wanted dinosaurs?

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How Frontier designs their combat ships, LOL. Source: https://www.facebook.com/groups/elitedangerouscommunity/permalink/1027365307328965/

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Daisy Ridley's Rey, best new Star Wars character.

You know, it was strange when people started asking, ‘What is Harrison Ford like? What is Carrie like?’ Then I had to remember, ‘Oh, of course [this] would be weird to you.’ But it’s not to me, because I was just living through it. We were just doing a job. Harrison is great. He reminds me of my dad because he has a gold hoop earring, too. And Carrie is just hilarious. She told me the other day I’ll definitely have stalkers.“

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Meanwhile in 1.5 Beta....

Elite: Dangerous Shield Cell Banks

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Exploration Asp Build

Miranda was always the one meant to go - to go far, far away. 

Miranda, Explorer.

Miranda is the name of my Asp explorer. She was commissioned on 6th January 3301, the result of arduous weeks of grinding on my starter Cobra Mk III in Elite: Dangerous. Miranda was my first upgrade, a very special ship with a permanent place of pride in my fleet. She was my first truly armed ship - my Cobra never really got the hang of battle (in fact, the HCS Reminiscence still wears her loaned 4E shield!); she was an accomplished rare goods trader; and she was the first ship I explored with, the ship that became Elite.  In short, Miranda brought me to places. 

In February 3301, I decided for the first time to make a trip to Sagittarius A. This would be my longest trip ever. I made it to 2700 LY from civilization before I decided to turn back to sell data at the first exploration community goal at Lambda Andromedae. Then I got distracted by other things.

In May 3301, gradually the exploration bug hit me again. The yearning grew to great proportions and finally on June 11, after outfitting her for the trip, I left. The rest is history.

The Miranda Exploration Asp build is optimized for my playstyle, naturally. It was also optimized for the game version 1.3. Future versions of the game may make this build less optimal. Feel free to modify for your own needs. Elite: Dangerous is a flexible and balanced game - there are no perfect ships. :)

What ship should I use?

The Asp Explorer remains the king of exploration in Elite: Dangerous. Many CMDRs will be thinking about using the Diamondback Explorer (DBX). The latter is also a fine explorer, but I contend that the Asp is still superior.

The DBX and Asp have similar jump range. For me, a good jump range - without fretting about maxing it - is about 32 ~ 33 LY. If you can achieve this jump range while carrying whatever gear you wish, that’s good enough for a very decent exploration trip. If you are insistent on maxing it out because you want to get somewhere as fast as possible in the least amount of jumps, then that’s another story. To me, exploration is not about getting to places fast.

In this light, both DBX and Asp are more than able. The difference is that the Asp has more internal compartments: 7 versus the 5 of the DBX. 

Miranda in White Apollo livery, at Shinrarta Dezhra

The Miranda Build

This is Miranda:

EDshipyard link

Coriolis.io link

3A Powerplant. The guideline for selecting a powerplant for an explorer vessel is simple.

Smallest size to power your needs, and 

A-rated for highest heat efficiency.

You need heat efficiency because you want your ship’s operating temperature to be as low as possible. This helps you fuel-scoop more safely and also gives you more leeway when trying to get out of high heat situations like when you’ve crashed into a star. 

Miranda operates at 18% heat. Besides a small A-rated powerplant, to further bring down operating temperature, turn off the following modules when in deep space:

Shield

Power Distributor

Cargo Hatch

2nd (and more) heat sinks

AFMUs

Only turn on your shield when you are on the way out or into civilization, and when you’re in normal flight exploring asteroid rings or with other players nearby.

Shields DO NOT help to protect you from the heat of a star; conversely, because they generate heat on your ship, they increase the risk of heat damage.

Unless you plan to fire your weapons, boost engines or charge shields, distributors are of no use during exploration. If you plan to be armed while exploring, this build is not for you.

If you carry more than one heat sink, just leave one on. Switch to the other one when the first one is used up. 

For AFMUs, only turn them on when you need to use them. 

Side note on AFMUs: as a rule of thumb, do not attempt to repair your ship when you’re in supercruise or doing anything for that matter. If you attempt to repair your ship modules while you’re in supercruise, you might inadvertently repair your thrusters while they are in operation, which has the same effect as unscrewing a screw/bolt on your car engine/microwave oven/washing machine while it is in operation. This would result in an instant crashout followed by more damage to your ship. Many CMDRs have confessed to this mistake.

Follow my rule: only make repairs when you start a new game session (unless you desperately need to make repairs on serious damage). When you start a new game session, your ship is at full stop and idling. This is the best time to make repairs. Resist the urge to repair in mid-game.

Internal Compartments

You need/could use the internal compartments for these items, in descending order of importance:

Best fuel scoop you can afford.

Advanced Discovery Scanner

Detailed Surface Scanner

Auto Field Maintenance Unit (AFMU) x1 or 2

Shield

Extra fuel tank

Fuel Scoop. Why is the Asp superior if the DBX can have the necessary five compartments? Firstly, the Asp has a class 6 compartment, which you can fit with a class 6 - to be precise, 6A - fuel scoop. This scoops at a maximum rate of 878kg/s and can fill up a full tank in 45 seconds, compared to the 93 seconds needed for a 4A scoop on the DBX. 48 seconds may not mean much, but I assure you, it does - just as the matter of having a class A powerplant matters to explorers (but more on that later). Having a high-rated fuel scoop also means that you can stay further (cooler) away from the star while scooping, assuming you don’t need to scoop at maximum scoop rate.

AFMUs. Secondly, the extra compartments in the Asp allow you to carry two 3A AFMU units - useful should you run into a lot of damage. To be honest though, the single 3A AFMU that the DBX can carry is enough if you are careful.

But why would you want to carry two AFMUs anyway, you ask? Well, it’s a bit of a not-entirely-necessary thing, but I’ll tell you anyway: so that your no.2 AFMU can repair your no.1 AFMU. :) Yes, AFMUs get damaged too, you know. Well, I do not know how far an AFMU needs to be damaged to become inoperative, but just to play safe.

Shield. Assuming you do want to bring a shield, which can in fact be useful on the way out/into civilization and for exploring asteroid belts, you will need that one compartment for this. 

Fuel Tank. With the Asp, you may actually have one or two compartments free and one possibility is to add an extra fuel tank. However, I have learned on my last trip that the default 32 tons of fuel that both Asp and DBX have are more than enough. There is no need for an extra fuel tank in these two ships, but if you want that safety net, the Asp will provide it.

Utility Mounts

Heat Sinks. Both Asp and DBX have four utility mounts and you can leave them empty to save on weight. However, if you’re not confident about your capacity to handle proximity to stars, you might find having one or two useful. Thing is, be aware that you cannot deploy heat sinks while in supercruise. Heat sinks do not help if you hyperspace into a close or contact binary system, that bane of explorers, because you are typically still in supercruise mode. So just about the only time you can use them in exploration is when you have accidentally crashed out of supercruise into a star and are trying to escape back into supercruise. You may want to then deploy a heatsink to counter the heat build-up when charging your FSD to enter supercruise mode.

Side note on Contact/Close Binaries: first of all, always throttle to zero when in hyperspace, so that you enter your destination system at minimum spped (30km/s). Be prepared for the worst, just in case. If you do encounter a contact/close binary system, please stay calm. The first time is usually the biggest shock, especially if you pass through one star on the way in. Stay calm and immediately get your bearings. You (should) have time to get out before heat damage occurs, remember that. Assuming you are still in supercruise (i,e. you did not crash out into normal flight), steer away and engage full throttle. Don’t fret - you have time to get out. Do not mash helplessly at your heat sink button - remember, you cannot deploy heat sinks in supercruise. Steer away from the binaries and fly away. The lower your operating temperature, the more time you will have to do this.

Shield Boosters. No, not when in deep space. After a long expedition and you’ve just landed for the first time in months at a station/outpost at the edge of the bubble, consider tacking on a (shield generator and a) shield booster if you want extra safety as you make your way further into the bubble to your home base or wherever it is you intend to sell your data. 

Canopy View

The view through the canopy is where the Asp wins over the DBX, without question. Only the Anaconda’s completely unobscured canopy wins outright; the sidewinder’s canopy is also clear through if you look up. While the Asp does not have a fully unobscured canopy, the frames are slim enough to be unobtrusive, even elegant.

The characteristic upper canopy frame of the Asp, which looks like a goblet.

An unobtrusive canopy is important only insofar as you want an unobstructed view of space when you are exploring. And believe me I strongly recommend it. Of course, with the Debug Cam these days, this isn’t as important, but it is still a great convenience.

I hope you find this guide helpful. Safe Journeys, CMDRs.

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Waiting for 1.4 patch

Patch notes, check out the last line.....

As far as I’m concerned, this should now be Elite: Dangerous’s new slogan. After all, that’s what ED has been doing all year.

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Rank: Elite Dangerous

For the only time in Elite: Dangerous, my ranks are the same as the game’s.

On 28 August 3301, the Pilot’s Federation awarded me the rank of Elite in exploration, with my submission of around 150 million in exploration profit.

Fittingly, the message came as I was docked at Anezgan, where I began my career in Elite: Dangerous.

Expedition duration: 73 days (11 June 3301 - 22 Aug 3301) First discoveries: (assuming no one sold before me) : Earth-like Worlds: 27 Neutron Stars: 1406 (this is from deliberate NS farming) Black Holes: 103 (The following are estimated) Water Worlds, Terraformable: 106 Water Worlds: 100 High Metal Content Planets, Terraformable: 277 High Metal Content Planets: 1725 Metal-rich planets: 198 Ammonia Worlds: 23

... and many more.

Before Expedition profit: 9,729,372 (Ranger) After Expedition profit: 197,120,555 (Elite at approx 150 mil) Expedition total profit: 187,391,183

The HCS Miranda is now decommissioned and docked at Shinrarta Dezhra, homeworld of the Pilots’ Federation. She has served me well and I leave her with one last gift. 

Rest well and forever ponder the stars, Miranda.

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Starblazer

In Elite: Dangerous, the decal for Pioneer rank (Exploration) is called Starblazer.

I wish Frontier would let us name our ships. If we could do that, and have name decals, that’s what I’d do.

As of last night, Pioneer 85%. Still selling data.

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Still selling data two days after returning home. Have sold about 90 pages (i.e. 1800 systems) worth of data, earning about 88 million in exploration profits. Currently Pioneer 45%. Who says exploration isn't profitable? 

It can be profitable, but it's a different kind of profit. It's not an instant profit, it's not a risk-free profit. It took me 73 real days of travel and work before I saw the rewards of my journey. And while no one may remember who killed which bounty or who sold which trade, we get to have our names permanently emblazoned on jewels in the sky. Now that's priceless, that’s Elite: Dangerous. 

(ok and the occasional rare dirty ball of water!)

From my landing site at Ruka, I have been hoping from independent system to independent system to sell data, becoming allied with each one. I am slowly making my way to home base, Shinrarta Dehzra, Founders World. Also had to sell some data to Federation and Empire-controlled systems to regain my Allied status, which had decayed to Friendly while I was out there.

I achieved Pioneer at approximately 46 million in exploration profits. For the first time, my exploration rank has superceded my combat and trade ranks. Now counting down to Elite. #fingerscrossed.

Previously, on Beware: For I Am Now (Dangerous Ranger). 

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Odyssey’s End

Arrival confirmation, HCS Miranda. Landing is confirmed.

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Your blog is hella cool!

Thank you! :)

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Ghost in the Sky

LYSOORB SECTOR, 18 August 3301.

We all are pioneers, lonely in the dark. We see things alone, and despair that we have no one here to share. So we are all pioneers together, I invite you to see the worlds I see, you invite me into the worlds you see. Together, we will leap distances across the myriad stars, kindred across space, friends amongst stars, ghosts across time. 

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Stellam Anulum

Ringed T Tauri Stars.

Rushing home, the universe tempts me to pause and witness some more wonders, this time in the form of ringed T Tauri stars. Three of them in one B-class star system

System Map: System Name - LEAMUAE EV-Y E5373

Primary: B-class Star

MR x2, GG4 x3. 6) TT (ringed), GG3, 8) TT (ringed), GG3, GG4, 11) TT (ringed), +R. GG3.

Spent 45 minutes scanning and exploring whole system. Took a chunk out of my target distance for the evening, but it was worth it.

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Distance and Discipline

Homebound. But I have one problem - I have to reach home by Aug 21, as I have a trip in real life coming up. I have to cover, as of this post, 20,400 LY in 10 days.

As with my journey to Sagittarius A, the best way to achieve this is to plan ahead and commit to a distance to traverse every day. On average I’ll have to travel 2036LY per day, a huge distance with my limited playtime. Given that I can do more over weekends, the plan will have to be like this:

Aug 11, Tue, Distance 20,400LY from Shinrarta Dezhra

Aug 12, Wed: fly 1700LY. Distance, 18700LY

Aug 13, Thu: fly 1700LY, Distance, 17000LY

Aug 14, Fri: fly 2000 LY, Distance, 15000LY

Aug 15, Sat: fly 3000 LY, Distance, 12000LY

Aug 16, Sun: 3000 LY, Distance, 9000LY 

Aug 17, Mon: 1800 LY, Distance, 7200LY

Aug 18, Tue: 1800 LY, Distancce, 5400LY

Aug 19, Wed: 1800 LY, Distance, 3600LY

Aug 20, Thu: 1800 LY, Distance, 1800LY

Aug 21, Fri: 1800 LY, Distance: 0 LY

Estimated Time of Arrival, early hours of Aug 22, Saturday, 3301. 

I hope there won’t be too many distractions along the way.

When I get home, I’ll write up some notes about the loadout of my Explorer Asp, the HCS Miranda.

BTW, I’m not the only one going home!