[Proposal] Long Term Exploration of the Region surrounding the EvE Gate

[Onyx_Aurelius]

To the capsuleers of New Eden i wish to submit to you a proposal in multiple parts, with the end goal being the exploration of the region nearby the EvE gate.

Part 1: Data collection

The first part of this proposal involves the building and manning of a set of structures in the New Eden solar system itself, consisting of a research lab/engineering complex and citadel, dedicated to studying the storms/events coming from the gate itself. These structures would be tasked with gaining a better understanding of the nature of the storms, as well as developing systems to shield not only a ship, but several kilometers of surrounding space around said ship from the storms’ effects as well.

Part 2: Development of a modified Spatial Phenomena Generator

The second part of this proposal is the development of a modified Spatial Generator with the data collected from part 1; a generator capable of, if not out right negating, then at least minimizing the effects of the massive radiation storm in the region of the EvE gate on the vessel it is fitted to and a region of at least 10-15 Kilometers around the ship.

The theory behind this proposal is that if a “standard” Titan Spatial Generator can affect a nearly 20,000km range with such powerful effects, than if one takes the same technology and focuses it into a smaller area, one can achieve even stronger effects on local spacetime, perhaps even strong enough to deal with the storm around the EvE gate.

Part 3: Obtaining a usable set of spatial coordinates near the gate region itself

A secondary objective from part 1 would the attempt to isolate a region near the gate to which a warp drive could lock on to, not a jump portal generator. (Titan spatial generators cannot operate during jump as far as i know, and even so, the mere seconds it takes the generator to activate might be too long and ship would be destroyed.)
With these coordinates in hand we would then need to begin the process of working out sub coordinates, as it would be impossible to warp directly to the gate itself, not only because of distance, but also the need to re-supply the Titan with fuel every so often to keep the Spatial Generator operating constantly.

Part 4.1: A very special ship
Once the first three parts are completed, the next steps involve either getting an empire titan, or a faction titan, with the right systems to house this modified Titan Spatial Generator. If no current Titans exist that fit the bill, then we Research and build one ourselves that will. After acquiring a ship, the generator will installed, and ship fitted with capacitor systems to increase the total capacitor capacity and recharge rate. This might take the form of cap batteries and injectors, or capacitor regeneration systems.

Part 4.2: The need for speed
Another set of modifications would need to be installed on this Titan as well. A set of systems to optimize it’s hyperspatial systems, namely rigs, and hyperspatial optimizers. In addition to these, the pilot would need to be equipped with High Grade Ascendancy Implants. Current Projections place a titan at traveling 6.4 AU/s with these modifications. This is important as the longer the ship takes to get out tot he gate, the more fuel is needed to keep the Spatial Generator operational during the travel period, it also means more stops to refuel the Titan.

Part 5: Logistics

Assuming all of the above can be done, and proven to work, the next part comes down to logistics, namely the logistics of re-fueling the titan every half hour or so based on projected fuel requirements for the spatial generator. This would be accomplished using Jump Freighters and a Cynosural Beacon fitted to the titan.

Every 30 mins or so, the titan would drop out of warp and come to a stop, both to recharge it’s capacitor (it may need to do this more often depending on warp drive power needs), and would light a Cynosural Beacon. With the Spatial Generator providing a bubble of between 10-15 KM, the Freighter would lock onto the beacon, jump to the Titan, refuel the titan with isotopes, strontium, Ozone, ect and either jump out, or be briged out using the Titan’s Jump bridge (whichever is more efficient). The titan would then continue to the next set of coordinates, and the cycle would continue until it reaches its destination.

Part 6: Exploration/Establishment of a forward research base

With the titan now either near the EvE gate itself, or at least in a region of interest near the Gate, the process of exploration can begin. Either the titan itself forms a mobile base of operations, or else a structure is anchored, one that can fit a modified version of the same generator used to shield the titan and that can be used a forward operating base to stage the titan out of. Such a structure would also be able to get incredible data on the EvE gate, and might possibly be able to find salvage from those who built the gate.

Part 7: The Math

The math behind this proposal is purely theory at this time, and will almost certainly change with new data.

Eve Gate distance from the New Eden Solar system: Approximately 3LY
Titan Warp Speed: 6.4 AU/s (assuming modifications)
Raw Estimated Warp time:
1LY = 63241.077 AU
3LY= 189,723.231 AU

189,723.231 / 6.4AU/s = 29,644.26 seconds (rounded up)

29,644.26 seconds = 495 Mins (rounded up)

495 Mins = 8.24 hours (rounded up)

This is the raw time, assuming no interruptions it would take to make it to the EvE gate based on a 3LY distance. The follow calculations assume a 12 hour operation time including stops to refuel the titan.

Spatial Generator Fuel Requirements:
40,000 Isotopes per operation
Operation length 300 seconds
Effect Length 300 seconds (more with skills, however this is assuming the generator is left running to avoid mistakes)

12 hours * 360 = 43,200 seconds
43,200 seconds / 300 = 144 operations for 12 hours of continuous operation

144 * 40,000 = 5,760,000 isotopes to fuel the Generator for 12 hours.

This does NOT include isotopes for the Jump Freighters, or the titan bridge is it’s used.

Part 8: Conclusion
Based on a purely theoretical foundation, this seems like a possible task, however it relies on several key technologies being developed, and a cooperation of a dedicated group. I’ve decided to make this a public proposal as the resources needed are to too much for a small group to handle, and it will require extremely dedicated people to make work. However the payoff of such a venture, both in data, and fame, would be equal to the cost of such a project.

-Onyx Aurelius-

[Yoshitaka_Moromuo]

Of all parts of this proposal, I believe the most feasible one would be the deployment of a near-the-Gate observation platform (read: without other stellar objects nearby that could interfere with direct observation).

However, given the Gate’s presence in low-security space, security of such a facility becomes a matter of concern as there are no CONCORD or Amarr Empire patrols in that area.

This would likely need to be a joint effort - not just in execution, but in security and maintenance as well.

[Mizhara_Del_thul]

No one cares enough to go all the way out into the arse end of nowhere to gank a Citadel. Go talk to SFRIM, they already have a citadel about as near as you can expect to get to the anomaly, and there’s this crazy SFRIM member regularly piloting a 12.5k m/s Wolf directly at it.

I occasionally stick my nose in there and they seem to be fairly active in the area, but what they actually achieve is somewhat nebulous at this point I think.

Secondly, should you manage to get coordinates in place for an eight hour warp, I’d rather get a cyno vessel there instead and jump the damn Titan in from a nearby system.

All that said, no matter how fast you manage to make any ship going in for the initial set of coordinates, it’d still have to burn for practically years before it’d manage to get anywhere near the actual anomaly itself.

[Yoshitaka_Moromuo]

With all due respect - and I do mean that - I’d not be surprised if a group decided to remove it simply for “being there.” It’s merely been raised as a potential security concern.

[Mizhara_Del_thul]

Eh, they’ve already had theirs up for some time. That area is the arse end of nowhere, no one who lives in the area can be arsed to put that kind of effort in, if it’s even nominally defended. It’s a whole lot of effort for damn near no gain, and asking your corp or alliance to waste that much of their time on that kind of task tends to be poorly received if there’s no good reason for it.

[Kalaratiri]

Never mind the citadel, where the ■■■■ are you going to get someone willing to not only commit a Titan to this, but light a cyno with one?

[Valerie_Valate]

If capsuleer power blocs are no longer keen on deploying capital ships on a whim to ruin someone else’s day for no reason other than malice and stat padding, then the argument that capsuleers and nullsec power blocs are the future of human civilisation in New Eden, rather than the baseliner nations, loses a bit of weight.

Typing servant, write something profound about how quickly the future becomes the past or something like that, then post it.

[Mizhara_Del_thul]

… wait, who’d be lighting cynos in a Titan? The rest isn’t all that risky, I mean. spend a few years slowboating a vessel at the Anomaly, blopsdrop a Prowler with a Citadel in it at the location once it’s there etc, then jump in the Titan once there’s a tetherable structure. It’s not like they’re that expensive, just a few Fortizars worth, and this would be pretty safe as far as operations go. You would of course have a chain of citadels for tethering purposes the whole way back to where it came from anyway.

Hell, if you have a little bit of system control during the set-up of this, I’d even light a cyno in the titan since you’re not getting a warp speed sufficient to get to it, even if you start warping the very second it lights.

… all that said, this is just a pipedream to start with. The time needed to move 3+ AU without warp speed to begin with is just waaaaay above and beyond what’s reasonably going to happen, 12.5k m/s Wolves or not. Even if doing it 24/7 somehow, it’d take somewhere around four hundred and twenty days of continuous max burn.

That’s 3+ AU. Now try to imagine 3+ light years.

[Kalaratiri]

@Mizhara_Del_thul

… wait, who’d be lighting cynos in a Titan?

@Onyx_Aurelius

Every 30 mins or so, the titan would drop out of warp and come to a stop, both to recharge it’s capacitor (it may need to do this more often depending on warp drive power needs), and would light a Cynosural Beacon. With the Spatial Generator providing a bubble of between 10-15 KM, the Freighter would lock onto the beacon, jump to the Titan, refuel the titan with isotopes, strontium, Ozone, ect and either jump out, or be briged out using the Titan’s Jump bridge (whichever is more efficient). The titan would then continue to the next set of coordinates, and the cycle would continue until it reaches its destination.

That’s just asking for trouble.

[Mizhara_Del_thul]

Ah, missed that particular bit. Yeah, that’s utterly stupid. Hence why I’d wait bringing the Titan into play until smaller vessels had taken care of the structures etc beforehand.

… you know, in the five hundred years time it’d take to slowboat to the Anomaly, anyway.

[Yoshitaka_Moromuo]

Given the feedback thus far, I recommend curtailing most of this plan and instead settling on the long-term observation approach from a dedicated platform, outlined as the first part of this plan. It’s far more economical in terms of capital investment and time, and can also yet lead to new information over time.

[Onyx_Aurelius]

I think there’s a fundamental misunderstanding in regards to the Titan/Cynosural Beacon system that i proposed, as well as the reason the ship needs to use a warp drive system as opposed to a jump drive.

The modified Spatial Generator i mentioned in the original post needs to be running at all times to counter the radiation storms in the area near the EvE Gate, Including during warp, this would mean that any ship not within the protective area generated by the Titan would be ripped apart by the forces of the storms, so warping to the Titan once it’s out in the storm isn’t an option.

As for not using a jump drive, it’s even more of a risk to jump a Titan into such an area, and risk the storms destroying it in the time it would take for the Generator to come online. There’s also the question of how a ship with a Cynosural beacon would get out to the gate area initially, as the storms destroy nearly anything that gets too close.

All that being said, this is still pure theory right now, however i am considering at least establishing an observation complex to begin initial studies…more than likely it will be an engineering complex, as they are suited to research and development activities.

[Mizhara_Del_thul]

If that’s the case, you’ve already got another stumbling block. You’re not warping anything, a Titan or otherwise, towards the anomaly without someone else already having gotten there for the coordinates and gravitic readings. If you think the spatial phenomena generator is required to even get there like that, then you’re talking about slowboating the Titan in there.

With the generous estimate of five hundred years to get a 12.5k m/s Wolf there, I think I can say with reasonable certainty that you’re not getting a Titan there any time soon.

[Onyx_Aurelius]

I will point to Part 3 of the proposal, which details a possible way to get around this issue through the use of long term and detailed analysis of readings near the gate region. Short of this, it may be that a standard warpdrive would need to be modified to use distance instead of a gravitic signatures as part of the navigation systems, essentially allowing the pilot to specify a direction and distance they wish to go, instead of utilizing a standard gravity well signature.

[Yoshitaka_Moromuo]

A blind warp such as that, however, would be more likely to end up in the loss of the traveling ship in this specific application. Specific ranges would need to be identified first, to clearly show the “safe” distance from the chaos surrounding the Gate.

This all assumes that such a blind warp would even be possible, anyway.

[Arrendis]

@Yoshitaka_Moromuo

With all due respect - and I do mean that - I’d not be surprised if a group decided to remove it simply for “being there.”

Eh, Miz is right. It’s been there for over a year now. Nobody’s gonna care.

@Mizhara_Del_thul

If that’s the case, you’ve already got another stumbling block. You’re not warping anything, a Titan or otherwise, towards the anomaly without someone else already having gotten there for the coordinates and gravitic readings.

Hrm. A thought: Could you deploy acceleration gates, targeting them with approximate distances, and use those to try to triangulate the anomaly’s accurate position within a certain margin of error?

[Mizhara_Del_thul]

@Arrendis

Hrm. A thought: Could you deploy acceleration gates, targeting them with approximate distances, and use those to try to triangulate the anomaly’s accurate position within a certain margin of error?

I suspect not, or it’d have been done already. The anomaly has been a matter of scientific interest for pretty much as long as we’ve had access to the New Eden system and the simple fact of the matter is that a lot of far more clever people than us have spent helluvalot more time thinking about this stuff and you’d think if it was that easy it’d have been done.

… that said, it might have been for all we know. It’s primarily been baseliner organizations like the SSoE etc that has been doing the work and nothing says they’ve had to share their findings and progress with the rest of us.

I personally still can’t get over that 12.5k m/s Wolf though. That was sufficiently impressive that I spent an entire day working out how to actually achieve that reliably. It’s rather pointless as it still will require roughly five hundred years to reach the anomaly that way, but damn… 12.5k m/s.

I wanna figure out a way to catch that thing.

[Arrendis]

@Mizhara_Del_thul

I suspect not, or it’d have been done already.

Eh, you say this, but it’s alarming how often all the smart people in the room overlook ‘well, can we just throw a damned rock at it and follow the rock?’

[Arrendis]

@Mizhara_Del_thul

I wanna figure out a way to catch that thing.

Use the same build and bring along a massive amount of Quafe Zero?

[Corraidhin_Farsaidh]

You might be better anchoring above New Eden I and doing extensive archaeology there. I’d guess the first visitors to this sector would have established a base there at the very least.

Also calculate and thoroughly scan any LaGrange points in the system then start scanning outwards from those to see if any derelict archaeology sites show up. There ought to be something left over somewhere in that system

Alongside this whilst looking for what you think should be ion that system, also see if there’s anything missing that should be there. I’m thinking signs of moons that have been consumed, planets destroyed/consumed etc. You might gain information from what isn’t there as well as what is.