Elite Dangerous System Col 285 Sector WL-L c8-40 - The Grand Tour - Satilla River Tuplar

Satilla River Tuplar
The Grand Tour, PAGE 4

NOTE:  All 138 facilities built in this system are listed (and shown) in order of distance from the sun.  At least, according to the in-game architect’s view.  There's a total of slightly over 18 hours of video, so the video, and the descriptions, are broken into smaller portions across multiple posts.
Some descriptions were written by myself, some with the help of AI.  I've personally edited all of them, so if you must blame someone, blame me.  :^)

https://shorturl.at/3mWgT
Picture of the Tuplar from back in the 1970's. 
(The link goes to a previous blog about the Tuplar, from when I deployed the Dodecahedron station bearing its name.)

03 Orbital 00
Satilla River Tuplar
Dodec Starport (T3)
Dock: Large

This one is highly personal. I spent much of my childhood visiting my grandmother near the Satilla River in Georgia. All the grandkids called her Nanny, but her name was Gladys Thrift. Mom grew up there, one of seven children in an extraordinarily rural area.
When Dad retired we moved there permanently. I got to spend my favorite growing-up years fishing on the Satilla, exploring the surrounding woods and swamp.

The “Tuplar” tree (local dialect, it was actually a Swamp Tupelo) was the absolute best place in the entire world. It was the prettiest cove, with the tree standing out on a spit of land, like an isthmus.  Sometimes, I'd just come there to read.  There was a bent tree near the bank that grew horizontally for about 6 feet, then curved upward.  I could slouch into that curve, and read for hours.

It was also one of the best places to fish.  Just cut a couple of forked sticks, put them into the ground, cast your line out, and set the pole on the sticks.  Anchor them firmly, because some fish were strong enough to drag the rod and reel into the river.
I liked to fish with two lines, and if the fishing was slow enough I'd take my book, climb up that tree, and read while waiting for a bit.  (I always had a book, because you never knew when you'd get a good chance to read.)  

That Tuplar tree stood guard over at least four generations of my family; Mom tells me it was there when she was little, her parents fished there before her time.  She and her siblings grew up fishing there, and my sister and I grew up fishing there.  We brought our kids to it as well. 

After standing guard for generations of our family, erosion and age eventually brought the Tuplar down.   I'm not sure if my son was grown up when it fell.  I was in the military and couldn't visit as often as I liked.  

Now I live about an hour's drive away, and return home regularly to visit Mom.  Don't go back to the river any more.  The fallen trunk and tangled roots are still there, but I don’t like seeing it that way. Things change, time passes… I don’t have to like it, though.  

In my mind, and my heart, the Tuplar Tree will always be standing guard on the Satilla.

Elite Dangerous System Col 285 Sector WL-L c8-40 - The Grand Tour - Reinhold, Arnold, Foster, Bamford

 Elite Dangerous System Col 285 Sector WL-L c8-40 - The Grand Tour - Dear Lab CONCOURSE - Reinhold Hub - Arnold Legacy - Foster Town - Bamford Vista

Dear Lab CONCOURSE - Reinhold Hub - Arnold Legacy - Foster Town - Bamford Vista
The Grand Tour, PAGE 3 

NOTE:  All 138 facilities built in this system are listed (and shown) in order of distance from the sun.  At least, according to the in-game architect’s view.  There's a total of slightly over 18 hours of video, so the video, and the descriptions, are broken into smaller portions across multiple posts.
Some descriptions were written by myself, some with the help of AI.  I've personally edited all of them, so if you must blame someone, blame me.  :^)

01 Orbital 00
Reinhold Hub
Security Installation – Nomos (T2)            DOCK: NONE

Reinhold W. Goll was a dedicated author of the pioneer-era planetary adventure, contributing significantly to the juvenile science fiction boom of the late 1950s and early 1960s. He’s best known for the Veta series, including The Visitors from Planet Veta and Spaceship to Planet Veta, which captured the public's growing fascination with interstellar travel just as the real-world space race was beginning to accelerate.
Goll’s writing focused on the mechanics of discovery and the thrill of the unknown, often following courageous crews as they navigated the void to reach distant, mysterious worlds like those found in Through Space to Planet T. By blending a sense of wonder with the emerging scientific optimism of his time, Goll provided a vital entry point for young readers into the broader world of speculative fiction, making his name synonymous with the spirit of the early frontier.

(This station was a trouble child. Refused to give me anything directly useful; by the time I got “Reinhold” nearly an hour later, I was more than ready to accept a first-name reference.)

01 Orbital 01
Arnold Legacy
Mining/Industrial Installation (Phorcys)      DOCK: NONE

Edwin Lester Arnold stands as a pivotal architect of modern speculative fiction, bridge-building between Victorian adventure and the vibrant pulp era of the 20th century. His Vacation (1905), is widely recognized by scholars as a primary inspiration for Edgar Rice Burroughs, introducing the "military-man-on-Mars" trope and the vivid, decaying civilizations that would define the planetary romance.
Arnold’s earlier novel, The Wonderful Adventures of Phra the Phoenician, further showcased his fascination with immortality and historical continuity, using a protagonist who wakes across different eras of British history to explore the evolution of human society. By infusing his narratives with a blend of scientific curiosity and high-fantasy stakes, Arnold provided the essential framework for the "Sword and Planet" genre, ensuring that his legacy remains embedded in the core of every interstellar epic that followed.

I haven't read Arnold before, but when this project is done, I hope to find some of his works.  It would be fascinating to see how he compares to Burrough's Swordsman of Mars stories.

02 Orbital 00
Foster Town
Research Installation (Dione)      DOCK: NONE

Alan Dean Foster stands as one of the most prolific and reliable world-builders of the late 20th century, somewhere between hard science fiction and the sweeping adventure of the "New Space Opera" era. His writing is characterized by a deep, biological curiosity—often focusing on complex ecosystems and non-hostile alien symbiosis—delivered with accessible prose that made him a mainstay of the 1970s and 80s paperback boom.
He is widely known for the interstellar Humanx Commonwealth, but he also masterfully blurred the lines between genres in his Coramonde series.  This duo has to be my all-time favorite story from Foster; I'm not even sure how many times I read it, but it was... several, anyway.
In The Doomfarers of Coramonde (1977) and its sequel The Starfarers of Coramonde (1978), Foster achieved a rare feat: bringing a modern armored personnel carrier and its crew from the jungles of Vietnam into a high-fantasy realm of sorcery and dragons. By grounding the fantasy in military grit and technology, Foster proved that a "hard SF" sensibility could make even a fight against a bronze dragon feel believable.

02 Orbital 01
Bamford Vista
Communication Installation (Pistis)      DOCK: NONE

Robert Allen Bamford Jr. was a quintessential "workhorse" of the mid-century pulp era, a writer who operated in the trenches of the 1940s and 50s magazines and helped define the transition from simple space opera to a more grounded, gritty realism.
Often writing as Alan L. Hart, Bamford was a master of the short story, specializing in psychological suspense and the human cost of technological progress—a style that made him a staple in high-concept anthologies right next to legends like Ray Bradbury.
His story "The Last Outpost" is a definitive example of his work, exploring the crushing isolation and mental strain of soldiers stationed on the edge of the galaxy, while "Decision at Dawn" highlights his talent for tight, high-stakes drama centered on the ethical dilemmas of future command. Though he often worked in the shadow of the genre’s "Big Three," Bamford’s contribution to the history of the pulps provided the realistic structure that made the "Golden Age" feel like a lived-in, dangerous reality rather than just a scientific playground.

Elite Dangerous System Col 285 Sector WL-L c8-40 - The Grand Tour - Coddington City, Dear Lab

Coddington City, and the Primary station, Dear Lab
The Grand Tour, PAGE 2

NOTE:  All 138 facilities built in this system are listed (and shown) in order of distance from the sun.  At least, according to the in-game architect’s view.  There's a total of slightly over 18 hours of video, so the video, and the descriptions, are broken into smaller portions across multiple posts. 
Some descriptions were written by myself, some with the help of AI.  I've personally edited all of them, so if you must blame someone, blame me.  :^)

00 Star 01 Coddington City
Security Installation T2           Dock: None

I didn't have a clue who Coddington was.  A bit of googling convinced me he was worthy...

Edwin Foster Coddington (1870–1950) is the most "sci-fi" Coddington you could imagine.
He was an American astronomer who spent his career discovering the very things we navigate in Elite: comets, asteroids, and galaxies.  (And of course, they're out there in real-life space too!)

He is the namesake of Coddington's Nebula (the galaxy IC 2574), which he discovered in 1898.
He co-discovered the comet C/1898 L1 (Coddington-Pauly) and three asteroids (including 445 Edna).
His work at Lick Observatory involved high-level astrometry and cataloging.

His work was part of the essential foundation of modern astronomy, and of course, Elite in the 1980's, and its modern counterpart, Elite Dangerous now.

01 Orbital 0P     Dear Lab – Primary Station
Scientific Outpost           Dock: Medium

This one was the Primary Outpost.  The one we don't have a choice about... wherever it is, is what you're stuck with.  For good or bad.
I was still pretty unsure of the ins and outs of colonizing at the time, especially the names.  It hadn’t yet occurred to me that there’s some flex in the naming process.  Dear Lab was the first name I rolled in this system.  Not what I wanted, originally. 
It felt like the introduction to a letter you’d write to a friend…
"Dear Lab, Hi!  How are things going?"

Now that I know I could change it? I don’t really want to.  The humor sits well.

To be honest, I've got another system that's partially built, and I probably won't be so concerned with names after this one.  It was exhausting, clicking over and over, trying to get a good name.  And buying a custom name is fun, but it adds up a lot after a while.  I'd keep thinking how much ACTUAL colonizing I could be doing, instead of clicking for a good name.  

Elite Dangerous System Col 285 Sector WL-L c8-40 - The Grand Tour - In The Beginning - Meeker's Sanctuary

In The Beginning - From Closest To The Sun, and Traveling Outward.

The Grand Tour, PAGE 1

NOTE:  All 138 facilities built in this system are listed (and shown) in order of distance from the sun.  At least, according to the in-game architect’s view.  There's a total of slightly over 18 hours of video, so the video, and the descriptions, are broken into smaller portions across multiple posts.  
Some descriptions were written by myself, some with the help of AI.  I've personally edited all of them, so if you must blame someone, blame me.  :^)

00 Star 00 Meekers Sanctuary
Ocellus Starport T3           Dock: Large Ships

This is the first facility in my system.
As I’ve mentioned elsewhere, this station is named in honor of my wife, Monique. Her niece and nephews were unable to say her name when they were young, and it came out “Aunt Meek.”
Eventually, it became “Meekers.”
Today, her great-nephew and great-niece still call her "Aunt Meek."

This is the "first" facility in the system by virtue of it being nearest the sun.
On the other hand, it's the "Final" facility, because it's the very last construction to be built.
This is because of the cost penalty for building Tier 2 and even more so, Tier 3 stations.  I realized early on, the more T2 (Coriolis) stations that were built first, the further out of reach the cost of T3's became.  

So construction on Meeker's Sanctuary began on 2026, January 24th, but wasn't completed until May 14th.  And on May 28th, the weekly update rolled over and... she got the Military Interior.  I worked hard to weight the military high enough to get the Military Interior, as it's the prettiest interior of all the stations, and this station is dedicated to my wife, so I wanted it to look good.
It was a huge relief.  I didn't understand everything about colonization in Elite, and was torn between "Did I do enough?" versus "Did I go too far?"
It was my fear that I'd check all my stations on that last day, and they'd ALL be military!  Thank goodness, "Meeker's" got the beautiful park with trees and statues... but all my other stations still had their individual interiors.

There's a balance there, with Meeker's Sanctuary being the first and the last.  As a nod to that, in the final video of this series I wrap up by flying back to Meeker's at the end.  Full circle.

00 Asteroid Belt 00 NONE  
(Only Allows Asteroid Stations)

There's not really a spot for this, since there's no station in the Asteroid Belt, so obviously no video of it.  I made an assumption early on, without realizing I was making an assumption.  I believed you could put anything in that slot that would go in any other orbital, with the added option that it could host an Asteroid Station. 
That was wrong.  As a result, I didn't plan for the necessary T2 points here. (At this stage, it would take 20 T2 points.)

I didn’t want an asteroid station at that location.  There’s already one mid-system that was deliberately planned for.  By the time I realized that slot can ONLY take an asteroid station, it was too late.

It’s annoying, but looking back, there’s nothing I would change about the rest of the system.  Everything else is as it should be, and this asteroid slot was always going to remain empty.  Would have been nice, though, if they had included a T1 option for the slot.  

Elite Dangerous System Col 285 Sector WL-L c8-40 - Naming 138 Facilities

The Name's the Thing – Or, How I Named 138 Stations, Settlements, Ports, and whatnot...
Introduction To The Grand Tour, PART IV

Probably boring to read about, but naming all the facilities was fun. A few have custom names, but the vast majority were random… eventually. Some facilities were incredibly stubborn and took many re-rolls to get a good name.  Others rolled good names right off the bat. I tried to spend less than an hour clicking the button for a good name, but some just didn’t cooperate.

• In most cases, priority goes to Science Fiction authors.
•  2nd Priority went to RNG rolled names that had a personal connection for me.  You’ll notice there are no less than 8 places named LUNA. That’s because she’s currently our only dog, and at our age, the last one we’re likely to have. We both spend a lot of time and attention on her.  If Luna's name came up, I always took it.
• Sometimes, a name just made me laugh, and that was good enough.
• Then there were the ones that refused to roll a good name. In some cases, I just gave up and took the first one that seemed sort-of-okay. Went back later and tried again, until they all had names I liked.
• A small number cost ARX for custom names.  Memorials to family who have passed on; tributes to still-living family (Mainly Monique, and Mom); or a fond tip of the hat to favorites, like Star Trek, Sherlock Holmes, and Terry Pratchett.
  
  

I used Google to help me identify names I didn’t recognize, and AI to write most of the descriptions below. Not only is AI theme-appropriate “Science Fiction” from the viewpoint of a child of the 1960’s, it’s also a time-saving godsend. I've edited all the AI descriptions, and the rest are purely my own fabrication. No need to blame AI for everything.
This project has already taken many months; I'm grateful for anything that saves time.

All these ‘biographies’ will probably bore most readers. I wanted somewhere to document what each choice meant to me, because this helps me retain my own memories better. So if you’re interested, I’m grateful. And if not… it’s okay. This is mainly an effort to keep memories that are meaningful to me.

The following pages include descriptions explaining the meaning behind each name.  Many I knew, some I had to research before choosing.  All 138 facilities are listed in order of distance from the sun.  At least, according to the in-game architect’s view.

Each facility includes it’s location by

Planet/orbital designation

Facility name

Type

Largest landing pad.

The following several posts (and videos) are broken apart to keep reasonable lengths per page.

Elite Dangerous System Col 285 Sector WL-L c8-40 - Building the Cobra Mark 5 Tourist Tripper

Cobra Mark V – Custom build for In-System Tourist Tripper, the Goddess Mnemosyne.
Introduction To The Grand Tour, PART III

When I finished colonizing Col 285 Sector WL-L c8-40, there were 138 total facilities that had been built over the course of 6 months and a week. I play… slowly. And colonize solo. It takes a long time.

For personal reasons expressed elsewhere, I now want to create a video library. One visit at a time, a reminder of all the fun colonization was.

Not all facilities can dock my Panther. Nor even the Corsair. There are a number of facilities with only small landing pads. No need to consider the ones without landing pads, but it’s common sense to select a small ship for the Grand Tour. Whatever size the landing pad, a small ship can always fit.

Having been a fan of the game since the C-64 and Amiga days in the mid-1980s, it had to be a Cobra.
The Mk3 would have been iconic. The Mk4 would have been exclusive. (It was only released to a specific group of players.) I liked the Mk4 back then; it was less maneuverable, but had more shielding and an additional weapon slot. Haven’t flown it in years.
But now there’s the Mk5. All I’m hearing is that it’s by far the best small all-rounder. Before the Kestrel, it might have been the best small ship period, but it sounds like the Kestrel has the best small combat role.

To date, this is the ultimate Cobra. It’s like they took all the best of the Mk3 and Mk4, then ramped it up with Caffeine and jet fuel.
There’s a lot of reasons to like it, and I hadn’t built one yet.

It had to be excellent at in-system hops, so SCO was a no-brainer.
It had to be a durable shield/hull tank, because I struggle at keeping my focus, and am error prone. Always build something that can survive my mistakes.
Needs speed and agility, because if I’m flying a tiny little ship, then escaping is important.
Something with enough firepower to fight back, because I don’t like running away.

The Cobra Mk5 checks all the boxes. It’s the spiritual successor to the ship that started it all. It’s a fast, agile, tough fighter when it needs to be. Even loaded to the gills, it gets 39 LY jump range. (And really, it doesn’t need jump range anyway, since it’s an in-system mudskipper.)
Just for those times when it does need to travel (like engineering)… it’s got a pocket-sized Class 2 Fuel Scoop. Glacially slow to fill the tank, but it beats running out of fuel somewhere.

It’s a beauty of a ship. Great aesthetics. Easy to fly. Lots of punch when you hit the gas.

(I’m no expert, but if you want to see the build, here’s the link: https://tinyurl.com/Cobra-MkV-Mnemosyne

It doesn’t have to be the best there ever was. Just has to meet my needs.

After building and engineering, wanted to fly it. And it’s been a couple of weeks since I’ve truly played, because writing all this and planning the trip kept my free time occupied. Time enough to get rusty.
Figured a quick jaunt to the Nav Beacon was called for. A chance to get some flight practice, and a light combat refresher. If it turned out to be too much, she was relatively cheap to build, a rebuy won’t kill me…
Did not expect the result. Got mostly light and mediums, but there was one Elite Anaconda that I expected to end me. Only it was like playing on easy mode. I’m over-spinning, losing my targets, getting confused and forgetting what buttons to push… and never took any damage. Never even took significant percent off the shield.
Maybe the Nav Beacons tend to give inexperienced opponents, but it was a fantastic ship to get back up to speed in. Extremely forgiving.

After these videos are done, I’ll test it in a HazRez and see if she still feels tough...

Next, a cool name. I considered several. Nothing clicked until Grok suggested Mnemosyne.

The Goddess Mnemosyne presided over Memory, and Remembrance. With my cognitive problems, that’s not only apropos, it’s kind of poignant. The whole purpose of this project is to give me tangible memories for when my actual memories fade. Naming her Mnemosyne feels like a good omen.

Even better, Grok suggested MUSE9 for the call sign. Mnemosyne was the mother of the NINE muses, the spirits of inspiration for humanity. The entire theme ties in beautifully to this project.

Great ship, great name, and the engineering is done.

Time for the next step.

Elite Dangerous Colonization - Grand Tour of Col 285 Sector WL-L c8-40 (PART II)

 When I check my system on Spansh and Inara, they have a lot of errors.  Weeks later, there are still “construction sites” showing.  Old ones that have not been “construction” for significant time.  I hope that will correct itself in the next few weeks now that I’m no longer building this system.
Even the architect view in Elite shows 3 active constructions, which is incorrect.  There are no active constructions, all builds are complete.

That’s why the list in the previous post included my personal spreadsheet.  To keep Raven Colonial accurate while building, I couldn’t work from live data.  Had to use saved data and update Raven manually.  Since I wasn't certain my data would be saved accurately, it's all on a manually maintained spreadsheet.

Elite is my favorite game of all time.  Ever since the 1980s with the Commodore C64, and later, the Amiga.  “Elite Dangerous” ramped it up, made it modern, and in spite of the occasional misstep, kept the spirit of the original.

“Dangerous” came out 2014/15 (I joined the Beta in 2015, but think the Alpha was started in 2014.)  The servers have been running for over a decade.  I’m grateful, and try to buy a few ARX now and then as a thank you.  I'm worried that Elite won't be around forever, at some point the servers will go down for the final time.
On the other hand, my struggle with cognitive and memory issues has its ups and downs.  For 4 years, I lacked the cognitive skills to play Elite.  In mid-2024 I started improving and decided to re-learn Elite.  Took months, but by early 2025 I was back in “The Black,” playing Elite again.

A year later, and it feels like I’m losing some progress.  My plan for this entire system has been to complete it, then make videos visiting every facility, one by one.  If things go well, by the end I’ll have a library of iconic videos, reminding me of the incredible ride Elite has been. 
Something so that when the servers are gone, or if I’m no longer able to play, I can pick a video, watch a cherished memory, and smile.  

Once the facilities are all visited and documented, there’s HazRes, Mining, Missions, Trading, Exploring… Maybe I’ll record the process of building and engineering a new ship.  Maybe even look into on-foot missions, or Exobiology.
Probably not those last two.  They don’t sound fun. (The new vessel, Nomad, will be released next week, which may change my opinion of exobiology.)

I also have to consider that learning and retaining knowledge isn’t as natural as it used to be. 
It’s a hell-of-an-effort involving notes, spreadsheets, journals.  Detailing how to do things so I can easily find that note the next day and remember how to do it again. I don’t mind learning new things, but have to be highly selective about which things are important enough to make and maintain the effort.

Anyway, that’s the plan.  It keeps me busy, and with luck, will provide memories for an uncertain future.