Sagan's Progress - Good Vista - Due Sanctuary - Very Sanctuary - Diabate Industry - Pauline Thrift Broz Satilla Estates
The Grand Tour, PAGE 5
Elite Dangerous 005 Sagans Progress - Good Vista - Due Sanctuary - Very Sanctuary - Diabate Industry - Pauline Thrift Broz Satilla Estates
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. :^)
03 Surface 00
Sagan’s Progress
Refinery Hub
DOCK: NONE
Carl Sagan
(1934–1996) was a world-renowned American astronomer, planetary
scientist, and cosmologist who became the ultimate public ambassador
for space exploration. While best known for his ground-breaking
scientific research and the legendary PBS television series Cosmos,
he was also an award-winning science fiction author.
His work bridged the gap between complex astrophysics and deep human
philosophy.
Sagan authored the legendary 1985 hard science
fiction novel Contact, which was later adapted into the critically
acclaimed 1997 Hollywood film. The story explores in meticulous detail the
realistic geopolitical, scientific, and religious fallout on Earth
after a radio telescope detects an encoded alien signal emanating
from the Vega system.
All credit to Sagan, he was brilliant, and I respect him greatly; but Contact was a little "too" accurate for me. I liked the way he presented humanity's response, but the ending felt like a cop-out. It was like he took us on a fantastic road trip, but we all fell asleep at the end and missed something.
It was a non-ending. To say he left it for each person to decide is cheap. I would rather he expressed his personal opinion, and then I could agree or argue with it, and it would make me think more deeply about what I believe, and why. Maybe even (gasp) look stuff up, and learn something. By the end of the movie... I just couldn't bring myself to care. It wasn't just uninspiring, it was anti-inspiring.
This just kind of dragged me somewhere boring, and never bothered to draw a conclusion.
I know, you probably hate me now. Carl Sagan is a god among astronomers, and rightly so. No disrespect meant, but that movie has bothered me for decades, and it was time to get it off my chest.
Back to real life... Sagan was directly involved in humanity’s
earliest ventures into the void. He briefed Apollo astronauts before
their moon flights and co-designed the historic Voyager Golden
Records—the phonograph records containing sounds and images of
Earth attached to both Voyager spacecraft, designed as a message to
any extraterrestrial civilizations that might intercept them in
interstellar space. As a scientist, he solved major mysteries about
our solar system. He correctly hypothesized that Venus was not a
tropical paradise but a scorching desert, and he accurately deduced
that Saturn's moon Titan possessed oceans of liquid hydrocarbons.
Carl Sagan in real life was a giant, and left footprints that will forever mark his place in history.
03 Surface 01
Good Vista
Refinery Hub
DOCK: NONE
Not based on anybody or anything in particular… This is one of those that just sounded interesting or silly enough to catch my attention.
In this case, the random generator wasn't coming up with anything good, the evening was getting late, and this made me snicker.
I
thought of a couple of explorers standing on a mountain and gazing
toward the horizon.
One says “Look at that Vista! Great, isn’t
it?!”
The other replies “I don’t know about ‘Great.’ ...Good, maybe.”
And thus, it became “Good Vista.”
It
sounded better in my head… but it still makes me chuckle.
And honestly, it helped that this was a support facility, has no landing pad of any size, and aside from this video, will probably never be visited again. There was no motivation to keep clicking.
03 Surface 02
Due Sanctuary
Refinery Hub
DOCK: NONE
Again… this planet just seemed to strike a common vein. All the stations pulled pointless or silly names.
Due
Sanctuary? Is it like a temple? A place of worship?
Are all visitors welcome and
protected? Are there fees for joining? Are visitors guaranteed
safety?
Does it owe them peace and solace?
Are they… “Due Sanctuary?”
03 Surface 03
Very Sanctuary
Refinery Hub
DOCK: NONE
And in a similar
vein…
Very Sanctuary is somehow “more sanctuary than thou.”
It’s VERY sanctuary.
Sorry. With Good, Due, and Very all in a row, it's no wonder I accepted a 'stretch' on the next one.
03 Surface 04
Diabate Industrial
Industrial Settlement Large
DOCK:
Large
I promised a stretch on this one.
Dr. Diabaté is a
key character in the critically acclaimed, contemporary science
fiction television series Pluribus. In the series, Diabaté is a
brilliant but morally ambiguous survivalist dealing with an
apocalyptic, alien hive-mind takeover of Earth. Because the alien
hive-mind complies with human commands without understanding
individual agency, Diabaté uses his unique status to manipulate the
hive to live a life of absolute, unchecked luxury while the rest of
civilization crumbles around him.
The stretch? I love sci-fi, and have never heard of this series. Since I don't know anything about it, the description is straight from an AI. Except I deleted a LOT of unnecessary superlatives. AI's seem to have studied at the L. Ron Hubbard school of overwriting.
03 Surface 05
Pauline Thrift Broz – Satilla Estates (was
Clayton)
Large
Planetary Port (T3)
DOCK: Large
This is the important base on this planet. It's a T3, and took a LOT of planetary landings to build. And it's the primary commodity market for CMM Composites in this system. It's matched up to the Dodecahedron station in orbit around the same planet.
It ties in to
“Satilla River Tuplar.” While the Tuplar was a generational
landmark tree on the shores of the Satilla (and the land nearby has been in
the family for generations as well), this Large Planetary Port
represents my Mom’s land, family, and home.
From her father, she
inherited a few acres. Some of it on the Satilla River, but
extending directly away so that the bulk of the property is not on the river. One of 7 children, Mom seems to have fallen
into the roll of Family Matriarch after her Mom (Nanny, to the grands and great-grands) passed away. More than anybody else, she seems
to be the glue that keeps our extended families together.
As time passes and new generations are born away from the river, that glue is dissolving. I think my son's generation will be the last to know the closeness that comes from this kind of family life, and none of us have the experience of Mom's generation, of growing up together with in a huge family, on a farm where everybody had to work closely to survive.
I
think of this area with its rich family history, and the Satilla that
flows past it, as her “Satilla Estates.”
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