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Welcome to: Cosmic rage!

By Nathan Tech!

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Space Dust Analyzation

Backstory:

You will need:

1. A shuttle or a ship with a space dust module installed.


1. An analyzing container.





What to do:



1. Find a dust cloud in a sector by typing dust scan.

Dust clouds are usually found between 0 0 0 and 100 100 100. If there are none in your current sector, use the plan command to move to a different one.
Your sensor management sets how wide the sweep reaches. A poor operator will fly straight past clouds a good one would have listed.

1. Move to the cloud's exact coordinates. The laser has no reach, so you have to move to the cloud.


1. Take a sample by typing dust sample.

The console breaks the sample down by element. What the cloud is made of is what it came off. See the composition list below.
Your data analysis sets how much you are told. A good read gives you a firm figure for each element, a poor one gives you a wide band to work inside. A bad enough read loses the sample on the way in, but the cloud is untouched and you can take another. A very good read matches the signature in the reference library and names the origin outright.
The console holds one sample at a time and will not read the same cloud twice. Moving the ship off the coordinates leaves the sample standing.

1. Sweep the sample by typing dust rad.

This names the decay chain in the sample and gives you the three isotopes in it. See the decay chains below.
The same skill applies. A bad enough sweep is inconclusive and resolves no chain, and you may sweep again. A very good one reports the age band outright. The sweep is rolled once per sample, so repeating it shows the same result.

1. File your conclusions by typing dust file.

You are asked for the origin, then the age, both from a menu.
Both right: two papers print.
One right: one paper prints.
Both wrong: nothing prints. The laser has already burned the cloud, so that trip is spent.

• Note: a third paper prints if both readings also came back clean, meaning a firm figure on every line with no approximations and no bands. A clean sample, a clean sweep and a correct filing on the same cloud is a reference-grade record and the research centers pay for it.


1. Collect the printed papers into your container and take them for research.

If you are carrying a container, the papers print straight into it.




Composition:


Six readings cover almost everything the laser will find.
hydrogen, helium and iron traces: stellar flare.
tritanium, polymer fibre and oxygen: hull breach.
scorched carbon, plasma residue and tritanium: battle debris.
silicate, nickel and iron: asteroid collision.
exotic particles and ionised gas: jump residue.
water ice, ammonia and carbon dust: cometary tail.

• Note: a hull breach and battle debris carry the same ship metal. A breach carries the air that was inside with it. Debris carries burn products and no oxygen worth reporting.





Decay chains:


Age is reported in five bands: recent, decades old, centuries old, millennia old, and ancient.
No chain covers all five, so the chain the sweep names has already narrowed the answer.
Tritium-Helium: recent to decades old.
Radon-Polonium-Lead: recent to centuries old.
Argon-Chlorine-Sulphur: decades old to millennia old.
Uranium-Thorium-Radium: centuries old to ancient.
Iridium-Osmium-Rhenium: millennia old to ancient.
The three isotopes are listed parent first, then the middle product, then the end of the chain.
A high parent reading means the young end of that chain's range.
A high final product means the old end.
The middle product peaks in the centre of the range and falls away at both ends.

• Note: work the chain before the numbers. A heavy parent reading in Tritium-Helium is recent. The same heavy parent reading in Uranium-Thorium-Radium is centuries old, because that is as young as that chain reaches.





Example:


The sample reads tritanium, polymer fibre and oxygen. Ship metal and the air that was inside it, nothing burned. Hull breach.
The sweep names Argon-Chlorine-Sulphur, which reads decades old to millennia old. Argon comes back low and sulphur high, so the chain has nearly run out and the cloud sits at the old end of it. Millennia old.
A second sample reads scorched carbon, plasma residue and tritanium. Same metal, burned, no oxygen. Battle debris.
The sweep names Radon-Polonium-Lead, which reads recent to centuries old. Radon and lead come back close to level with polonium high between them. Neither end is winning and the middle product is at its peak, so this is the centre of the range. Decades old.

• Note: the second case is the one people misread. A chain sitting in its own middle looks like an unclear reading until you notice the middle product is meant to be high there.





Watch out!


The console will let you file with no radiation sweep on record and will grade your age estimate as given.
There is no way to unfile and no second reading of a burned cloud.
The clouds drift and the whole field re-scatters on its own, so a cloud you scanned and did not reach may not be there when you arrive.
The research center only counts what is in your container.




List of Commands:


dust: list the console commands.
dust scan: scan for nearby dust clouds. The normal scanners can not be used as dust clouds are so small.
dust sample: at the coordinates of a dust cloud, take a sample and read its composition.
dust rad: sweep the loaded sample for its decay chain.
dust file: log your origin and age and print the papers.
research: when in a research center, this will research your containers.




Requirements:


Rank: novice pilot [5th class, ****]
Licenses: none.
Skills: data analysis, sensor management.
Note: neither skill is needed to start. Neither one will name the origin or the age for you except on a very good roll.


Why not explore the moo!

Explore the moo:
• Activities
• Help files
• Recent announcements
• View Recent Changes
• View our policies.
• our hosts
• Leaderboards.
• Our Roleplayers.
• About the races of the game
• Go to the MOOs home
• Find out about PVP on Cosmic Rage
• The Cosmic Rage Podcast.
• Our skills system
• The Ranking System
• Frequently Asked Questions
• Leave us a review!

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