- Email: [email protected]
A virtual voyage begins
CULTURE
A virtual voyage begins What discoveries await an epic player mission to the Milky Way’s edge, asks Douglas Heaven
FRONTIER
ON 13 January, 10,000 people fired up Elite Dangerous, charged their ship’s faster-than-light drive and set off on an epic, eight‑month journey to the outer edges of the Milky Way. The 200,000 light-year round‑trip voyage to Beagle Point, one of the galaxy’s most distant star systems, will take the giant fleet across vast regions of uncharted space, including the Galactic Aphelion and the Abyss. “It’s a challenge in endurance and navigation,” says mission leader Erimus Kamzel. Don’t worry, you haven’t slept through 1300 years. Set in the early 3300s, Elite Dangerous (by Frontier Developments) is a video game that drops players into the cockpit of a spaceship and lets them loose in a 1:1 simulation of the Milky Way, based on our latest understanding of star and planet formation. The players can organise themselves into ambitious, informal missions: the latest is called Distant Worlds 2 because it retraces the steps of a learn about the astronomical mission three years ago, which objects they find in much more had only a few hundred players detail, including the mass, spectral and was largely a sightseeing tour. class and luminosity of stars. There are 400 billion solar This means that much of the systems, each with its own time during the journey will be planets, moons and asteroids, spent doing science. Although the and with such mind-boggling simulation is extremely accurate, stretches of nothing between any “discoveries” will be limited them that it would take some “Anything could be there, 40,000 years to see them all. civilisations, unimaginable Since the game’s 2014 release, alien life, stellar bodies roughly 160 million systems breaking scientific laws” have been visited by at least one player. But that barely scratches the surface. “There is an to revealing “genuine” things unfathomable amount out there,” about the simulated galaxy. according to a mission organiser Everything there has been called Qohen Leth (all names in conjured from first principles: this piece are player names). stars and planets begin as clouds An upgrade now lets players of matter that slowly aggregate 44 | NewScientist | 26 January 2019
Elite Dangerous lets players loose in a 1:1 simulation of the Milky Way
into different solid forms according to their chemical composition, angular momentum and gravitational pull. Satsuma, the organiser of the mission’s scientific side, is interested in the metallicity of stars: the ratio of the heavier to lighter elements they contain. In the real Milky Way, astronomers spotted a correlation between a star’s metallicity and the number of gas giants orbiting it. Using statistical analyses carried out during the voyage, Satsuma hopes to learn how the simulated galaxy compares to the real one. A lot of what the mission
discovers will make its way back to players not on the trip. “We will make ourselves available to answer questions,” says Satsuma. “I know many people who became interested in astronomy after playing this game.” But strange stars and black holes are not all the mission is preparing for. The game is already known to contain two alien races: the Thargoids and the Guardians. Given the amount of unexplored space, there are likely to be others. “Anything could be out there,” says Dr Kaii, who co-leads the expedition, “new civilisations, unimaginable alien life, stellar bodies breaking the laws of science as we know them.” But will the thrill of discovery be enough? One big challenge is to keep people online for several hours a week during those long stretches of empty space. Players will be able to distract themselves by chatting or listening to an ingame radio station broadcasting music and interviews. There is some safety in numbers, too, with players relying on the fleet not only for refuelling and repairs, but also for motivation. “The most dangerous thing to run out of is sanity and that’s why we’re going out there as a community,” says Olivia Vespera, who is responsible for supplies. “But the truth is, none of us knows what we will face,” says Valen Zendaris, another organiser. It could be hostile regions of space, alien archaeological sites harbouring dangerous tech, or a giant living organism. “How will we act? How will it react? We will never know until we go there.” ■ Douglas Heaven is a consultant for New Scientist
A virtual voyage begins What discoveries await an epic player mission to the Milky Way’s edge, asks Douglas Heaven
FRONTIER
ON 13 January, 10,000 people fired up Elite Dangerous, charged their ship’s faster-than-light drive and set off on an epic, eight‑month journey to the outer edges of the Milky Way. The 200,000 light-year round‑trip voyage to Beagle Point, one of the galaxy’s most distant star systems, will take the giant fleet across vast regions of uncharted space, including the Galactic Aphelion and the Abyss. “It’s a challenge in endurance and navigation,” says mission leader Erimus Kamzel. Don’t worry, you haven’t slept through 1300 years. Set in the early 3300s, Elite Dangerous (by Frontier Developments) is a video game that drops players into the cockpit of a spaceship and lets them loose in a 1:1 simulation of the Milky Way, based on our latest understanding of star and planet formation. The players can organise themselves into ambitious, informal missions: the latest is called Distant Worlds 2 because it retraces the steps of a learn about the astronomical mission three years ago, which objects they find in much more had only a few hundred players detail, including the mass, spectral and was largely a sightseeing tour. class and luminosity of stars. There are 400 billion solar This means that much of the systems, each with its own time during the journey will be planets, moons and asteroids, spent doing science. Although the and with such mind-boggling simulation is extremely accurate, stretches of nothing between any “discoveries” will be limited them that it would take some “Anything could be there, 40,000 years to see them all. civilisations, unimaginable Since the game’s 2014 release, alien life, stellar bodies roughly 160 million systems breaking scientific laws” have been visited by at least one player. But that barely scratches the surface. “There is an to revealing “genuine” things unfathomable amount out there,” about the simulated galaxy. according to a mission organiser Everything there has been called Qohen Leth (all names in conjured from first principles: this piece are player names). stars and planets begin as clouds An upgrade now lets players of matter that slowly aggregate 44 | NewScientist | 26 January 2019
Elite Dangerous lets players loose in a 1:1 simulation of the Milky Way
into different solid forms according to their chemical composition, angular momentum and gravitational pull. Satsuma, the organiser of the mission’s scientific side, is interested in the metallicity of stars: the ratio of the heavier to lighter elements they contain. In the real Milky Way, astronomers spotted a correlation between a star’s metallicity and the number of gas giants orbiting it. Using statistical analyses carried out during the voyage, Satsuma hopes to learn how the simulated galaxy compares to the real one. A lot of what the mission
discovers will make its way back to players not on the trip. “We will make ourselves available to answer questions,” says Satsuma. “I know many people who became interested in astronomy after playing this game.” But strange stars and black holes are not all the mission is preparing for. The game is already known to contain two alien races: the Thargoids and the Guardians. Given the amount of unexplored space, there are likely to be others. “Anything could be out there,” says Dr Kaii, who co-leads the expedition, “new civilisations, unimaginable alien life, stellar bodies breaking the laws of science as we know them.” But will the thrill of discovery be enough? One big challenge is to keep people online for several hours a week during those long stretches of empty space. Players will be able to distract themselves by chatting or listening to an ingame radio station broadcasting music and interviews. There is some safety in numbers, too, with players relying on the fleet not only for refuelling and repairs, but also for motivation. “The most dangerous thing to run out of is sanity and that’s why we’re going out there as a community,” says Olivia Vespera, who is responsible for supplies. “But the truth is, none of us knows what we will face,” says Valen Zendaris, another organiser. It could be hostile regions of space, alien archaeological sites harbouring dangerous tech, or a giant living organism. “How will we act? How will it react? We will never know until we go there.” ■ Douglas Heaven is a consultant for New Scientist