Survey

Image by NASA/ESA

Survey missions are used to find Jump Points and Minerals. They are conducted by Survey vessels equipped with specialized components capable of exploring system Gravitational anomalies and system bodies Geological makeup.

Gravitational Survey

Before you can explore new systems, or find new routes between existing ones, you first need to find the Jump Points connecting them. Surveying a system requires a vessels equipped with Gravitational Survey Sensors.

You can see the surveyed and unsurveyed Survey Locations in a system by selecting "Show JP Survey Locations" from the Display tab in the System Map window. You will be notified when a system has been completely surveyed.

Geological Survey

Before you can start mining other bodies (planets, asteroids or comets), you have to complete a geological survey first. Surveying a body requires a vessel equipped with Geological Survey Sensors. Not all bodies contain minerals. You can see which bodies have been surveyed by selecting "Show Surveyed Bodies" from the Minerals tab in the system map window. Here you can also see how much mineral reserves have been found, and their accessibility (i.e. possible mining rate).

You will be notified when a system has been completely surveyed. Note that this is only a search from orbit.

You can then send in a Geological Survey team of leaders with survey skills to look for mineral deposits the ships may have missed. The skill of the team affects the length of time required for the survey. It will not affect the results. The results may be an increase in the amount of minerals and/or their availability. The team's chance of success is somewhat less the original orbital scan. It's NOT clear whether a body with NO Minerals may yield any on the second ground based look.

Default Survey Orders

On the second tab of the Task Group window you'll find "Default Orders". Select "Survey Next Location" for grav survey, or "Survey Next Planet" (or moon, or asteroid, depending on what you want) for geo survey. These orders will be carried out whenever there's nothing else in the orders list. You will be noticed when the ships have surveyed all locations which fit their orders.

If you use "Survey Next 5 Bodies", instead of "Survey Next Body", they will survey multiple bodies per time increment. The five survey orders are created at once, just as if you had done them manually.

If you use "Survey Next 3 Locations", the gravitational survey ships will queue three locations instead of one resulting in slightly less micromanagement.