Thargoid Sensor

Disclaimer: The information contained in this article is the combined work of several Commanders in good faith and by no means represents the full pool of knowledge around these fascinating items. You are advised not to take any of this information as fact, because it is after all, a wiki. It should also be noted that if you find anything that you know to be inaccurate or a misrepresentation, or you have extra knowledge to add, then you should do so because, after all, its a wiki. However, this is not the place for conjecture or personal opinions, please use the forum for that.

What does it do?

As far as current tests and analysis show, it appears that the UA does a sort of sonar scan of the closest celestial object or station and then sends out (chittering) sounds which are a highly distorted morse code which represents that body.

UA Features

The Unknown Artefacts (UA) have been reported to look like a form of sentient life, far beyond what we humans are capable of creating. It is still unknown what the UA is meant for, some people are speculating that this is the work of Thargoids, and there have been lots of other theories. To date, none of these theories have been proven, it is 'exceedingly rare' and only a few pilots have been able to see one themselves, making it extremely challenging to carry out tests and theories.

However, the following aspects have been tested and are known:

File:Elite Dangerous UA Features

• From a distance away it makes a loud whale like sound with some muttering and can be spotted by some sparkling and some purple/green gas-like colours.
• It seems to be made of three parts, the head (it looks like a giant egg with an place at the top where it seems like it can open up but some parts glow when the whale noise happens), the stork or spine (it seems to have four parts to it and lights up too to the whale noise), the pods or capsules (there are twelve of these).
• When close to it you can clearly see it giving off a distortion field of some kind which has sparks appearing and disappearing in it with a gas in the entire area, either green or purple. However in the debug camera you can get close enough to the point where the field isn't in the way and you can get a clear view of the UA.
• You can hear the sounds it gives off best when closest. You can hear a whale noise, followed by chittering and purring. The chittering has been found to be a garbled morse code, tapping out the name of the closest celestial body or station. The purpose, if there is one, of the other noises are yet to be determined.
• While inside your ship's cargo hold the UA acts like Toxic Waste by doing corrosion damage to ALL your ship modules.
• They are illegal salvage, so if you have it in your ship and a NPC System Authority scans you, you get a fine of 55,000cr. If stolen, your fine jumps to at least 161,000cr.
• They can be sold for up to 250k cr, though 180-220k cr is an average figure.
• The UA 'Spores' or 'glitter' don't appear to do any damage
• Occasionally they 'explode' sending a cloud of particulates out around them. Extremely slowed down video reveals a strange graphical glitch when this happens (or a tear in the space time continuum)
• Having a refinery fitted with a UA in the hold does nothing
• No new missions or contacts appear with one in the hold
• They are quite delicate and behave similarly to normal canisters in some ways
  • They degrade over time in space (while ejected) and have a life of about 5 minutes max outside the ship, but reset to 100% health when back inside the cargo hold.
  • Like toxic waste, they degrade ship's modules over time randomly while in the hold

Finding them

These Unknown Artefacts can be found in Strong Signal Sources. Timocani and 109 Virginis are the only two systems confirmed to spawn them, but Michael Brookes has stated that they are 'exceedingly rare' and that they are only available in certain regions of the galaxy, which would suggest that they are in other systems too. Since v1.3 very few UA discoveries have been reported. 

CMDR Wishblend, one of the original UA finders, gives this advice:

File:Ua-chat-text.png

Example of the kind of chat you will see when you have jumped into a UA Strong Signal Source

Template:Quote There are at least two known Strong Signal Source instances that contain UA's.

The first kind is made up of numerous ships and includes a Vulture, two Anacondas, the Type-9 and other ships. If you get this one, bear in mind that the Type-9 will probably charge its FSD and jump out of the system on its own. You can either choose to follow it (using a wake scanner) or attack it.

File:Ua-convoyA.jpg

This is the first kind of AU carrying convoy. The Type-9 will eventually jump out of the system

The second is made up of four anacondas and the Type-9. This convoy will stop in space and the Anacondas will do a dance around the Type-9. It may be the case that the Type-9 is not a part of the Anaconda wing. It has been reported as the one where the Unknown Artefact will eat its way out of the Type-9's cargo hold without you firing a shot, but this has yet to be corroborated by other commanders.

Systems where they have been found or spotted

• Timocani (confirmed)
• 109 Virginis (confirmed)
• Chamunda (unconfirmed)
• Geawenki (unconfirmed)
• Delphin (unconfirmed)
• Siren (unconfirmed)

File:Ua-convoyB.jpg

This is the second version of the UA carrying convey. This one will hang around and conveniently drop the UA off for you to pick up

The mystery of the Unknown Artefact

There is apparently some kind of mystery to be solved around these items, and certain people close to Frontier Developments have said that there are clues in the game, but nobody has spotted them yet. They even went as far to say that they are so obvious that to give any more clues would make it too easy. Despite this, no one has solved the mystery to date. During the period after the first find, some commanders created GalNet content related to the UA which was published, and these are included below but marked with [player submitted].

Timeline of possible clues

10 February: Soontill Alien Artefacts are mentioned in GalNet. Subsequently confirmed by FD that these Artefacts are not Unknown Artefacts.

10 March: v1.2 is released. Includes "- Adding valuable salvage convoys to three permitted systems: LFT 509, Isinor, Witch's Reach"

13 March: The UA appeared for the first time as cargo on board the ship in the official 1.2 Wings trailer

28 April: Arcannon innocently asks a simple question and starts the longest thread in Elite Dangerous Forums' history (now closed) which reached almost 10k posts and has had to be redirected to a new thread

28 April: Michael Brookes comes into the forum thread and says "Have you listened to them? Garbled morse code has since been discovered to be in the 'Chittering' part of the sound. A /List of recordings/ (video and audio) has been compiled.

29 April: MB confirms later in the same thread that Soontill Relics are not the same thing as UA's, and that UAs cannot be bought

30 April: Strange parasite that attaches to a nervous system is reported in GalNet, but seems to have been subsequently removed

30 April: YouTube video posted by a user who had recently posted another UA hoax, so nobody believed it. See 'The boy who cried wolf'.

02 May: MB says that they are "exceedingly rare [sic] and can only be found within a certain region of space - that does include multiple systems though." and then later clarifies that they can only be found in "certain regions in the galaxy"

02 May: Senator Kahina Tijani Loren’s Imperial Courier undergoes significant refit

02 May: Minos discovers an entry in the Elite Dangerous Pilots Guide:

"3276 - A strange object of unknown origin is discovered in the vicinity of Liazeda (-12,3). Named the LRA (Liazeda RadioAnomoly), the Alliance research ship, the Lion, is sent toinvestigate. The LRA and the ship disappears and its fate is still unknown in 3296. Only a handful of crew, who were deploying probes from two Explorer-class vessels return."

04 May: Wishblend finds the first UA in 109 Virginis, but unfortunately doesn't get it. Henceforth officially celebrated as UA Day across the galaxy, and the official title of UA Seeker was born. That afternoon, a further number were spotted but RedWizzard finally managed to actually grab one in Timocani. Due to a bug a couple more were accidentally duplicated (bug reported). They were spawning a lot that day, for sure.

04 May: [Player Submitted] GalNet reports baffled 'scientists' (players involved in the search and recovery UAs) having found an Unknown Artefact.

06 May: President Halsey's tour of the frontier announced

07 May: [Player Submitted] 'Dr' Arcanonn challenges Halsey about UAs

13 May: President Halsey sets off from Sol

15 May: 78 Ursae Majoris prepares for Halsey's visit

17 May: Kahina Tijani has a custom built 'Gutamaya Discovery Scanner' fitted to her ship

17 May: [Player Submitted] 'Dr' Arcanonn accuses Federation a cover-up about the UAs

18 May: Subsequent report on Soontill Relics in GalNet

20 May: [Player Submitted] Tonnes of Biowaste dropped at 78 Ursae Majoris in protest against Federal cover-up of the UA, Dr Arcanonn denies links with the action

23 May: [Player Submitted] A weird message is broadcast from someone somewhere trying to say something negative about the 'scientists' efforts

26 May: Halsey's Starship One goes missing, official initial report, Felicia Winters steps up as interim president

27 May: Secondary report on what happened to SSOne

28/29 May: Conspiracy theories abound

02 June: Hudson becomes president

05 June: Strange cannisters called Sap 8 Core Container appears in the game with launch of v1.3. No evidence that these are linked to UAs so far

22 June: Mahddogg publishes his panel discussion about Powerplay, in which CMDR Kerrash mentions that "about the whole UA thing, there is something behind that, but no one has figured it out yet" (29m 30s) and that "[Frontier] have put some really obvious [clues] in there and we don't want to put anything else in" for fear of spoiling what is come in the future.

27 June: CMDR Kerrash talks about various things, including Thargoid conjecture ("They are coming"), and that the UA and confirms there is something to it, and that 'if any people watching have got in with the UA thing and got halfway in and not looked into it anymore, please pleeease carry on looking, there is something there, there is an interesting secret there, please look, and the SAP 8 containers as well, there is something going on, dont give up!' (from ~11 minutes in)

05 July: CMDR Kerrash comes into the new thread, asks "Has anybody cracked it yet?", when gently prodded follows up with "Frontier did not spend all this effort in making a wild goose chase, I would imagine quite the fanfare when the truth is uncovered. BTW Are we even sure it is morse code?" and "Yes there is more to it, I will see if I can get FD to drop another hint"

06 July: CMDR Branch finds another UA

10 July: [player submitted] UA Scientists claim a breakthrough that the UA broadcasts its closest celestial body (or station) in a form of morse code.

14 July: CMDR Patau82 spots another convy in Timocani, but unfortunately fails to grab it. They are still spawning.

Theories proposed

• The Sound (When MB said "Have you listened to them", this was taken as a most significant clue')
  • The UAs do indeed make an unusual sound. It appears to be made up of three main elements: The Honk (sounds like a whale noise), The Chitter (recently discovered to be a garbled morse code of the closest celestial body or station) and The Purr (When sped up x3 sounds like a trombone).
  • The UAs do sound very similar to the in-ship basic discovery scanner, along with some other strange noises that could be similar to galactic noises heard in the galactic map or in space.
  • The sound changed noticeably from v1.2 to v1.3. Similar but different. Tests ongoing.
• Advanced Scanner device
  • The sounds the UA makes are very similar to those made by the basic discovery scanner, and it has been recently proven that the UA produces a 'stylised Morse code' of the name of the closest celestial body during the 'chittering' section of the sound. The purpose of the whale noise and the purrs are yet to be determined.
  • The sounds the UA makes have also been compared to the sounds planetary bodies make in the system map
• The Colour Pulse Theory
  • The UA pulses purple and green, apparently randomly. There is a new theory that the green pulses increase in number the closer it is to its origin (or destination).
• The Mayan Numbers Theory
  • The markings on the UA look similar to the ancient Mayan number system (base 20) and it has been discussed at length in the forums. No real breakthrough as yet.
• Price Triangulation Theory
  • This theory proposes that, with regular rare goods, the selling price for the UA should reduce the closer it gets to its origin.

• The Formidine Rift
  • In Drew Wagar's book "Elite: Reclamation" one of the characters mentions a hard-to-reach place in the galaxy called the Formidine Rift, where there is something 'worse than the Thargoids'. In true sci-fi thriller/horror tradition, dozens of players immediately went in search of what that might be. Drew was quite active in the forum thread and a connection was suggested that this might have something to do with the UA mystery, but any connection still remains unproven.
• Thargoids
  • Many people think that the UA is of Thargoid origin. The only evidence for this is that it looks quite alien.
  • There is a theory that it is some form of Thargoid revenge for the Mycoid Virus, sent to kill all the humans. Suggestions were made of links to the He Bo virus outbreak.
  • There was a suggestion that it was a Thargoid Escape Pod.
  • There was an idea that it looks like an egg/seeding pod, the beginning of a invasion.
• A tiny space station
  • A recent poster suggested that it might be a miniature space station and the little flecks of light are its tiny ships. Further speculation included ejecting gold nearby to tempt the Leprechauns out of hiding, suggesting an Irish origin. These theories have yet to be disproven.
• Sell it at Leonard Nimoy Station
  • The first sighting of the UA in the 1.2 Wings Trailer had the carriers heading to Leonard Nimoy Station to sell it. Unfortunately, the UA spawn is so rare that understandably none of the custodians want to sell theirs.
• Let Them Die!
  • A theory was proposed that there are only a limited number of UA's available and that the next step will only be accessible if we let them all expire naturally. There is no evidence for this, indeed the UA has been left to expire without consequence previously and given that we have no way of knowing how many are in existence at any one time in the game, it was broadly refuted. In addition, similarly to the 'Sell It' theory, consensus between the UA custodians was that there is still much research work to do before we risk their sacrifice in the name of a hunch.

Theories Disproved

• A Special System Permit
  • There are systems in game which require an 'unknown permit'. So far, no access has been granted to anyone carrying a UA in their hold to one of these systems.
• Advanced Frameshift Drive
  • There is lore involving a Thargoid Hyperspace Drive and some suspect that it might be one of these. There hasn't been any evidence that it can be fitted to a ship in the normal way.
• A Compass
  • The theory that the UA points either where it came from or where it wants to go has been disproven. When ejected they point in no particular direction
• Halsey's Tour
  • The theory is that President Halsey's ship was carrying an Unknown Artefact, which caused the complex multiple-system failure.
  • Her tour locations were listed twice on GalNet (with additional destinations the second time).
  • Following the stops in order (up to/including the Azaleach detour) with the UA on-board was tested and nothing extraordinary happened, including checking stations along the way.

Tests done

• Audio recordings have (mostly) been done in 'debug camera' mode, so as to eliminate ship sounds and with systems disabled (including life support)
• Tests are usually performed with two pilots present.
• Tests are done in normal space.
• Tests with the UA next to other items are tested both in normal space and in cargo holds.
• Location tests are done both in the cargo hold and in normal space if possible.
• In the case of Polaris, having a UA in your hold will not allow you to make the jump in-system.
• They have been allowed to 'expire' in space
• They have been ejected inside a station
• They have been ejected into an outpost (accidentally)
• They have been ejected during supercruise (accidentally)
• They do not degrade the ship while docked
• UA and ship have been at overheating temperatures and freezing temperatures.
• Tried to see if they can be put in a module slot in Outfitting. They can't.
• Replaced a nav beacon with a UA, nothing happened.
• Tried flashing ship lights along with the UA's light. Nothing happened.
• Tried communicating with the UA over local chat comms. Nothing happened.
• Test with the UA next to hafnium, painite and SAP 8 core container
• Tests with the UA next to 12 SAP 8 core container
• Tried to go into witchspace through the orginal Elite way (pitch and roll at maximum)
• Tests with the UA being in the darkness of a planet
• Checked for bulletin board missions relating to it at many stations and outposts including Leonard Nimoy several times over
• Ship carrying the UA has been interdicted several times
• UA has been taken to many systems and has found to produce morse code of the nearest celestial object (or station - the first decoding of the Morse was SEEGA PORT)
• Two UA's in one ship has done nothing except made the corrosion damage done to the cargo hatch double, it was attempted to get 3 into the ship but could not get the two ships into the right instance to hand over a UA
• UA has been dropped by it'self and with a SAP 8 container at the same area

Pinged with various devices

• Normal Ship Sensors = Nothing
• Ship Lights = Nothing
• Frameshift wake scanner = Nothing
• Cargo scanner = Nothing
• Kill warrant scanner = Nothing
• Discovery Scanner = Nothing
• Detailed Surface Scanner = Nothing
• Shooting = Nothing
• ECM = Nothing

Ejected and observed / listened to next to other items and places

• Hafnium = Nothing
• AI relic = Nothing
• Soontill Relic = Nothing
• Ancient Artefact = Nothing
• Painite = Nothing
• NAV beacon (250 meters) = Nothing
• In-place of a destroyed NAV beacon = Nothing
• Leonard Nimoy station = Nothing
• Earth = Nothing
• Black Hole = Nothing
• Sol = Nothing
• HE BO = Nothing
• Peregrina = Nothing
• Polaris = Nothing
• Toxic waste = Nothing
• Sap 8 Core Containers = Nothing
• Alien Artefacts = Nothing
• Close to Ammonia Planets = Nothing
• Dropped near various stars = Nothing
• Another Unknown Artefact = Nothing
• Azaleach = Nothing
• Quiness (planet Quy mentioned in F:FE) = Nothing
• Ross 154 (planet Merlin mentioned in F:FE) = Nothing
• BD-02 4304 (in GalNet & mentioned by Kerrash) = Nothing
• Soontill (system, not the relic) = Nothing, chitter present w/ no nav beacon
• Guinna = Nothing
• Canopus = Nothing
• Exphiay = Nothing
• HIP 53688 = Nothing
• Furuhjelm I-695 (gas giant w/ ammonia-life) = Nothing

Places where they have not been taken or tests not done - feel free to try!

• Sagitarius A (The Galactic Centre)
  • As the UA degrades modules quite rapidly, it would a challenging task to take it anywhere of great distance, even with a wing and plenty of Auto Field Maintenance Units.
• Polaris
  • For the same reason as above, with the additional challenge that its a permit protected system. (Note that a UA has been taken to the nearest system to Polaris in 1.2 without any observable differences).
• Raxxla
  • Because nobody knows where it is. Except the Thargoids.
• LFT 509
  • how to get the permit is unknown
• Isinor
  • permit is currently not obtainable as a different minor faction has taken control of the system
• Witch's Reach
  • how to get the permit is unknown
• Sold at Leonard Nimoy Station
  • As per the destination of the Wings Trailer, the UA was being taken there to 'see how much this thing is worth'. Understandably, due to the unbelievably rare nature of the UA, nobody wants to sell it.
• Voyager
  • The Voyager probes appear to have gone missing.

Who has a UA?

Currently it appears that two people have a UA, CMDR Ratking15 & CMDR Branch. The UA has been found as early as the 1.2.06 patch and as recently as the 1.3.06 patch.

Ratking15 have streamed several times the UA on his twitch stream before attempting to upload them to Youtube, you can find his highlights of the streams (which are all of the stream mostly) on his channel with sound which is at:http://www.twitch.tv/ratking15 (it should be noted though that he does stream other games)

Branch does not have a (working) Twitch stream, but recordings & posts videos on YouTube (https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCQMpRt0w9mfUbS0oyLOy87w).

Who had a UA?

Various commanders had originally acquired UA-s during the first "rush", but those have been lost to various accidents since. Of them, commanders Digitalscream, Glyn-ie, Marx, Murp have posted recordings of the UA's audio: see the list of their files here.

Like Ratking15, Wishblend also has streamed several times with UA tests as well as casual gameplay though more often than Ratking15 who would rather not risk losing his UA when it might still be required.

However tragically during a trip to a testing zone Wishblend accidentally lost her UA......however her streams of the UA are still up and might be helpful for those who are looking for experience. Also Wishblend's streams are usually just in-game sounds as she prefers this, you can find her previous streams and highlights here: http://www.twitch.tv/wishblend/profile