Elite: Dangerous players aim to chart out the whole galaxy

Over a thousand players in Elite: Dangerous are already unified by a single mission. It's not warfare; it's not economic dominance; it's exploration. The Great Expedition has brought together a huge number of players to start plotting the whole of the game's 400 billion stars, or at least as much as possible. That means coordinating logistics, figuring out routes, sending out pathfinders, and heading off into the great unknown.

While the eponymous expedition hasn't started quite yet, players are already dipping their toes into the process and figuring out how to handle the sort of extended effort required to chart the game's full galaxy. The group counts among its numbers an ex-NASA scientist and several astrophysicists. While it's taking a little time to get up to speed, there's reason to be excited about what the group might find in the future... and what waits out in the depths of virtual space.