On 6 March 2018 the first member of a new class of Conway's Life spaceships was discovered. This is Sir Robin, the first elementary spaceship that travels in an oblique direction. Its displacement is two cells horizontally and one cell vertically (or vice versa) every six generations, which is the fastest possible knightship speed. The name is a reference to Monty Python's "Brave Sir Robin", who bravely runs away as fast as possible.
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#C (2,1)c/6 knightship found by Adam P. Goucher,
#C based on a front end originally found by Josh Ball,
#C rediscovered and extended by Tomas Rokicki,
#C using a SAT solver-based search
x = 79, y = 31, rule = B3/S23
8bo$6bo2bo$4b2obo3bo$4bo2bo3bo$3o2bobo$o4bobobo$3bo2bo3bo$bobo6bo$2b2o
6bo2$4b2ob2o4bob4o11bo$4b2ob2ob2ob3o2b2obob2o4bobo$4b2o4bo3bobobo6b2o$
4b3o5bo4bobo6bob2o2b2o$6bo7bo5bo5bob3obo$6b2o2bobob4ob2o3bo3b2o2b2o$
11b2obobo10bo3b3o22bo$17bo2bo6bob3obo24bo$13b3o5bo3bo2bo3b2o9bo8b3o3bo
$18b4o3bo5bo2bo4bob2obo5b3o5bo$21bo3bo5bo3b2o2b2o3b2o3b2ob2obobo$23bob
o5bo4b2obo5bob2obo2bo2b2o6bobo$24b2o11bo2bo4b2obobob2o2b2o5b2o2bo2b2o$
32b2obobo3b2o2b2o3bob2o2b2o5b2o2bo2b3o$32b2obobo4bobo3bo2b3o2bob2obo3b
2obob4o3bo$37b2o4bo13bo4bo2b3o5b3obo$38bobo4bo11bobo2bo3bob2o4bo3bo$
41bobo2bo14b2o6bo3bo$39b2o2b2o15b2o3b3o4b2o$43b3o18bo3bob3o$65b2obo3bo!
#C [[ GRID THEME 7 TRACKLOOP 6 -1/3 -1/6 THUMBSIZE 2 HEIGHT 480 ZOOM 7 GPS 12 AUTOSTART ]]The new knightship was found by Adam P. Goucher based on initial results by Tom Rokicki, after about a month of automated searching. The program that completed the knightship was ikpx, a "multithreaded hybrid of LLS and gfind".
A detailed summary of the discovery process is now available.
