From Dominic's log at Geological Survey 23B:
"But then came more lights, strange lights that rippled like snakes, and… and that blackness again, opening up in the sky. They tried to get away on foot, running out to where I was hiding, and I thought they’d see me, but then they were all flying up, little toy soldiers thrown in the air, pulled up into the lights…"
Whether or not the thing in the sky is a Thargoid mothership (and I think it is), Dr Murphy's encounter definitely introduces some kind of anti-gravity technology to the world of Elite–a world that I don't think has had any kind of artificial gravity in its nearly four decades of existence. While I'm sure certain story elements introduced in the Coalsack Nebula will resurface in the future–for example, the Black Flight-esque conspiracy that Azimuth Biochemicals was attached to as well as perhaps the hazardous nature of direct contact with Thargoid entities–the most exciting thing to me for the long-term in Elite is this little seed that may justify the future introduction of anti-gravity. Whenever Frontier happens to develop ship interiors, Galnet will be able to go "Coalsack scientists reverse-engineered Thargoid mothership technology to allow artificial gravity on all ships." We'd be able to walk on new, non-rotating spaceports and the like.
So yeah, obviously nothing substantial on that, and no reason to hear about anything like it soon–just what I think could be a clever little seed that could make future mechanics justified in-universe. Given the extensive history of Elite as both a timeline and a franchise that is stubbornly zero-G, the nature of Dr Murphy's encounter seemed rather significant in this respect.
