Science, I forgot to take it with me.

[teatime]

I have finished my first Kerbal on the Mun mission. My Kerbals are back home safe and I left the lander in orbit around the moon. I had plans to refuel the lander and use it again later. I did however leave some science on board the lander. If I transmit the data I loose about 70% of the science points. I did dock to the orbiting science lab to process the data, but was unable to add in this one last report as I have reached the data limit for the lab.

I would like to have all of those science points. Is there a way to do that without bringing the lander back down to Kerbal? Can I transfer the report to another command module? Is there a flow chart that explains how to handle reports? I like flow charts.

If I have to bring the lander back, I am guessing that I could add parachutes by using the docking port and try a powered reentry. The lander has no heat shield, or decouplers.

Edited June 23, 2015 by teatime
answered

[Prepper-Jack]

Yes, you can pull it out with a Kerbal on EVA. Just right click the capsule and click 'take data' or whatever it is. From there you can either deposit that data manually into another pod, or it will be deposited automatically when the Kerbal enters the pod.

[ajburges]

Yes, you can pull it out with a Kerbal on EVA. Just right click the capsule and click 'take data' or whatever it is. From there you can either deposit that data manually into another pod, or it will be deposited automatically when the Kerbal enters the pod.

Exactly.

In my space program, conservative is a dirty word. First mission to a body is a fly by if explore has not yet been triggered. 2nd mission involves an orbital rendezvous lander and enough fuel for every one to make landfall. It is tedious to find reports to transmit if I put them in the main cabin first. Ooh yes, there will be science!

[teatime]

Thanks for the help.

[Snark]

The manual transfer of science is useful in other ways, too, even when "I want to come home in a different craft" isn't an issue:

First and foremost, you can re-use science instruments. Let's say you land on the Mun in one biome, grab science, then hop to another biome or two before heading home. You want to pull science out of every biome. One option would be to have multiple copies of each science experiment, of course, but that gets expensive (those instruments are pricey) and also can be bulky/awkward for the large ones (I'm looking at you, Materials Bay). By sending out the Kerbal on EVA to pull data out of the instruments and then deposit them in the command pod, the instruments become ready for use again.

Also: I've gotten in the habit of moving all the data from the instruments into the command pod even when I don't have to (e.g. even if I'm heading home and taking the instruments with me). Rationale: Command pods tend to be pretty tough (high temperature and impact tolerance). Suppose something goes wrong during reentry or landing and the instruments go up in smoke? Doing this keeps the data where it's safest: nestled right alongside the crew.