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Fresh Science - Recover or Process in the Lab?


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So I'm going to be picking up some fresh, sweet science when I arrive at Duna in my career. My transfer ship has a science lab. With the new science lab, if you process an experiment you don't "get it back" to be recovered like before. My question is, should I keep this science and recover it or process it in the lab on my way home?

Edited by A_name
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I haven't used the MPL in 1.1.x so can't judge how the mechanics work these days.  But I would say that at Duna, processing is probably the better option.  Processing in the lab always gives you more science than the experiment is worth alone, but it takes a lot of time.  Therefore, I've never found the MPL useful at Mun or Minmus because the time needed to acquire the science is (or at least was) very much less than the time to process it.  However, at Duna, you have to wait for the transfer window home, then make the long trip, so  you might have the time needed to do something useful with the MPL.  And if you've dragged it all the way out there, you might as well use it.

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9 minutes ago, Geschosskopf said:

I haven't used the MPL in 1.1.x so can't judge how the mechanics work these days.  But I would say that at Duna, processing is probably the better option.  Processing in the lab always gives you more science than the experiment is worth alone, but it takes a lot of time.  Therefore, I've never found the MPL useful at Mun or Minmus because the time needed to acquire the science is (or at least was) very much less than the time to process it.  However, at Duna, you have to wait for the transfer window home, then make the long trip, so  you might have the time needed to do something useful with the MPL.  And if you've dragged it all the way out there, you might as well use it.

The idea of taking the lab originally was to get some free science from spent experiments in and around Kerbin and in solar orbit on my way there. For spent experiments, there's really no question about it. But what 'm not sure of is whether you can actually get more science out of the, erm, science, when it's a fress experiment, by processing it vs. recovering it.

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If you and an MPL are already at Duna, you are standing right there ready to take more copies of the same experiment. Take one, and feed it into the jaws of the MPL. Then take two or three more and stick them in your crew compartments to take home. The MPL only needs one.

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9 hours ago, A_name said:

But what 'm not sure of is whether you can actually get more science out of the, erm, science, when it's a fress experiment, by processing it vs. recovering it.

Yes you can, that's the whole point.  The MPL is a science farm.  You increase the science point value of the data in exchange for elapsed gametime.  This is why I've always found the MPL to be useful only at other planets.  Within Kerbin's SOI, travel times to and from Mun and Minmus are much lower than the MPL's processing time, so you can get more science in the same amount of elapsed gametime by doing more missions.  But if you're on an interplanetary trip, you have the time for the MPL to do its thing so you come home with more science than what you found lying on the ground.  As @bewing says, you can get another copy of anything you toss in the MPL.

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