Kerbalism makes the rest of the game look simple.

[Zeiss Ikon]

I just completed a new install of 1.7.3 RSS/RO/RP-1, and I'm using Test Lite instead of the Test Flight I've used in previous installs for engine reliability, Real Antenna instead of Remote Tech for comms, and Kerbalism for my life support mod (instead of TAC LS in previous installs), including reliability of everything else but engines (turned off the engine failures in Kerbalism since Test Lite handles that) and science collection.

Test Lite seems easy enough -- it works just about like Test Flight but without having to R&D engines before launch (instead, enable "extra telemetry" during a launch to collect more flight data faster).  Real Antenna is a bit different from Remote Tech, but doesn't look unfathomable -- antenna design and transmit power, along with distance and atmosphere if any, determine how fast you can send and receive data.

What's got me is Kerbalism.  I haven't even gotten into crewed flight yet, and won't for a while (quite possibly never in this first save) -- where I'm having problems is in gathering Science.

I found the buttons to start various instruments running during my first real sounding rocket launch (Copper A -- a solid booster and liquid fueled sustainer, capable of about 130 km without a contract payload), opened the UI and flagged each data file for transmission as they became available -- and when the telemetry unit for the rocket (broken up after the fins burned off during reentry) crashed and I returned to the space center, I found that despite scanning temp and pressure Flying High over Shores and both High and Low over Forest (didn't start it on the pad, my mistake), analyzing telemetry continuously from launch, and running supersonic analysis all the time the vehicle was in that regime -- I had only 0.2 Science after the mission ended.

I did see something afterward that suggest that, for instance, Supersonic Analysis would take 30 minutes to complete with the built-in antenna in a WAC Corporal Telemetry Unit, and based on reading the online information, it appears there are similar (if shorter or longer) time requirements for other experiments.  For a rocket with an average total flight time around ten minutes.

Which raises the question -- how does anyone get past the sounding rocket era with Kerbalism?!  And why doesn't the Github documentation include hints on this subject (or why is that information hard to find)?

[Zeiss Ikon]

Well, for whatever it's worth, I found the buttons for activating the science instruments (in the VAB, even, though I presume that would be a mistake if you're running on batteries and need to take data for a contract after several days in flight -- like, say, a Lunar flyby).  If they have buttons in the VAB, they can be bound to Action Groups, so I can manage my science collection.

And even better, partial data nets partial science.  After bankrupting my first save in the new install (bought one too many KCT upgrade points), I started a new one, and was able to see in the Kerbalism status window as the data added up in whatever biome my sounding rocket flew over.  A minute, two minutes, and I'd get 0.1 of the available science.  After a couple flights into the Upper Atmosphere, I was able to unlock the entire first (1 point) tier and start one or two nodes in the next.

I'm not sure I agree with the Kerbalism model entirely -- reading out a thermometer or barometer is pretty much instantaneous, and the data you get ought to be pretty small -- a couple bytes, plus a short header, should be able to encode temperatures from liquid nitrogen up to boiling water (likely easiest to just send as Kelvins, in binary or BCD, and at this tech level 0.1 degree resolution is plenty).  Same is true of the pressure readout -- zero to a couple hundred kPa, in tenths of a Pa (one Pa is close to a hundredth of a millibar, if you're more used to weather than physics) would be three or four bytes.  My telemetry unit is supposed to be able to send 32 bps, or ~3 B/s (including start, stop and even or odd parity), and redundancy can stand in for error correction, just keep sending over and over.  If you have four instruments, you queue their data in a preset order and sort it out on the ground (with 1950 tech, this would be effectively WWII radio teletype with frequency shift keying, or equivalent of modern 80m ham RTTY).  I don't see it taking more than about ten seconds to get a good temp, pressure, and a recording of the signal that will let you analyze atmospheric (or exo-atmospheric) effects on the signal -- yet multiple flights that spent a minute or so in a particular biome didn't get fully completed temperature and pressure scans.

[nepphhh]

You can start collecting science in the flight scene as well?

Wrt your temp/baro taking a while... are you sure you're not running the stock Kerbalism configs instead of the ROKerbalism configs you should be using?

Edited February 29, 2020 by nepphhh

[Zeiss Ikon]

@nepphhh I have the Kerbalism RO config -- I followed the RO/RP-1 installation instruction page very carefully, after wasting a week of evening spare time and getting it wrong once.

I'm now getting data, it just takes a long time to complete each experiment -- but as long as data from multiple flights is added together (it is) and I get the partial Science to spend before completing the entire data set (I do, for instance, 0.1x completed for Supersonic Flight Analysis was good for 2.5 Science points), so i can start R&D working, it works well enough.  At this point, around January 1952, with half a dozen launches under my belt, I've got most of the temperature and pressure scans completed for the biomes around Canaveral, and for Space Low; telemetry similar, about 2/3 done with Superonic Flight Analysis, and after three flights on "Space Biological Science" contracts, about 2/3 of the bio sample data -- and I haven't even built an A-4/RD-100 class vehicle yet.