Scanning arm operations and science recovered

[seaces]

Hi All,

So little of context first for my question.

I have Breaking Ground DLC and I have unlocked small scanning arm. I got contract to go on Minmus and scan the Olivine formation with the small scanning arm. No problems, I build rover and man it with two kerbals and send it to mission. After few minutes of roving around I find the Olivine formation and scan it.

Now while I was scanning it I notice in the science window a message written in orange letters saying that I should come later again with better instrumentation to recover more science as small scanning arm gives you only 33% of total science. Before I left the place I left there a flag, the rover and surface mystery goo observation.

Once I unlocked medium scanning arm I send a mission to Minmus and land a lander next to old rover and previously found Olivine formation. Using KIS/KAS I install medium scanning arm and scan the same rock again. Surprisingly this time around I got 0 science from it and this confuses me as initial scan with the small arm I was told to come back later with better instrumentation.

Am I doing something wrong or I need to start roving again and find new Olivne formation and I cannot rescan the old one?

Edited December 12, 2020 by seaces

[jimmymcgoochie]

I don't think I've ever scanned exactly the same thing (ROC? Anomaly? Scatter? 'thing' will have to do ) with two different scanning arms before. They're not too difficult to find though, especially olivine formations which are fairly conspicuous. If you're struggling to find them there are a couple of helpful options in the cheats menu that can point them out from a distance, or you could use the SCANsat mod's BTDT scanner which can find them at close range.

Try scanning another one, if that also returns 0 science then there's something wrong but if it works then I'd guess that you can only scan each thing with one scanner arm, though you can definitely scan the same thing with the same scanner arm more than once.

[vv3k70r]

1 hour ago, seaces said:

Once I unlocked medium scanning arm I send a mission to Minmus and land a lander next to old rover and previously found Olivine formation. Using KIS/KAS I install medium scanning arm and scan the same rock again. Surprisingly this time around I got 0 science from it and this confuses me as initial scan with the small arm I was told to come back later with better instrumentation.

Choose another rock. Small give 33%, medium 66%, big 100%. There are also intresting formations - You can climb on them.