Labs and transmission rates

[Superluminal Gremlin]

hey all

 

with regards to labs, when you transmit science from them, do they have 100% transmission rates, or do they have losses.

Also, the nature science lab from SSPXr, does it have a 5x multiplier, or is it different. and if i want to change it, where is the line of code in the .cfg

 

thank you heaps

 

[mikegarrison]

You get the full amount of science points that you transmit from a lab.

Typical lab scenario if traveling to a new place:

1. travel to some place and run science experiment (e.g. take a thermometer reading)
2. put the data into the lab
3. run science experiment again
4. put the data into a science storage container.

Now you can do research in the lab, which uses up the data you stored in step 2 and turns it into science points. You can either bring those points back to Kerbin or you can radio them there (full credit).

You can also, separately, radio (partial credit) or bring back (full credit) the data you stored in step 4.

[Superluminal Gremlin]

oh so you can bring back science twice?!? i never knew.

thanks alot

[Linkageless]

Some science data, like a crew report, gets full credit for radio transmission back to kerbin.  It's still only a 5th of the value you get out of processing it in the lab, but as @mikegarrison said, you can do both.

Be aware that although you won't lose science on transmission, time to process is also a factor here and processing stops when it nears the lab limit of 500 science (tweakable in .cfg somewhere).  What's more, the processing rate decreases unless you keep it topped up close to 750 data (again tweakable in .cfg).

[jimmymcgoochie]

Lab modules are cheating- you can put every experiment in each lab module and it will produce all the science each time; put the same experiment data into a different lab, even on the same vessel, and it’ll process it again for double the rewards. By the time you get a functioning orbital lab running, odds are you’ll be doing a lot of timewarping for long-term missions so the wait times will be minimal and the science gains will be huge, though by that point you’ll probably have the entire (stock) tech tree completed. Labs have the added bonus of being able to restore experiments like materials bays that would otherwise need a Kerbal scientist to make them usable again.

You can also store multiple copies of any science experiment on the same vessel either by having a Kerbal collect the data and store it in e.g. a crew pod, or by adding experiment storage boxes which can store the data even without crew. Take several copies of every experiment, put some in a lab (or labs) and return the rest to Kerbin to maximise the science points gained, since most experiments need several runs to get the full data and will only give partial rewards for transmitting the data (materials bays are a good example). Transmitting data means reduced science gains, but it’s a lot easier than doing a sample return mission.