Confusion at the Science system. What do I do?!

[Spaceweezle]

Hmm, I always wondered what that ball looking thing was for. I think i'll try my first unmanned ship. Thanks for the pictures Ron.

[SRV Ron]

Hmm, I always wondered what that ball looking thing was for. I think i'll try my first unmanned ship. Thanks for the pictures Ron.

It is a probe controller called Stayputnik. Keep in mind that it has a weak battery, has little SAS effect, and constantly uses power. Matched with the battery pack, solar panels of your choice, and SAS unit you see in the lander and you will have a good combination that will easily control all but the largest ships. Using it first for missions will save many a Kerbal's lives. In addition, you can always make a Stayputnik mission a one way affair.

[robsr3v3ng3]

Flybys with Kerbins is always good too. AI controlled craft don't get crew reports or EVA reports. So you could otherwise do a trip around somewhere like Eve or Duna and take data at high and low orbit, and then do the same for their moons which will give a lot of data. If possible land on one of the moons (which is no harder than landing on Minmus once you are orbiting the planet). Then try to return to Kerbin. Once you're in space it's fairly easy to get around (especially with a small craft or a nuclear engine) so you don't need much fuel.

[sibrit]

Mun certainly has different areas. I think at last count I had 8 flags on Mun for different craters, like Farside East Crater, West Crater, Twin Craters, etc.

All these different areas get you more science and you can accumulate a lot over time by sending a Kerman to each crater to do an EVA, collect a soil sample, crew report, materials bay, goo container, et. al., using the basic components that you get early on.

But returning them to Kerbin is difficult until you get some sort of docking component, so I think it might be best to do flybys of Eve, Minimus, Duna, and the others to get one before going to Mun, to maximise your science by returning the samples to Kerbin.

[TartarusMkII]

Hey guys thanks a ton for your advice! Especially SRV Ron for taking those pictures!

I am curious still though, is there any purpose to doing fly-bys with probes, or do you HAVE to land on things with the probes for them to do anything useful? It should not confuse me because only some planets have biomes right now, but still.

Also, is there any purpose to taking more than one science module? Or do they counter act eachother in the end?

[Vanamonde]

Fly-bys will gain science points for either "space high above world X" or "space near world X," which can be worth quite a bit. Multiple instruments works just like multiple transmissions; each one earns a diminishing-returns portion of the total points possible in that region/biome.

[TartarusMkII]

Aye but what about for probes? Unmanned?

[Seret]

Probes can't get points for crew reports, surface samples or EVAs, but otherwise do science just as well as manned ships. So if you stick a few science parts on a probe and do a fly-by you'll get the points for those experiments at that location.

[TartarusMkII]

Right, of course probes can't get samples and reports like Kerbonaughts can, but I wonder what some optimal set ups are for flybys? I find that the goo containers only give so little, and the material bay is so big!

[robsr3v3ng3]

Basically it won't matter. If you are spamming the transmitter then you just run an experiment, transmit and repeat until you get all the points. I usually take 1 of all science parts apart from the goo container which I have 2 of because they can be awkward to balance. And then 2 basic transmitters and loads of batteries and panels. That way you can run all experiments and transmit and then start transmitting on the other antenna.

In reality there isn't really an "optimal" setup aside from having one of each, you just have to spend a bit more time running experiments and then sending the data, but you save weight by only having one of each.