Goobest

Yah, it's either 6/4 or 8/2. Tank distance is the determining factor, yes?

Seems efficient and well thought out! Must be broken.

For the OP and others to read: http://www.einstein-online.info/elementary/specialRT

Would aligning them like in your first picture, and then retracting the gears on the tube work? Or using gears on the rover to "lift" into the docking port, and then retracting them to move work?

Would you first remove the Transmission Loss to make this work? I like the time delay concept on research for a variety of reasons. However, the reason you spam transmissions now is to overcome that transmission multiplier. =\

I agree. Science is much more than a currency for the challenge aspect of Career Mode; It offers a vast amount of gameplay and potential immersion to Sandbox. Allow science modules to function in Sandbox and simply set currency costs to 0. Players can then limit which Nodes they'll unlock -- creating a potential array of different challenges they can control.