Science - Jool, Kerbol, Asteroids

[bluegasou]

What kinds of science are/are not possible on Jool, Kerbol and asteroids? Surface, flying above, upper atmosphere, in space low/high?

[n0xiety]

Here you go pal this should answer all your questions about science. Great way to check everything ingame. http://forum.kerbalspaceprogram.com/threads/119562-1-0-2-x-Science!-KSP-Science-report-and-checklist?p=1907551#post1907551

[Geschosskopf]

Kerbol: High and low orbit only. You can't land on it---you explode at some low altitude.

Jool: High and low orbit mostly. You can get "flying" if you're on a suborbital trajectory about to crash there. It is SOMETIMES possible to get surface data there as well, but that depends on the mood the Kraken is in that day. Usually everything goes badly haywire down there as soon as you make contact. In any case, these latter 2 are pretty much only for 1-way trips via probes.

Asteroids: In stock, AFAIK all you can get is a surface sample. Asteroids ain't planets and don't have biomes, so even when you're right next to them you're still in high (or perhaps low) orbit of either Kerbin or Kerbol. However the mod DMagic Orbital Science has several instruments specifically designed to get science from asteroids.

[bluegasou]

Thanks! That mod looks awesome and I'm going to go try it now.

[Snark]

Actually, you don't have to be suborbital on Jool to get "flyiing"-- you can get even when you're on an elliptical orbit, as long as your periapsis dips deep enough into the atmosphere. I've gotten "while flying at Jool" results on my initial aerobrake run into Jool, for example, and then happily coasted up to apoapsis and profit.

(Though to get "while flying at Jool" during aerobrake, I have to wait until I've slowed down below escape velocity. As long as I'm still on an escape trajectory, it will still say "in space near Jool," regardless of whether I'm physically in atmosphere or not.)