Cannot track "drop probes" in tracking station?

[SpryFox]

Hi folks! First post, huzzah! I am a brand new ksp addict, and I've run into a problem I couldn't phrase well enough to locate elsewhere.

Linked is an image of the drop-probe to which I'm referring. Pardon the darkness. It's a stayput, chute, batt, comm, and thermometer. I'm trying to use it to complete a surface temp contract. (Can this even be done?)

http://i.imgur.com/HtvNIo4.jpg

When I stage them off the jet, the chute deploys and they appear as though they'll land safely.

I see a magenta label for the freshly-detached probe. I can double-click this label to target it.

My first attempt, somehow (though it defies the no-switch-in-atmo rule) I could use the brackets to switch to them. (During the next attempt, I could not.)

I landed safe at home and felt quite satisfied, thinking I'd been quite clever.

Much to my dismay, I could not see or select these probes in the tracking station to harvest their surface data. It's like they never existed.

On my second attempt, with the probe targeted, I looked for the function I swear I've seen before, called "track in station" or whatever.

I couldn't locate or access this - is there some kind of shortcut for this action?

This time I waited for them to touch down, then RTB, check tracking center... Nothing!

It even called them probes upon deployment, not debris, if that matters.

Can anyone tell me what I'm missing here? Thanks for sharing your time!

Edited November 6, 2015 by SpryFox

[Brainlord Mesomorph]

Welcome!

and

You've discovered the limits of the physics simulation bubble. Things that get too far from your ship, that aren't in stable orbits or landed, just disappear!

The game assumes they burned up , or blew up, but they are gone. The limit used to be 5 km, I think now its 20.

I went nuts noticing rocket stages disappearing.

EDIT assuming you circle and WATCH them spashdown (land) they should remain permanent

Edited November 5, 2015 by Brainlord Mesomorph

[magico13]

The limit used to be 5 km, I think now its 20.

EDIT assuming you circle and WATCH them spashdown (land) they should remain permanent

Small correction: the limit used to be ~2.5km and now it's 22.5km while in atmosphere (and 2.5km in space).

As per your edit, if you fly your jet slowly and close to the ground you should be able to let the probe touch down before exiting physics range. I used to do that back when it was only 2.5km (it involved an annoying amount of circling) so it should be much easier now with the range 10x higher.

Btw, you can switch vessels in atmosphere when they are very close to each other. You can conceivably switch to the probe right as you release it, watch it go all the way down and land, and then switch back to the plane. There's a chance your plane will have crashed by then though, so make use of SAS and trim to keep it flying straight. If the plane goes more than 22.5km away though, it will despawn (and kill any crew on board)

[Snark]

Welcome to the forums!

As the previous posters said, you've bumped up against a basic limitation of the game. Put succinctly, it goes like this:

The game will silently delete (destroy) any craft that meets all of the following criteria simultaneously:

• Is in atmosphere greater than 1% of Kerbin sea-level pressure (i.e. below ~23km altitude on Kerbin; would be a different height on other planets with atmospheres)
  
• Isn't landed
  
• Isn't currently being controlled by you
  
• Isn't within ~23 km of the ship you're currently controlling
  

This means that "drop probes" like you're trying to do won't work, unless you're careful to keep within 23km of them until they're landed. Or you could switch to the probe after release, but then your plane would disappear (unless it doesn't get more than 23 km away).

The limitation only applies below 23km altitude on Kerbin, so for example if you were "flinging" a probe out of the atmosphere (i.e. you're going fast and rising when you release it), so that it's above 23 km altitude before it gets 23 km away from the ship you're controlling, then it would be fine (until it falls back down again-- you'd want to switch to it before it falls below 23 km altitude).

The other situation that players often run up against because of this is when they want to recover spent stages-- i.e. instead of throwing them away, they attach parachutes to them so that they can recover them for cash later, and then are chagrined to discover that it doesn't work (for precisely this reason). There's a mod for that, Stage Recovery, which gives you cash credit for the disappearing stages, but that wouldn't help with your problem because you need the probes to stick around.

[SpryFox]

Thank you all so much for the thorough answers! Seems like this forum could've used a SE/SO format instead of vBulletin - you all deserve an upvote!

I had learned about this 22.5km rule, as well as the in-atmosphere rule, but somehow I failed to comprehend that they applied to probes as well as debris. I thought I had some authority over them being culled by virtue of targeting or switching-to them. Now I know better, and will know what to try next time around - thanks to you nice folks! Sure thought they had come to rest during my second attempt, but it does take ages and it's tough to tell. Maybe I can set the chutes to deploy closer to the ground, come in nice and low... Shh, don't tell me!

[Snark]

Thank you all so much for the thorough answers! Seems like this forum could've used a SE/SO format instead of vBulletin - you all deserve an upvote!

Thanks! (...and that's what the little "add reputation" button is for...)

I had learned about this 22.5km rule, as well as the in-atmosphere rule, but somehow I failed to comprehend that they applied to probes as well as debris.

The thing is that so called "debris" isn't any different from "ships" as far as KSP is concerned, in most ways that matter. It's just another "ship type" like "lander" or "rover" or "ship" with its own distinct icon.

The only thing that distinguishes "debris" from anything else in KSP:

• Display of debris in the tracking station and map view is turned off by default, whereas other stuff is turned on by default. But you can turn the display on/off for any of the types, including debris.
  
• The game sets a max limit of how many debris items there can be (250 by default, you can adjust it). If you have more than that, the game will start silently deleting them.
  
• "Debris" is the default "ship type" of anything that doesn't have a command pod or probe core, just like "lander" is the default type of something with a lander can on it, and so forth.
  

The fact that debris is actually the same as other stuff can come in handy-- for example, when you launch a satellite to fill some contract, and afterwards you don't care about it and don't want it cluttering things up, one option is to just choose the "Rename Ship" option and change its ship type to "debris". (You could also just destroy it in the tracking station, but I can never bring myself to do that. Hey, what if I need it later!)

[SpryFox]

I don't see a rep upvote option - yet; newbie probation? - but I always appreciate such systems. (edit: Hey, it unlocked!)

Good to know this as well, much obliged. The more I discover about KSP's internals, the less magical it becomes. Cuts both ways, but so far it's still fun fun fun.

Having worked with Unity, I know firsthand that we should all be amazed that it works as well as it does. KER / PreciseNode addressed my most egregious complaints - the rest I'll just have to learn to love!

Edited November 6, 2015 by SpryFox