Limitations of the External Command Seat

[lugge]

Hi folks,

I'm working on my small science hopper for Gilly, and maybe other low-grav-moons.
I've never used the command seat, however, this seems like a good time to give it a try :-)
From what I've read, this part has a few surprises, and I don't like surprises (not when in Eve orbit, millions of km from home...).

You cannot crew an external seat in the VAB. Thats no problem because my crew goes in a comfortable transfer stage.
But, when I board a pilot in a seat, does my hopper get SAS capability or do I need an additional SAS probe core?

Now, because it's a science hopper, some questions regarding science...
You cannot do crew reports from the seat. That is bad because I lose some science. However, there's lot of science out there so these points do not really hurt.
But, you cannot store science data in a seat. Thus, I can only take one EVA-report.
Am I getting it right? Or is there a way to store experiments so I can do another EVA-report on a different biome?
That would be bad :/

Any other surprises that come with the seat?

Regards,
lugge

[Plusck]

2 hours ago, lugge said:

Hi folks,

I'm working on my small science hopper for Gilly, and maybe other low-grav-moons.
I've never used the command seat, however, this seems like a good time to give it a try :-)
From what I've read, this part has a few surprises, and I don't like surprises (not when in Eve orbit, millions of km from home...).

You cannot crew an external seat in the VAB. Thats no problem because my crew goes in a comfortable transfer stage.
But, when I board a pilot in a seat, does my hopper get SAS capability or do I need an additional SAS probe core?

Now, because it's a science hopper, some questions regarding science...
You cannot do crew reports from the seat. That is bad because I lose some science. However, there's lot of science out there so these points do not really hurt.
But, you cannot store science data in a seat. Thus, I can only take one EVA-report.
Am I getting it right? Or is there a way to store experiments so I can do another EVA-report on a different biome?
That would be bad :/

Any other surprises that come with the seat?

Regards,
lugge

I often do this, and it works well.

The main problems are, indeed, that you can't do crew reports and can't store experiments. This limits you to one single EVA report and one single surface sample, per trip. This is really not a problem for Gilly since there are not many biomes, and gravity is so low it is very cheap to make multiple trips to and from your orbiting ship. You can do multiple trips with your jetpack alone if you wish.

The other "surprise" that comes with the seat is that when you leave the seat, the game tries to put you "on top" of it. This is fine when landed on the surface, but back in orbit and docked to your mothership, this can be a problem. So I'd recommend quicksaving before leaving the seat in orbit.

For SAS, if it's a pilot you're fine (but be very careful about getting the command chair straight on your lander, facing the direction of travel - TEST IT on Kerbin before you go). Personally, I always add a probe core, and always "control from" the core.

[SteveD80]

You need a reaction wheel on it and in all likelihood want sas. I do this on my utility skiffs by putting on the .625 wheel with the control gizmo on top. You can replace the control gizmo with an actual pilot, or you can replace both with a probe core.

Also make sure to turn off your jet pack before boarding. That will greatly reduce the chances of getting thrown on exit.

edit: "control gizmo"=http://wiki.kerbalspaceprogram.com/wiki/CH-J3_Fly-By-Wire_Avionics_Hub

 

 

Edited May 17, 2016 by SteveD80

[bewing]

I rather like the external command seat, but you kinda need to try it out a bit before you just send one off to Gilly, I'd say. Put one on a jet and fly it to some Kerbin lake and take some data. It's the surface sample limit that's really harsh, because that one is usually worth more science points than all the rest -- so if you can only take one per trip that's sad.

 

There are ways around the limitations, but they all require having a 2nd crewmember in a command pod. That way you can get both a scientist and a pilot, though. Doing that actually gets you more capability than just having two pods -- the external crewmember can actually carry an unlimited number of duplicates of all experiments. One for a science lab, and two or three to take back to Kerbin. But the external crewmember has to stay in the external seat all the way back to some station where they can dump off all the duplicates into an MPL, or into multiple pods.