Asteroid rendezvous and science

[Tyko]

I managed my first asteroid rendezvous last night, but it didn't work as I expected, so hoping for some advice/clarification. My probe didn't have a Claw on it (I don't have the tech yet), but I was hoping to at least touch down on it and gather some science.

1. Collision: I cruised up to it as something low like 40mm/s and my ship passed right through the asteroid. I reversed course and tried to bump it again. This time my ship hit at 10mm/s but bounced off. At least the second time it actually collided instead of passing through.
2. Science: At no point during the encounter was I able to gather new science. my Biome was always deep space.

Do I have to have a Claw on board for all Asteroid encounters or was I just encountering strange behaviors?

[Aethon]

I haven't been to an asteroid in a few versions, but it used to be the only extra science they give you is a surface sample.  Hope this helps.

[bewing]

^ Asteroids don't have biomes. And to take an Asteroid Sample, you don't have to be on the surface. Just somewhere close to the asteroid.

[Tyko]

1 hour ago, bewing said:

^ Asteroids don't have biomes. And to take an Asteroid Sample, you don't have to be on the surface. Just somewhere close to the asteroid.

Thanks..is an asteroid sample an EVA thing like a surface sample? So there's no other science to be done around asteroids? The Osiris-Rex people are going to be so liquided  

[bewing]

Yes, but afaik there is something like a "sample high over asteroid" and a "sample low over asteroid". So it's not just one.

[Hodari]

The game treats asteroids as a part and not as an actual world that you can land on.

[Blaarkies]

3 hours ago, bewing said:

Yes, but afaik there is something like a "sample high over asteroid" and a "sample low over asteroid". So it's not just one.

No. Only one asteroid sample. You get this by right-clicking on the asteroid with a kerbal in EVA close to the asteroid...you can however get a different sample depending on where the asteroid is: Bring it back to Kerbin, but repeat the sampling when you enter Kerbin SOI, again when you are in low Kerbin orbit, again when you are in Kerbin Upper Atmosphere, again when flying over KSC, again when closing in on the VAB,...wait STAHP!!!

(jokes aside, you get a unique sample from the asteroid for every new situation/planetary binome it arrives in)

[Allocthonous]

Yeah, you can't land on asteroids unless you use the claw. And even then, it's more docking than landing.

7 minutes ago, Blaarkies said:

(jokes aside, you get a unique sample from the asteroid for every new situation/planetary binome it arrives in)

Really? Do you know if the science value stays constant for each sample, or are certain situations of biomes more valuable?

[Streetwind]

The asteroid sample experiment obeys the same location multipliers as every other experiment does.

[Blaarkies]

4 hours ago, Allocthonous said:

Do you know if the science value stays constant for each sample, or are certain situations of biomes more valuable?

I don't know(did not pay a lot of attention to the value). If the @Streetwind and the wiki is correct, then it should actually give less valuable science when landed at Kerbin...i guess it becomes a statue then.

It makes sense to get an A Class asteroid, drill it empty, and attach it to some lander. This lander goes and lands in every Minmus binome, Mun binome(maybe even Gilly) and getting all the easy science. I am unsure what happens when multiple asteroids are connected to the same craft though(in terms of science experiment)

[Hodari]

55 minutes ago, Blaarkies said:

It makes sense to get an A Class asteroid, drill it empty, and attach it to some lander. This lander goes and lands in every Minmus binome, Mun binome(maybe even Gilly) and getting all the easy science. I am unsure what happens when multiple asteroids are connected to the same craft though(in terms of science experiment)

I wouldn't exactly classify hauling an asteroid around like that as "easy science" (though if auto-strut works for them, it may have just gotten much easier than it used to be).  By the time you're capable of doing that though, you've probably already unlocked most of the tech tree anyway and certainly are capable of reaching all of the other planets, which seems like a much easier way of getting whatever science you still need.

[Blaarkies]

13 minutes ago, Hodari said:

I wouldn't exactly classify hauling an asteroid around like that as "easy science" (though if auto-strut works for them, it may have just gotten much easier than it used to be).  By the time you're capable of doing that though, you've probably already unlocked most of the tech tree anyway and certainly are capable of reaching all of the other planets, which seems like a much easier way of getting whatever science you still need.

Class A's are really, really small. Especially when you drill them empty, they are like an empty FL-400 tank. That is really easy to move around, but that kind of tech is also good enough for Minmus farming...which is probably the easiest non-mpl science in ksp.

[Allocthonous]

12 hours ago, Blaarkies said:

It makes sense to get an A Class asteroid, drill it empty, and attach it to some lander. This lander goes and lands in every Minmus binome, Mun binome(maybe even Gilly) and getting all the easy science. I am unsure what happens when multiple asteroids are connected to the same craft though(in terms of science experiment)

I may have to try this. For science! (literally)

And yeah, an empty class A could weigh less than a ton. Not hard at all.