How Can I earn Science?

[DD_bwest]

so this was my 3rd launch,  batteries on the sides.  those labs on the side are for the first 4 kerbin biomes and detached asap.  Science containter to make life easier.

the 4th launch is a beast,  I wanted to bring along enough fuel to refill 24 times, figuring i could make up the difference for those extra few landings by the unused fuel.   This was way more than a needed, which ended up good in the end.  there could very well be a better way to get it up, but i ran into constraits with funds.  there is probably a better way to get it up into orbit, but atleast it worked lol

the last one is just the command vessel for that launch, near the end of that mission i went back to the VAB and i stripped it down to that so i could adjust the fuel numbers to roughly what i had so that i could get a "wet" weight and then a dry weight.  it had the lander on it still until i was setting up my return from duna.

[WanderingKid]

20 minutes ago, DD_bwest said:

so this was my 3rd launch,  batteries on the sides.  those labs on the side are for the first 4 kerbin biomes and detached asap.  Science containter to make life easier.

I LOVE the look of the Oscar-B  + Spark stacks.  I am absolutely stealing becoming inspired by that.

That fourth launch IS a beast, my word.  The third one.... hrm.  Interesting.  Appreciate you posting that, I'll need to chew on that a while.  Very nice work, by the way.  Didn't realize you were doing a Solar orbit as well while you were up there.  Out of curiousity are you gravity boosting yourself from Mun -> Minmus -> Solar, or just working with whatever you end up with?  I have to assume you never actually do an orbital insertion with that expectation.

I personally avoid abusing the contract system, but not necessarily because I consider it cheating.  It's because I have no patience, which is probably why I won't stick around for full EVAs either.  I want to be playing, not spinning the contract window.  Also I take some personal pride in how 'long' it takes for me to get to my goals, in game, and spinning around the mun for a month or three seems overkill.  I will, however, absolutely grab a 'plant a flag on the Mun' contract when my lander's in route, however, or if it happens to be refueling while I'm poking around for a new contract.

My usual funds come from the "Kerbal Rescue Program" and Satellites EVERYWHERE, INC.  Satellites are insanely cheap timewise to put into orbit and usually net me an 80% launch profit, while getting a ridiculous commnet setup too.  

This little guy feeds me tons of cash, can get anywhere in Kerbal SOI (may not leave again...), and can carry Goo and MatBays to roughly anywhere with minor adjustments, and practically launches itself.

However, this is something I use to net some strong science from Mun, and with some aim lands with all the science gear returned for 7k refunded (so, 11k/132 science if I aim well):

This discussion did make it more obvious that I've missed some choice chances to get more science in during earlier missions however, so thanks for that.

So, just going throught he motions here.  Doing the math at the end of your third flight (including solar, excluding EVA hell and worrying about landing biomes):

Base value:

Crew Report (5), Goo (10), Therm (8), Barometer (12), MatBay (25)

• Kerbin Landed (0.3x): 18
• Kerbin Low atmo (0.7x): 42
• Kerbin High atmo (0.9x): 54
• Kerbin Low Space (1.0x): 60
• Kerbin High Space (1.5x): 90

Kerbin SubTotal: 264

• Mun High Space (2.0x): 120
• Mun Low Space (3.0x): 180

Mun SubTotal: 300

• Minmus High Space (2.5x): 150
• Minmus Low Space (3.0x): 180

Minmus SubTotal: 330

• Kerbol High (2.0x): 120

Total: 1014

EVAs (Equatorial, single pass)

• Kerbin: 6 easy space biomes + high : 60
• Mun: 9 easy space biomes + high: 232
• Minmus: 7 easy space biomes + high: 188

Grand Total (Normal): 1494

Grand Total (Hard (0.6x)): 896.4

That's enough in normal to open up the entire Tier 5 tree with some to spare (1188 for everything through tier 5).  Nice.

** And yes, I'm really getting into this discussion.  Sorry OP, if we've gone way off course on you... **

[DD_bwest]

23 minutes ago, WanderingKid said:

I LOVE the look of the Oscar-B  + Spark stacks.  I am absolutely stealing becoming inspired by that.

That fourth launch IS a beast, my word.  The third one.... hrm.  Interesting.  Appreciate you posting that, I'll need to chew on that a while.  Very nice work, by the way.  Didn't realize you were doing a Solar orbit as well while you were up there.  Out of curiousity are you gravity boosting yourself from Mun -> Minmus -> Solar, or just working with whatever you end up with?  I have to assume you never actually do an orbital insertion with that expectation.

I personally avoid abusing the contract system, but not necessarily because I consider it cheating.  It's because I have no patience, which is probably why I won't stick around for full EVAs either.  I want to be playing, not spinning the contract window.  Also I take some personal pride in how 'long' it takes for me to get to my goals, in game, and spinning around the mun for a month or three seems overkill.  I will, however, absolutely grab a 'plant a flag on the Mun' contract when my lander's in route, however, or if it happens to be refueling while I'm poking around for a new contract.

My usual funds come from the "Kerbal Rescue Program" and Satellites EVERYWHERE, INC.  Satellites are insanely cheap timewise to put into orbit and usually net me an 80% launch profit, while getting a ridiculous commnet setup too.  

This little guy feeds me tons of cash, can get anywhere in Kerbal SOI (may not leave again...), and can carry Goo and MatBays to roughly anywhere with minor adjustments, and practically launches itself.

 

However, this is something I use to net some strong science from Mun, and with some aim lands with all the science gear returned for 7k refunded (so, 11k/132 science if I aim well):

.

This discussion did make it more obvious that I've missed some choice chances to get more science in during earlier missions however, so thanks for that.

So, just going throught he motions here.  Doing the math at the end of your third flight (including solar, excluding EVA hell and worrying about landing biomes):

Base value:

Crew Report (5), Goo (10), Therm (8), Barometer (12), MatBay (25)

• Kerbin Landed (0.3x): 18
• Kerbin Low atmo (0.7x): 42
• Kerbin High atmo (0.9x): 54
• Kerbin Low Space (1.0x): 60
• Kerbin High Space (1.5x): 90

Kerbin SubTotal: 264

• Mun High Space (2.0x): 120
• Mun Low Space (3.0x): 180

Mun SubTotal: 300

• Minmus High Space (2.5x): 150
• Minmus Low Space (3.0x): 180

Minmus SubTotal: 330

• Kerbol High (2.0x): 120

Total: 1014

EVAs (Equatorial, single pass)

• Kerbin: 6 easy space biomes + high : 60
• Mun: 9 easy space biomes + high: 232
• Minmus: 7 easy space biomes + high: 188

Grand Total (Normal): 1494

Grand Total (Hard (0.6x)): 896.4

That's enough in normal to open up the entire Tier 5 tree with some to spare (1188 for everything through tier 5).  Nice.

** And yes, I'm really getting into this discussion.  Sorry OP, if we've gone way off course on you... **

Sats are a great way to make money, and are usually an easy go to option for emergencies.  You dont really need to spend to much time spinning them, they seem to come up more than they used to.  I did about 9(5mun, 4 minmus) of them on that 4th launch.  I insert myself into orbit of Mun, Polar orbit to be exact cause i hit all 17 biomes.  this took patience and having a really good knowledge of Mun with a biome map. and i did the exact some for minmus(slopes has been more frustrating since 1.2, it seems some rather steep hills are just lowlands now).   getting the transfer right takes a bit of skill, but i kinda lucked out and got a good one.  from minmus its really not hard to get yourself ejected from kerbin, if you just nudge yourself outside it and head back in its not that "expensive".   and all you need is a pe of 30km coming back lol

come to think of it, the spark was upgraded to 320 isp with 1.2,   so that ship probably wouldnt have worked on older versions.

and yup that looks about right, I actually wrote out a chart with all the possible reports and all biomes for each launch so that i could cross them off as i went, as i didnt want to have to review the mass results in a box.  whcih leads to one of my favorite pieces of advise to give.  Write out the plan for your launch, every biome that will be involved, and check your research lab to see what you havent done.  Their is alot of science that is easy to miss out on if your not thinking.

yup 1188 is for tier 5, its the caveman number

also i love the lander i used, after quite a few renditions, i really like the one i settled on. it makes the mat bay less obstrusive