Remote Tech Science with signal delay in atmosphere burning probes

[ezequielandrush]

Hello everybody. I have a simple but intricate question on how would you think it's the best way to schedule science data gathering on a kamikaze probe burning on a gas giant atmosphere.

I use remote tech, I love the additional difficulty in it, but I think I hit a wall here. When I want to send a probe to a gas giant I can't get the science before the probe is destroyed due to signal delay. Is there any way to automate or trigger the science gathering from the probe itself?

Do you have any ideas on how this task can be done in a efficient way. Thanks to all your ideas.

As always, forgive any grammar mistakes and feel free to correct me.

 

Be good

 

Zeke

[Starman4308]

Unsure about anything native to RemoteTech, because I haven't used its flight computer.

I'd look into kOS. Bind your science parts to an action group, and use triggers such as "WAIT UNTIL Vessel:Altitude < triggerAlt." Don't forget to include transmitting data after collection, probably waiting a few seconds for instruments to finish their animations.

[eddiew]

This is why I turned off the signal delay in my RT playthrough... it introduced problems for which there were no solutions without additional mods   There is nothing in stock that can do this, but the suggestion above seems sensible. Or turn off signal delay and assume that the player is the programming 

[Zhetaan]

@ezequielandrush:

It may be possible to queue a science transmission with a delay.  If I recall it correctly, you have to right-click on the antenna that will transmit and tell it to send the data rather than work through the usual science dialogue box.  If you add a delay through the flight computer so that the transmission begins at the best time (which I assume is probe loss-of-signal minus however long it takes to transmit minus some safety margin), then sending the transmit command in advance puts the instruction in the computer on a timer.  There's no additional delay once the timer runs out.

However, I must admit that I am unsure of that one because I have never used it; my probes have always either included a science return capsule or were otherwise less than totally suicidal, so there was no urgency behind the transmission and I therefore always used the science dialogue.

I have one other idea that uses only the RemoteTech architecture:  make a craft with a 2.5m probe core and six kerbals, and send it to the same planet.  If it is in orbit and connected to the probe, then the signal delay will be reduced to that of the link between the remote command vessel and the probe.  Be mindful of the link back to Kerbin, though; the command vessel can reduce signal delay but it cannot store science for relay to Kerbin.

[Snark]

On 12/17/2017 at 7:45 AM, ezequielandrush said:

I use remote tech, I love the additional difficulty in it, but I think I hit a wall here. When I want to send a probe to a gas giant I can't get the science before the probe is destroyed due to signal delay. Is there any way to automate or trigger the science gathering from the probe itself?

It's been a while since I played a RemoteTech game (used to love it, but eventually got fed up with the instability and constant game crashes I got all the time when I ran with it), so please forgive me if I'm being a bit dense or missing the precise nature of the problem. 

But, explain why this is a particular difficulty?  Signal delay doesn't make anything happen any slower, it just is a delay between when you tell it to do a thing and when something happens.  So why not just send the science-gathering commands you need a little while before you plow into atmosphere, so that they'll actually fire just after you start reentry?

[ezequielandrush]

39 minutes ago, Snark said:

It's been a while since I played a RemoteTech game (used to love it, but eventually got fed up with the instability and constant game crashes I got all the time when I ran with it), so please forgive me if I'm being a bit dense or missing the precise nature of the problem. 

But, explain why this is a particular difficulty?  Signal delay doesn't make anything happen any slower, it just is a delay between when you tell it to do a thing and when something happens.  So why not just send the science-gathering commands you need a little while before you plow into atmosphere, so that they'll actually fire just after you start reentry?

Oh, not problem at all. The problem is that the delay time is several hours and the probe will burn in a matter of minutes. I don't have much error tolerance. Besides, the probe time travel is 25 years, so restarting the mission is not an option.

On 17/12/2017 at 1:29 PM, Starman4308 said:

Unsure about anything native to RemoteTech, because I haven't used its flight computer.

I'd look into kOS. Bind your science parts to an action group, and use triggers such as "WAIT UNTIL Vessel:Altitude < triggerAlt." Don't forget to include transmitting data after collection, probably waiting a few seconds for instruments to finish their animations.

I guess kOS is a good way to do it. Thanks for the tip...