Does the impactor experiment require destruction?

[RocketSquid]

Let’s say I have an impactor experiment set up on the surface, with adequate power nearby. If I crash a girder segment into the ground nearby at 50 m/s, not enough to destroy it, will it activate the experiment? 

[JPLRepo]

Must end in destruction.

[Pthigrivi]

Wait does that rule out using asteroids? I feel like all of mine have bounced in the past. Its been a while since I tried though...

Edited June 3, 2019 by Pthigrivi

[KerikBalm]

What about vessels deleted in the atmosphere? does the game calculate the energy they would have had during an impact? is the only way to follow a piece/ craft all the way down?

[MechBFP]

47 minutes ago, KerikBalm said:

What about vessels deleted in the atmosphere? does the game calculate the energy they would have had during an impact? is the only way to follow a piece/ craft all the way down?

I can pretty much guarantee you that you need to follow it all the way down. That would be a pain in the ass to code for such an edge case. 

[KerikBalm]

Edge case? almost all the stuff I drop hard on kerbin comes down like that.

Laythe Eve or Duna? my plan would be to have the transfer stage impact while the orbiter burns radial a bit to raise pe, and then captures. While I'm doing the capture burn, I can't be following the transfer stage/impactor.

I think all impactor experiments have been done like this, purposefully crashing the transfer stage.

[JPLRepo]

18 hours ago, Pthigrivi said:

Wait does that rule out using asteroids? I feel like all of mine have bounced in the past. Its been a while since I tried though...

Asteroids now end in ‘splosions for a while now.

14 hours ago, KerikBalm said:

What about vessels deleted in the atmosphere? does the game calculate the energy they would have had during an impact? is the only way to follow a piece/ craft all the way down?

On atmosphere planets you have to follow them down, otherwise the game deletes them as debris.

where there is no atmosphere, the game won’t delete them, so they are safe to switch away from.

[Pthigrivi]

2 hours ago, JPLRepo said:

Asteroids now end in ‘splosions for a while now.

Looks like my days as a benevolent potato farmer have come to an end!

[Geschosskopf]

On 6/3/2019 at 2:34 PM, KerikBalm said:

Edge case? almost all the stuff I drop hard on kerbin comes down like that.

Laythe Eve or Duna? my plan would be to have the transfer stage impact while the orbiter burns radial a bit to raise pe, and then captures. While I'm doing the capture burn, I can't be following the transfer stage/impactor.

I think all impactor experiments have been done like this, purposefully crashing the transfer stage.

Here's my experience with the thing...

The base amount of science is proportional to the speed and mass of the crash, then reduced by the distance between the crash and the seismograph.  Crashing at the antipodes reduces science by 50%..  It's possible to get multiple reports from the same crash if the initial impact scatters debris that then also crashes, but these secondary reports will be way less than the initial impact.

It's very difficult to get any points at all on an atmospheric worlds as the atmosphere slows the projectile so much, at least when falling from any sort of orbit they'd be in from the normal course of business.  There seems to be some minimum impact speed before the instrument registers, even if the ship still explodes on impact.  So unless your projectile comes in straight from an interplanetary transfer, it's probably not worth trying this experiment on Eve, Kerbin, or Laythe.  I'd expect it would work OK on Duna from a normal orbit.

Crashing transfer stages is convenient but remember, the instrument has to be set up and running before the crash.  Thus, the transfer stage has to wait in orbit for a while, which means it needs a probe core and power of its own.  I usually have 2 crashes, one from the lander's transfer stage and one from the relays' transfer stage.

As mentioned, on airless worlds, on-rails crashes generate the science so you don't have to follow them down.  But you want to anyway to see the explosion

[Kerbart]

On 5/31/2019 at 9:11 AM, RocketSquid said:

If I crash a girder segment into the ground nearby at 50 m/s, not enough to destroy it

But... but.., why?

[KerikBalm]

20 minutes ago, Geschosskopf said:

There seems to be some minimum impact speed before the instrument registers, even if the ship still explodes on impact. 

Minimum kinetic energy rather:

\Kerbal Space Program\GameData\SquadExpansion\Serenity\Resources

DeployedScience.cfg

Quote

        SEISMICENERGY
        {
            MinimumEnergyRequired = 3000 //The minimum Joules of energy required in an impact to generate seismic science.
            SeismicScienceProcessingDelay = 3  //The delay before processing a seismic event from when the first impact occurs.
            ENTRY
            {
                BodyName = Moho
                Energy = 2.02e9
            }
            ENTRY
            {
                BodyName = Eve
                Energy = 9.78e10
            }
            ENTRY
            {
                BodyName = Gilly
                Energy = 1e6
            }
            ENTRY
            {
                BodyName = Kerbin
                Energy = 4.184e10
            }
            ENTRY
            {
                BodyName = Mun
                Energy = 7.82e8
            }
            ENTRY
            {
                BodyName = Minmus
                Energy = 2.12e7
            }
            ENTRY
            {
                BodyName = Duna
                Energy = 3.62e9
            }
            ENTRY
            {
                BodyName = Ike
                Energy = 2.23e8
            }
            ENTRY
            {
                BodyName = Dres
                Energy = 2.58e8
            }
            ENTRY
            {
                BodyName = Laythe
                Energy = 2.36e10
            }
            ENTRY
            {
                BodyName = Vall
                Energy = 2.49e9
            }
            ENTRY
            {
                BodyName = Tylo
                Energy = 3.39e10
            }
            ENTRY
            {
                BodyName = Bop
                Energy = 2.99e7
            }
            ENTRY
            {
                BodyName = Pol
                Energy = 8.66e6
            }
            ENTRY
            {
                BodyName = Eeloo
                Energy = 8.94e8
            }

 

[Geschosskopf]

17 minutes ago, KerikBalm said:

Minimum kinetic energy rather:

That makes more sense.  But still, glad to know there really is a minimum

[kerbiloid]

Now we need it for science!

Spoiler

 

 

[Curveball Anders]

On 6/3/2019 at 4:27 PM, Pthigrivi said:

Wait does that rule out using asteroids? I feel like all of mine have bounced in the past. Its been a while since I tried though...

What a splendid and Kerbal solution.

No whimpy impactors, smash an asteroid into the planet ....

I must do this, I just must,