How to complete a 'splashed down' contract?

[GungaDin]

So I need to test an engine while splashed down but what does that mean?  I can't run the engine while I'm in the water or even right click on it to ruin a 'test' if I can't see it down there right?  Also I keep getting offers rto do surveys on Kerbin but haven;t been able to complete them from orbit.  is the only way to do surveys to develop aircraft?

Thanks!

[bewing]

19 minutes ago, GungaDin said:

So I need to test an engine while splashed down but what does that mean?  I can't run the engine while I'm in the water or even right click on it to ruin a 'test' if I can't see it down there right?

It means that your craft has to be floating at the surface of the water, and it has to have an engine attached, and you either have to stage the engine, or click the Run Test button while the craft is floating there.

It's easiest to create a rover, put the engine on the rover, drive the rover down to the beach and out into the ocean a few meters, and then test the engine. Then you can drive the rover back to the runway and recover it for a full refund.

Quote

  Also I keep getting offers rto do surveys on Kerbin but haven;t been able to complete them from orbit.  is the only way to do surveys to develop aircraft?

Thanks!

It's not the only way, but it sure is the easiest. Trying to do survey contracts with a rocket is super incredibly difficult. The waypoint targets may reach all the way up into space, but they are very small at that altitude -- and rockets just move too damned fast.

Edited September 12, 2019 by bewing

[Snark]

2 hours ago, bewing said:

It's easiest to create a rover, put the engine on the rover, drive the rover down to the beach and out into the ocean a few meters, and then test the engine. Then you can drive the rover back to the runway and recover it for a full refund.

I actually find it easier and quicker to slap together a very simple rocket and launch from the pad. Only needs a small fuel tank, enough for just a short hop. Simpler and quicker to build (for me, anyway) than a rover. Minimal tech needed. Quicker travel time to the water. And the recovery value is very high, even if not quite 100%, if it's just a few hundred meters offshore.

[Superfluous J]

27 minutes ago, Snark said:

I actually find it easier and quicker to slap together a very simple rocket and launch from the pad. Only needs a small fuel tank, enough for just a short hop. Simpler and quicker to build (for me, anyway) than a rover. Minimal tech needed. Quicker travel time to the water. And the recovery value is very high, even if not quite 100%, if it's just a few hundred meters offshore.

Yeah a Flea + part + capsule + parachute are generally all you need for splashed down. Part + capsule for "landed."

[GungaDin]

15 hours ago, 5thHorseman said:

Yeah a Flea + part + capsule + parachute are generally all you need for splashed down. Part + capsule for "landed."

I did this but my rocket floated capsule-up so that I could not click on the engine which was under water.

[Superfluous J]

1 hour ago, GungaDin said:

I did this but my rocket floated capsule-up so that I could not click on the engine which was under water.

I don't understand this statement. What aspect of being underwater kept you from clicking it?

[pincushionman]

16 hours ago, GungaDin said:

I did this but my rocket floated capsule-up so that I could not click on the engine which was under water.

Do you mean you didn’t rotate the camera to be under the water too, or that the splashdown destroyed the engine and you didn’t know it?

[GungaDin]

No - sorry guys.  This was all my delusion.  I had ejected the engine without knowing it and thought it was under water and inaccessible when it was actually floating around somewhere far away.  All is well now.