probe buff

[jastrone]

as of now  when kerbal engineers can build in space probes are quite usseless. all they do is steer. there is not much reason to use them if you are not in career doing a suicide mission. 

i would suggest either making transmitting science more efficent or making them automaticaly doing your manouver nodes(more perfect on better probes).  This would be more realistic since probes in real life are programed to do something and not stered like an rc car

[jimmymcgoochie]

Probes are useless, all they do is go to far-flung places for a fraction of the cost and weight of sending a Kerbal, transmitting valuable science data to unlock better parts and without having to worry about bringing them back like you (should!) do with a Kerbal. What a waste of time...

Humans haven’t gone beyond the Moon themselves, but probes have landed on Venus, Mars and Titan and visited every major planet in the solar system, a variety of moons, asteroids and comets and even returned material from some of those. A real probe has to balance the power and mass requirements of its various experiments and make them capable of surviving for long periods in the harsh environments of space or whatever celestial object they end up on, so the data it can generate is limited, but humans (or Kerbals) can bring much more sophisticated equipment and so generate more and better data from the same environment or sample. There’s a reason sample return missions are such a big deal- a cutting edge research lab on Earth has no restrictions on the weight or power consumption of its equipment and so can do vastly more detailed and intensive studies on samples of, say, Mars or a comet than any spacecraft ever could.

If you really want every experiment to generate and transmit all the possible science, try the science- full reward/full transmit mods; alternatively if you want something a bit more realistic, Kerbalism’s science-only config will make experiments take time to complete but they also run automatically in the background. For a probe autopilot, MechJeb is the answer, or kOS if you feel like coding your own scripts (or using someone else’s) and then there’s RemoteTech to make flying probes ‘realistic’ with signal delay and so on.

 

[The Aziz]

I like to do a surface recon with unmanned spacecraft before attempting crewed landing.

And rovers can operate, scan surface features without the need for a Kerbal to be present.

Edited March 4, 2021 by The Aziz

[Dr. Kerbal]

17 hours ago, jastrone said:

i would suggest either making transmitting science more efficent

Ah ha! Go here.

 

[Dr. Kerbal]

The Probodobodyne Probe Processor-59 is a little processor that can extend relays, save electracy for transmitting data, and shorten the time to transmit data. However. The Probodobodyne Probe Processor-60 is newer tech than the 59. The Probodobodyne Probe Processor-60 will  be able to automate landings and missions. This means that you dont need a connection the the KSC when doing landings. But you do need to activate the processor while having connection. The Probodobodyne Probe Processor-60 will have a small code screen like the KAL-200 but instead of lines it will be action groups in order. An example would be.

1: I lower than 5000mslow down to 100m/s

2: If lower than 200m slow down to 50 /s

3 If lower than 101 m slow down to 1 m/s

 

This sequence of code will be able to automate landings with what ifs. However this thing will brutally consume electricity. This small gadget will take up 5 units of electricity per second when the sequence is activated (when the first line of code is activated.).  The Probodobodyne Probe Processor-60 will solve automated landings if you coded them right. 

 

Product Description

"                                                   

                                       The Probodobodyne Probe Processor-60 is a fully codable processer than can do automated landings.  A intern at Probodobodyne made an algorithm using Keva to automate a landing sequence. However we are not responsible if you or it malfunctions. And it definitely does not have intentions to take over the world.

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                              "

[Gargamel]

@Dr. Kerbal, I've merged your new thread into the existing one.  It's a good idea, but let's keep similar topics in the same thread.