.22 science mission planning

[paleorob]

Anyone else besides me starting to pre-run science missions in .21 to get ready for the release. I caught part of the streamfest yesterday (and can't wait for tonight!) and am really excited about what all it will bring. Tell me: what have you all flown so far with the Tier 0 parts?

[ZedNova]

I've been adding communications to all my ships now.

[Ravyne]

Been adding docking ports to my mod science vessels and setting up a comms network as well.

[Boex]

You're not the only one!

I managed to get a Mun fly-by at 5km with a Free Return Trajectory back to Kerbin using just the small SRBs, with a little tweaking from Bill getting out and pushing!

By the way, I'm fairly sure setting up Comms networks and such is completely futile, as Data Transfer isn't possible in sandbox because there's no science to do (as far as I know).

I highly doubt that the Sandbox game saves we be compatible with Career mode game saves, you'll likely have to start a new Career mode save specifically.

Also, full coverage comms networks won't be necessary in 0.22, as bodies blocking signal hasn't been implemented yet, but it's a possibility for the future!

Edited October 12, 2013 by Boex

[Eric S]

I've done a few basic missions with tier-0 parts. One way, single-capsule trip to Duna (not good for science, more just to see if it could be done), a three capsule suborbital mission, and a two capsule flyby of the Mun and Minmus. Given what I've seen on the livestream, the longer trip will return more total science, but the suborbital will return more per time invested, and frankly, going beyond LKO without decouplers is a bit of a kludge. The trip to the moon is more fun, so I might still do it, but I don't see any real efficiency benefit given how easy decouplers are to unlock (5 science points, and you can get that in a few minutes without even launching a rocket, it seems).

You can do science in the sandbox, but you don't get any results, so other than testing craft ideas, there's not much point, as you can't even test radio transmission of the results, since there aren't any.

[FITorion]

Science things you can do as I understand them:

Crew report - can only have one stored in the capsule. Can be taken again after transmission.

Eva Report - can only have one stored in the capsule. Can be taken again after transmission.

Soil sample - don't know if you can store more than one at a time. (I hope you can have more than one) guessing Can be taken again after transmission.

Goo result - one per goo part. (don't know if they can be reset)

Materials lab - one per lab part. (don't know if they can be reset)

then there are:

the noes cone

the old science parts

which I haven't seen used but am told do generate results too.

So my remaining questions are:

Can goo experiments be used again after transmission or in some other way reset?

Same for Materials lab?

Can you store multiple samples from Kerbals or only one at a time?

[Eric S]

Can goo experiments be used again after transmission or in some other way reset?

Same for Materials lab?

Can you store multiple samples from Kerbals or only one at a time?

Goo: as I understand it, yes. I know I saw someone reset a goo experiment during the livestream because he decided he'd rather do it someplace else. Not certain that that can be done after transmission, but I suspect it can. I don't see why the Materials Lab would be any different, but didn't see any proof of it. As for the samples from the kerbals, The impression I got is that you can store at least one in the capsule and one on the kerbal.

[goldenpeach]

What is the Goo?

[Captain Sierra]

It's a science part that looks a lot like a cylindrified monopropellant tank.

[FITorion]

Goo: as I understand it, yes. I know I saw someone reset a goo experiment during the livestream because he decided he'd rather do it someplace else. Not certain that that can be done after transmission, but I suspect it can. I don't see why the Materials Lab would be any different, but didn't see any proof of it. As for the samples from the kerbals, The impression I got is that you can store at least one in the capsule and one on the kerbal.

I really want to be able to land on the Mun and send each of my 3 Kerbals out to each get samples from different spots. I expect some limit... I just hope the limit is like 10 samples or something.

[magnemoe]

As I understand you get less science if you transmit the result than if you return with them. However this allows you to do multiple reports.

Goo reports can be discarded so you can get an new, high chance they can transmitted and reused, However as they are pretty light you might want to bring multiple.

Would surprise me a lot if the labs can not transmit and reuse as they look pretty large.

As for the other parts yes they give results but not sure how this work.

Not sure if transmit send one observation or all science data you have collected however redoing an experiment give less and less science. So it might be an point of doing them many times just so they don't have much more value.

Now it looked easy to get the first level up. an small suborbital jump with splashdown would give more than enough. perhaps just pod and eva readings on pad.

tire 2 is where you go into orbit, perhaps an Mun flyby.

Now as you get more science from landing different places it might be one approach, at least for Minmus where its easy to jump around suborbital.

[Eric S]

I really want to be able to land on the Mun and send each of my 3 Kerbals out to each get samples from different spots. I expect some limit... I just hope the limit is like 10 samples or something.

I know the limit is at least one per capsule, so if you can get all three kerbals into different biomes, that should work out well.

[Chrisd857]

Also, transmission of science uses quite a lot of electricity, so it is probably not advisable to transmit too much before some real electrical generation parts are on your craft.

[BeefTenderloin]

Just had an idea; maybe crewed science could be a mini game of sorts! You click "Experiment on soil sample" or something, and you're placed in an IVA view where you can then use such items on the sample like a bunsen burner, or electrodes, which will cause the sample to react and the results will be autorecorded. Then, if you find a goo sample that burns extremely well, you could gain access to a new fuel or something!

[bsalis]

I'm not really planning anything until I get a better understanding of how the science will work... As in after release.

One thing I will not attempt is to try missions that are more ambitious for the parts available. Such as a tier 0 SSTO rocket to the Mun. I'll be looking more towards the most science for dollar, since I expect you will need to pay for parts soon.

[Brofessional]

I got into orbit and back with just the tier 0 parts, but the mun is out of reach without decouplers.

[magnemoe]

I got into orbit and back with just the tier 0 parts, but the mun is out of reach without decouplers.

And decouplers are easy to get, you get them in the second tire. My main concern is that electricity is hard to get. Even the small battery is tire 4 or something.

[manskal]

Just had an idea; maybe crewed science could be a mini game of sorts! You click "Experiment on soil sample" or something, and you're placed in an IVA view where you can then use such items on the sample like a bunsen burner, or electrodes, which will cause the sample to react and the results will be autorecorded. Then, if you find a goo sample that burns extremely well, you could gain access to a new fuel or something!

I second your opinion. However, I do not see this being released in .22, possibly in another update that focuses on better IVAs(internal crew transfers ftw ).

What I think would also be interesting is to have EVA experiments in orbit, similar to what they actually do on the ISS (not sure if the devs have confirmed whether this will be out in the next update, can anybody confirm?)

[EvilotionCR2]

It'll be useless. Because you have to start a career mode to use R&D.

[Warmblood]

With tier 0, I have done Mun flybys, Minmus orbit (with the obligatory landing by EVA), and a Duna orbit. Hooray for explosive staging!

However, I think my first campaign will start with a suborbital rocket, taking soil samples on landing, then launching another mission with science parts, perhaps a Mun/Min flyby. I am quite excited for science parts. Finally we will have a meaningful payload to put on our ships. I'm also curious how the math works between carrying extra crewmembers as opposed to extra experiments. The crew have several actions they can do to generate science, and some of these, (the crew report for one) can be transmitted without trouble. Multiply that science gained by the number of crew kerbals and you might be able to gain quite a lot of science throughout the course of the mission. On the other hand, some of the experiments appear to return 100+ science if returned to Kerbin successfully.

[Whackjob]

I am almost positively certain that the green goo in the canisters are actually Kerbals in larval form. To trigger growth you have to expose them to the harsh radiation outside the atmosphere.

[Botch]

I've built and tested a number of ships using low tier parts. But really beyond the first mission, a stable orbit and return when I plan to test the electricity consumption and rate of gain of science parts, i'm guessing i'll push to the mun and minus, until I complete the tree.

[Mystic]

One of the science missions I am excited about trying is to send an one-way, unmanned probe into Kerbol, taking readings when it gets close and transmitting them back before it is destroyed. This is the kind of mission that wouldn't have held much appeal for me prior to the addition of science.

I also would like to create a Voyager 2 type of unmanned mission to take measurements on its way out of the solar system.

[Eric S]

To be honest, I'm probably going to run through the tech tree a few times before I fall into any sort of pattern. At least once, I'm going to go to the moon as my first mission, and at least once I'm not going to be leaving LKO until I'm on the verge of getting the rockomax parts if not beyond them. I'll probably even do one round of "how far can I go without leaving the ground" and "how early can I switch my space program over to a probe-centric one?" Any discussion about having craft I'm playing around with is really "what am I going to try first?"

Oh, and at least once through trying to finish the tech tree with as few launches as possible. I know Scott did it in three launches, but it's possible that what he did may not work by the time the real 0.22 comes out.

[cesarcurado]

The only planning I'm doing right now is practicing, if that even counts, my KSP is loaded with mods (it crashes like every 45 minutes) so I will just start a fresh version when 0.22 comes out.