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Unmanned sample return

drakesdoom

By drakesdoom
in KSP1 Discussion

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drakesdoom

drakesdoom

Posted
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I made a discovery just now.

Any derbies on the planet Kerbin can be recovered, and any science in it will be recovered as well. So if you only want to bring back a material lab and leave the ship in space all you need is an attached and activated parachute and then let it lose on a return trajectory. I think you will need to switch focus to it and watch it reenter for the parachute to work and then recover and SCIENCE.

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DMagic

DMagic

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That could make for some interesting designs. It's sort of reminiscent of how old spy satellites worked; they had a set of film canisters that they would drop one at a time to be recovered (mid-air by an airplane with a hook!).

And yes, you will have to switch to watch them descend. Anything below ~25000m will get deleted if you aren't actively watching it.

Also, derbies may be a typo, but I think something in KSP should be called that, it just seems fitting.

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Shisouka

Shisouka

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...

And yes, you will have to switch to watch them descend. Anything below ~25000m will get deleted if you aren't actively watching it.

...

Actually everything that is below 23km and not within 2.5km of your current ship will get deleted. So while debries stays withing 2.5km of your ship, it will descent with you without being deleted.

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OrtwinS

OrtwinS

Posted
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Yea, I got the same idea when I stored my first sample.

My new Minmus mission has 2 detachable landercans mk1 with an OKTO2 and parachute slapped on top, and some probe sized fuel and engine on the bottom.

I *should* install some plugin that shows how much dV it has, but I'm staying stock for a little longer while. I'll do it the Kerbal way using an iterative process (also known as trial & error).

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KerbMav

KerbMav

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Seems to be the right thread to add this question:

Are EVA reports and surface samples stored in the exact pod the Kerba enters/stores them or in every pod belonging to the craft? Can a Kerbal store reports in a probe body? (While driving a seats-only rover e.g.)

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aven17

aven17

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Any commands modules, stranded Kerbals, or science attachments can be recovered independently for science points. This allows you to take two samples from an area on Kerbal. Just take one, store it in your command module, get another, and then recover the Kerbal followed by the craft.

However, you have to be careful about jettisoning science kits and goo pods, during flight, such as with attached chutes. Depending on your use of time acceleration they may not survive if you are busy flying your main ship. The best time to do it is either in the atmosphere or from a stabilized orbit using a command pod to control them back to Kerbin.

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samstarman5

samstarman5

Posted
Posted (edited)

I actually had no doubt that any science modules that ended up as debris on Kerbin could be recovered and utilized towards science. Either Spootyman or Dafud Left-handed on KSP-TV and their own Twitch channels(If you aren't watching it, then go press the button up top, there) had their craft snap apart during reentry, and the science modules survived the crash-landing. I almost tore my hair out when they went to their quicksave instead of recovering the debris.

It is always worth that extra effort to save a mission in KSP, no matter the odds. If your craft breaks up during reentry and you don't see what debris lands, recover it anyway. One of those bits could be a goo container bearing the biggest part of your mission that just managed to soft-land. If none of it turns out to be a science module, you still did a good thing picking up lag-producing litter. Give a hoot, yada yada.

Cheers!

Addendum:

Any commands modules, stranded Kerbals, or science attachments can be recovered independently for science points. This allows you to take two samples from an area on Kerbal. Just take one, store it in your command module, get another, and then recover the Kerbal followed by the craft.

However, you have to be careful about jettisoning science kits and goo pods, during flight, such as with attached chutes. Depending on your use of time acceleration they may not survive if you are busy flying your main ship. The best time to do it is either in the atmosphere or from a stabilized orbit using a command pod to control them back to Kerbin.

The best piece of advice is to just not use time warp during re-entry and landing. During returns from beyond LKO, I turn off my time warp at around 120k, as from that point on, it isn't going to be a long trip unless I scuffed the reentry trajectory and end up back out into space. If you are going to jettison the science modules separately, then doing it from a point where they will land within the 2k limit is best(depending on your angle of descent, probably 1-1.5k from ground seems the point of detachment). It may seem like crazy thinking, but that is the Jeb philosophy after all. I often make it a habit to deploy my chutes last minute which helps keep my focus going and adds that last little bit of excitement to the mission. Unless of course I am hotdogging the re-entry, which won't be something to do when heat comes into play.

Edited by samstarman5
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SeventhArchitect

SeventhArchitect

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Send big payload ships out to other planets, and return them after EVA-ing your kerbal and collecting samples of the terrain as well as assessing the situation he is in outside of the ship. You will get a LOT of science. Per planet, though, so it's annoying. Just went to Duna, might return with about 400 science.

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Godot

Godot

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So, to confirm, you can only store one surface sample per pod? I just sent a lovely double landing mission to Duna and I'll have to rethink the Ike landing if that is the case...

Might have to recheck that, but AFAIK can store one surface sample and one EVA report of each region per pod ...

so, if you do EVA in Muns NW craters and return with sample + EVA report and then go out again and get sample + EVA report from Muns canyons, both will fit into your pod.

AFAIK you can, however, only carry a single surface sample with your Astronaut on EVA ... so to get samples and reports from different regions you will have to do multiple EVAs

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nhnifong

nhnifong

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Might have to recheck that, but AFAIK can store one surface sample and one EVA report of each region per pod ...

so, if you do EVA in Muns NW craters and return with sample + EVA report and then go out again and get sample + EVA report from Muns canyons, both will fit into your pod.

AFAIK you can, however, only carry a single surface sample with your Astronaut on EVA ... so to get samples and reports from different regions you will have to do multiple EVAs

You can store multiple surface samples and EVA reports in one pod. You have to get in and get back out. But you cannot store more than one sample from the same place.

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