Reusing Science Equipment??

[dpraptor]

I was doing some reading on the forums and it seems you can reuse the equipment - Goo Capsule, SC-9000 Pod, and the other measuring devices (Grav/Thermometer, etc)? I was taking reading with them once and returning back.

I know it says to reset, but i thought that meant it lost the original data. I am now thinking I can reset them and keep doing scans over and over and collecting lots of data before i recover??

I am ready to head over to Mun for a landing, so I would love to know if i can reuse the instruments to get many readings before I return home. Does that also include soil samples??

I also found out there were 9 biomes on Kerben, I think I got most of them, I went to the north pole, is the South pole counted too?

Thanks for any help

[blizzy78]

You can run the same experiment over and over again, but you can take only one result with you and recover the vessel with it on Kerbin. The other results would have to be transmitted, incurring the transmit penalty.

[Roman_legion]

Yes you can reuse the science modules. When you design your craft, slap an antenna or similar onto it, and you can transfer the data back to kerbin. The leaves the science module open for buisness again. Just remember that transferring science takes an enourmous amount of electricity.

[Torham234]

Yes, it seems you can even transmit a surface sample collected with a Kerbal, but it gets degraded massively. I guess they just describe how it looks over the radio and perform some simple tests and throw it out. To get most out of it you have to land somewhere on Kerbin and recover the craft. The fully automated tests like the goo container or the CS- 9001 sample module can be repeatedly observed and data transmitted. Sure you loose some of the data in the transmission, but you can keep repeating the experiment and resending the data. That is if you already have solar collectors. As mentioned, data transmitting is rather power consuming. You also get a big "FIRST!" bonus when you do something that you haven't done before, and repeating the same experiment ( be it goo observation in a particular position or an EVA in the same region of space) will give diminishing returns.

[dpraptor]

Ahh - I see - the diminished returns for transmitting are 40 or 50%, so I may only be selective about doing that. I guess more for the further plants than the closer ones. I just read where a guy used the grav box thing all over a planet and did like 20,000 science just from that.

But I will have to wait until I get the solar panels, which is my next research to go!

[Kasuha]

If you repeat the research/transmit cycle many times, you get all of the science through the transmitter, too. It just costs time and electricity. I got some crazy amounts of science from my probe this way.

[Decent Weasel]

Does the percentage penalty vary by the type of antenna you use, or is it totally unrelated?

[Lohan2008]

You can run the same experiment over and over again, but you can take only one result with you and recover the vessel with it on Kerbin.

The other results would have to be transmitted, incurring the transmit penalty.

This answer ^