Do you have to recover a vessel to gain the science from it?

[Nexis]

I have tested it now and KvickFlygarn87 has right

Test 1: docked the Duna-Lander on Station with MPL, Processed all Data, Transmitted all Data, landed Lander on Kerbin and recover

1072 Science more

Test 2: landed the Duna-Lander on Kerbin and Recover it with all Data

1807 Science more

So People, forget all Antennas and forget the MPL (MultiProcessingLab). Recovering only the Data's without Transmitting gives you a maximum of Science

[Taki117]

I have tested it now and KvickFlygarn87 has right

Test 1: docked the Duna-Lander on Station with MPL, Processed all Data, Transmitted all Data, landed Lander on Kerbin and recover

1072 Science more

Test 2: landed the Duna-Lander on Kerbin and Recover it with all Data

1807 Science more

So People, forget all Antennas and forget the MPL (MultiProcessingLab). Recovering only the Data's without Transmitting gives you a maximum of Science

This is true, but what if you can't return your vessel for whatever reason? Then the MPL is useful. I agree it's a very niche part, but it fills that niche very well. I did a duna mission where I did lots of science around the sun on my way there and had a MPL, where I processed and transmitted the data because I didn't want to have to wait the 300 or so days it would have taken to return. By transmitting some and saving the rest I was able to get a couple more nodes faster than if I had simply kept all the data.

[celem]

If you want the maximum amount of science from your mission then you do need an antenna. The crew report experiment filed on your capsule needs to be transmitted before another can be filed. This is the only report you should transmit, its 100% so dont sweat it.

Theres been a lot of confusion in this thread regarding interpretation of the word 'lose'. If you transmit an experiment with a % lower than 100 then yes you 'lose' some of the value of that report you had generated. That science doesnt disappear though, it goes back into the 'pool' that you draw from if you sample it again later (whether you return that one or transmit again matters not). But again, if you want max science/mission, you may as well just transmit crew reports and store everything else in the capsule through EVAs then return it.

[Kasuha]

If you want the maximum amount of science from your mission then you do need an antenna. The crew report experiment filed on your capsule needs to be transmitted before another can be filed.

Or you can go EVA, collect data from the capsule, return to capsule and store the report to the stored report list, and file another crew report.

I think, however, that transmitting is useful whenever the measurement doesn't provide 100% on delivery and you can repeat the measurement. For instance if surface sample gives you only 90% on delivery, you can transmit it, and deliver another sample. That will increase total science gathered.

Another option is of course to mount two command pods and store one sample in each.