How to cash in science from a probe?

[Jarnis]

So I had this great plan of sending a very lightweight probe to cruise around the solar system and do science®.

How do I "cash in" without landing back on Kerbin?

If I terminate a flight, I get nothing.

[EvilotionCR2]

Sent it back.

[Jarnis]

Sent it back.

Ah, looks like the science in the science building goes up immediately on transmit. But I guess no way to get summary of the mission total then?

Edit: I wonder if I'd get one if this probe gets to have an "accident" with one of the Joolian moons...

[Richy teh space man]

Use transmitters/antennas to send it back.

[MalfunctionM1Ke]

You can transmit it back, an antenna and enough electricity given. You can do that repeatedly until you get no Science Points anymore.

This will give you in total the same amount of Science like taking samples, sending them back to Kerbin and recover the craft. The only tradeoff is that transmitting needs more patience

[Jarnis]

Yes, but once you want to finish the mission, there is no way to "recover" without landing (ie, getting a "grand total for this mission" screen).

Except, in theory, if I plot a trajectory for small cosmic accident for this probe. Going to test that next.

[Spatzimaus]

But I guess no way to get summary of the mission total then?

Not that I've ever seen.

From what I've seen so far in 0.22, using one-way unmanned probes is really not a good idea for two reasons:

1> You'll lose a LOT of science due to the transmission efficiency of the antennas you use. Getting only 20% of the science from a materials lab is pretty lousy; besides just the fact that it takes you so much longer to unlock new techs, those lost points are ones you can never get back. For now, the only planet/moon you need to go to more than once is Mun (because of the multiple biomes), so a there-and-back manned mission to each one isn't too prohibitive. That might change once they implement more biomes per planet, since it'd mean you'd want to land rovers to do science checks at each, but for now there's no reason to worry about this.

2> You won't get the end-of-mission bonus points that depend on what you accomplished. If you've already returned from Mun a few times then that one drops to zero, but if it's your first trip to the outer planets then that's a metric buttload of points you're never going to collect on. In the late game these aren't worth many points, but it's still something.

So really, you should try to do everything manned, have each trip use only one destination, and plan to return at the end of each flight without transmitting anything other than crew reports (since they have 100% efficiency). This might require you to send some fuel depots to Jool, Duna, and Eve to refuel your exploration vessel on-site, but it's worth it in the long run.

[Jarnis]

Meh. So much for semi-realistic exploration of Kerbin system. Guess I have to stick Jeb in a can for 3000 days. Good thing Kerbals don't apparently eat anything.

[3mon]

Use some batteries and solar panels (or extra probe bodies or whatever if you dont have them yet), and pack one experiment of each. Then, observe experiments and transmit data over and over until diminishing returns makes it unworthy. You do this in space high over a body, and in space near over a body, as they count as different experiments.

Transmit, transmit, transmit repeatedly the same experiment over and over again. Not very fun, but gets you your science. You wont be recovering that probe any time soon

[Melcom]

Exactly.

For example, i sent a probe to a near Kerbol orbit. I did the GooPod, temperature and Sample experiments - all tranmitted via the dishantenna. I got hundrets of science points out of the probe.

You dont lose Points when you transmit over an over again.

[Sirrobert]

Not that I've ever seen.

From what I've seen so far in 0.22, using one-way unmanned probes is really not a good idea for two reasons:

1> You'll lose a LOT of science due to the transmission efficiency of the antennas you use. Getting only 20% of the science from a materials lab is pretty lousy; besides just the fact that it takes you so much longer to unlock new techs, those lost points are ones you can never get back. For now, the only planet/moon you need to go to more than once is Mun (because of the multiple biomes), so a there-and-back manned mission to each one isn't too prohibitive. That might change once they implement more biomes per planet, since it'd mean you'd want to land rovers to do science checks at each, but for now there's no reason to worry about this.

2> You won't get the end-of-mission bonus points that depend on what you accomplished. If you've already returned from Mun a few times then that one drops to zero, but if it's your first trip to the outer planets then that's a metric buttload of points you're never going to collect on. In the late game these aren't worth many points, but it's still something.

So really, you should try to do everything manned, have each trip use only one destination, and plan to return at the end of each flight without transmitting anything other than crew reports (since they have 100% efficiency). This might require you to send some fuel depots to Jool, Duna, and Eve to refuel your exploration vessel on-site, but it's worth it in the long run.

Not true.

If you transmit the same result a few times, you eventually get the exact same amount of science points as if you landed the experiment.

[3mon]

Well technically i think he's right, i think the way to maximize science points would be to make the experiments, keep them, go home and recover the vessel each time. Over and over again. The problem i guess is that its just way too much time consuming, for me at least.

[Melcom]

Well technically i think he's right, i think the way to maximize science points would be to make the experiments, keep them, go home and recover the vessel each time. Over and over again. The problem i guess is that its just way too much time consuming, for me at least.

Well, it is like in the real world. Do you want to invest in a huge spacecraft to do every possible experiment, maybe a manned fligth? Or do you build smaller, do specialiced experiments with less complex spacecrafts?