science holding bay?

[louddifference]

so ive been playing career mode for a while now and ive wonder if a science bay that holds info and sample separate from the science bay that made them could be put in.

it would be used so when you finish testing one area of say the mun you can then launch only the container back to kerbin with a launch system and them recover it without having to bring the hole ship home and recover to launch again.

what do you guys think about this kind of part?

[shadow651]

well, I think it would be interesting. I know there are currently some missions planned that will send a rover to mars or some local asteroids; and they plan to launch some samples back to earth orbit where they can be recovered and studied.

This is a big deal, because while you can send lab equipment to a place on a rover, it's out of date when it get's there. And there are some pieces of equipment that simply can't fit on a rover, or are too fragile to.

Having the samples here on earth makes studying them easier. We have a much better understanding of the moon, because of moon rocks that have been brought back to earth, then we ever got from probes and rovers.

[Nuke]

i find that while sample return nets you more science, the fact that you can just keep transmitting all the science back you can actually get more science with one ship, than a few sample return missions, even if you intend to return the ship to kerbin. i wish i could just collect multiple samples and bring them all back in one pass. the fact you can only return one sample and a couple reports at a time really limits sample return missions. this doesn't even seem remotely realistic. with apollo you pretty much filled the capsule with rocks.

[Axon]

I had a similar idea. Rather than even sending them back to Kerbin, why not have the lab be capable of doing the science right where it's at with the cost of heavy electricity usage, being massive, and requiring a Kerbal to be present to perform the science (perhaps making a celestial body with this station on it be a capable of recovery?).