Mapping planets for science

[richiespeed13]

Hi all,

was just reading a thread about unmanned probes, when I saw this post:

Perhaps a new science part like a camera which takes pictures could be a reusable science module... it's still early development and the possibilities are many!

This idea may have been discussed before, but it strikes me as having a large amount of potential for useful unmanned probe missions, and much more.

I know the developers have their own vision for things which I completely respect, but here is a scenario I imagine in my mind that at least seems cool. It may be totally impractical but I have no idea:

At the start of career mode, all planets, including Mun, should be "un-mapped", meaning we do not have data about their surfaces or what they look like. This can include not just what the surface looks like, but also atmospheric details and plenty of other data that you would need to know before attempting to land there.

To make unmanned probe missions really useful in the game, you could send probes attached with cameras to other planets, and then take several photos until you have fully mapped the planet. Upon transmission of the photos/data, the planet would then start to have it's details and image uploaded into the science center, whilst also giving you science for completing the mapping.

To me this seems like fun, as now we don't magically know all about the planets at the start of career mode, and need to research and analyse them first. This would be even better, and insanely fun from an exploration point of view if we had procedural generated solar systems for each save, but I doubt that will ever happen as it's a huge task.

Things like telescopes could also be great for mapping planets and gathering information and data.

Anyway, just a suggestion, I love the idea of unmanned probe missions alongside manned Kerbal missions, and something like this could really make it worth while to send some probes out before embarking on landing missions.

Please do make any suggestions/observations, or let me know if it's a stupid idea!

[cryptk]

This is just about a perfect description of part of the functionality of SCANsat, which is currently in development. You can't get it from SpacePort yet since the author does not yet feel it is ready for release, but I have used it before and it is definitely quite usable and feature rich already.

http://forum.kerbalspaceprogram.com/threads/55832-PLUGIN-PARTS-WIP-SCANsat-terrain-mapping

[richiespeed13]

That mod looks fantastic, thanks for letting me know about it.

Glad to see other people are thinking similar to me!

[Vanamonde]

The suggestions whole sub-forum seemed like a better place for this suggestion.

[Paul Kingtiger]

This is just about a perfect description of part of the functionality of SCANsat...

Great link, thanks! The ability to map Biomes is a great feature and will really help science collection!