What good is the Stayputnik?

[GungaDin]

I assume the Stayputnik is used as a science gathering probe? If I send it out on dangerous missions can I get science back from it by placing an antanna on it? Is it recoverable?

[temetvince]

Imo, you can fit a lot of stuff on it due to its curved surface area. You can get science back by using an antenna, but you will lose some science due to transmitting, and you can't do eva reports, crew reports, and soil samples. It is recoverable if you land it back on Kerbin.

[SRV Ron]

I assume the Stayputnik is used as a science gathering probe? If I send it out on dangerous missions can I get science back from it by placing an antanna on it? Is it recoverable?

By itself, no. But it makes a great platform for hanging stuff on it such as parachutes, instruments, spare batteries, Ox Stat panels, and other small items to turn it into a probe lander.

[Z-Man]

The small antenna looks sweet when put on top of it.

It is first to unlock in career mode?

Other than that, it is not very useful.

Yes, you can recover it if you can land it safely. And you can do all the science you can do with manned pods except crew/eva reports and surface samples.

[Tex_NL]

It's a probe core just like any other. Nothing really stands out on this core except that it is the second lightest and it has a relatively large surface area to attach things to.

[BlackBicycle]

I didn't want to spend any research points on smaller unmanned probes, so I used this one. And, like other people stated, it does offer a nice platform for attaching stuff. I usually just plaster it with smallest solar panels. As the thing is spherical, I (almost) always get at least a bit of power going in.

http://s10.postimg.org/8u7rr8odl/screenshot6.png

[mdatspace]

I like the QBE more, but I can see the virtues of the Stayputnik. It has a lot of surface area to attach batteries, solar panels or scientific equipment to.

[Laflaga]

I prefer to use the unmanned probe cores to control my orbital stations so I dont have a kerbal alone in space just to man a fuel depot etc..

[BlackBicycle]

The main virtue of the Stayputnik is that it is available very early in the tree, so you can start unmanned stuff right away.

[Cashen]

It of course pre-dates science and career mode and was designed as a lightweight probe similar in design to Sputnik.

[ISmokeThis]

By itself, no. But it makes a great platform for hanging stuff on it such as parachutes, instruments, spare batteries, Ox Stat panels, and other small items to turn it into a probe lander.

http://i.imgur.com/3hGw0Nh.jpg

http://i.imgur.com/a5CAvc1.jpg

Did you eyeball those antenna, or are they symmetrical? If so, how did you do it?

[capi3101]

There are symmetry controls in the VAB - the left of the two large circle thingies at the bottom. If you click on that, it should look like a crash test dummy marker; click again and it looks like a radiation trifoil, and so on. Those indicate the level of symmetry going on - 2x, 3x, 4x, 6x and 8x are available. X and Shift-X if you don't want to (or can't) use clicking.

The Stayputnik is a good little probe core - its main virtues are early availability and large surface area. That said I'm still more apt to use the OKTO2 as soon as I have it available (because I'm the kind of guy who quibbles over a measly ten kilograms). The lack of an upper attachment node is also a downside to the Stayputni (it's either on the top of your rocket or attached radially - you can't use it as a final booster stage probe core for purposes of self-cleaning).

[mdatspace]

I agree. It doesn't have the upper attachment node other cores have, and you have symmetry issues, so I don't use it frequently.