Satellites boost transmission for science.

[frizzank]

Satellites, namely probes with transmitters don't really give much benefit for just sitting in orbit. I thought that if they could boost your transmission of science that they would be more useful.

So you send a lander to the Duna and want to transmit some science, but you don't get much for it. You also have a satellite in orbit around the planet that can cut some of the penalty off. Basically wherever you were it would search for the closest satellite in your sphere of influence, like on Duna, and if it found one, in Duna orbit, it would give you a small boost in science transmission and another one if you had a satellite in orbit around Kerbin. It would be limited to one satellite in your current SOI and one in Kerbins SOI to prevent satellite spamming, and also give diminishing returns for each satellite in the chain.

I think its a clever idea for encouraging the use of probes and sending them to other planets in advance of your landers, and I wanted to see what the community thought of it.

[Themohawkninja]

I suppose, although isn't the opposite effect what would actually happen, since each successive transmission would result in minute losses of data?

[Rusty6899]

Maybe it would be better if you just needed a satellite around the parent planet of the body you are on, so you wouldn't need to have satellites around all the moons. I really like the idea though, there should definitely be incentives for players who want to build infrastructure around the solar system. That's why I would have liked to see mining in the game and large scale resource returns, but I digress.

[frizzank]

Just having it around the current body would be fine too. I just want to use my satellites I have.

I suppose, although isn't the opposite effect what would actually happen, since each successive transmission would result in minute losses of data?

I was speaking in terms of a game mechanic, not realism to boost the functionality of probes and unmanned satellites, but if realism is your thing....

Many of our landers are dependent on orbiting relay stations, and they help boost the signal, not degrade it.

From Wikipedia-

The Curiosity rover transmits to Earth directly or via three relay satellites in Mars orbit. Communication with orbiters is expected to be the main path for data return to Earth, since the orbiters have both more power and larger antennas than the lander allowing for faster transmission speeds

Yes I'm sure there is some degradation of data but its so small the benefits far out weigh the losses...

[JimmyAgent007]

I like this idea. No matter how it works im sure some people can abuse it but Com Sats would finally have a use. Question is, do we need LOS to the sat to use it and wait for it to be overhead, what if it doesnt have LOS with Kerbin at the time? Or do we say as long as its in orbit somewhere its all good?

[frizzank]

I was thinking it is super simple and no line of sight is needed. LOS would add a layer of complexity that the common player would be frustrated with and it just turns into the remote tech mod at that point...

[JimmyAgent007]

thats what i was thinking, better to keep things simple and look to mods for the crazy stuff.

[technicalfool]

I suppose, although isn't the opposite effect what would actually happen, since each successive transmission would result in minute losses of data?

I would hope that the checksums used would be adequate enough to prevent that. If a packet comes back garbled, the checksum is wrong and you can re-request the packet, or rebuild it if enough information remains.