Disappearing ship after data transmission

[Gnaar_Mok]

Today, two unmanned landers disappeared from the tracking station after data transmission. Is this intended behavior? I suppose it makes sense that I shouldn't just be able to return to the ships and re-run the data over and over again, but I was a little surprised that they disappeared all together. Anyone have any insight into this?

[Whatshtisthis]

Did you revert your flight or something?

[Tex_NL]

Are they REALLY gone or are they just missing from the map?

It's possible they're labeled as debris. The map does not show debris by default. To show debris in the map pull down the top menu and click debris to show them. Don't panic if other labels disappear from the map, that's just temporary. As soon as you leave and return to the map it reverts back to default.

[Sirrobert]

Did they have solar pannels?

I believe that probes that run out of power are turned into debris

[Claw]

I am also suspicious of it running out of power, although I can't recall off hand what happens to a craft in the map when it runs out of power. I didn't think it disappeared, but...

In any case, you can check if it's running out of power by opening the resource tab in the top right of your screen. It will show your electrical charge. If it hits zero, your probe will sometimes die even if you have solar panels if there isn't enough charge to complete the transmission.

If your probe is disappearing from the map mode (or tracking station), you can see if it's still actually there somewhere by moving your mouse to the top center of the screen. A series of buttons will pop up (as mentioned above). These filter the view to show you probes, manned missions, and a host of other types. You can click on each type to show their map icons, and each button has a little number to tell you how many of that kind of craft are active in your game. If your probe is showing up as debris for some reason, you can find it here (with the left most button).

If you could be more specific about what you're doing just before and after the transmission, or provide a screenshot of your craft, it will probably be easier for us to help you figure out if it's a craft design problem or a bug.

Edited March 1, 2014 by Claw

[Gnaar_Mok]

So strange. Again, I'm not sure if this is intended behavior (it does prevent data spam after all, lol) but the ships are definitely disappearing. They do not turn into debris, there aren't any power issues so I'm not sure. In fact, both craft have been landed on the mun for some time before I actually performed the data transmission, it was only after this that they disappeared.

http://imgur.com/YJLCxOH

Edited March 1, 2014 by Gnaar_Mok

[Claw]

The landers should not disappear. There are other methods in stock KSP v0.23 to prevent data spam (such as limiting the amount of science earned by transmission).

I run stock KSP (except for MechJeb and KER) and I've not run into data transmission = craft gone. It looks like you have a few mods installed so I don't know if there's a problem with one of those. I'm not familiar with all of what you have installed, so it's hard to tell how much battery power you have.

When you say it disappears, do you mean that you're looking at it, you transmit data, and it disappears?

Or are you somewhere else when you transmit the data? (Like in the Tracking Station or Map mode?)

Or are you "flying" the probe, you transmit the data, then exit to the space center, go to the tracking station and it's gone?

EDIT: I launched a probe and let it run out of electrical charge. It didn't disappear, or turn into debris. It was still a "probe." So unless there's something wacky with a mod, I don't think lack of electricity would cause it to turn into debris.

Edited March 1, 2014 by Claw

[Gnaar_Mok]

Or are you "flying" the probe, you transmit the data, then exit to the space center, go to the tracking station and it's gone?

This. Thanks for the help, I'm probably just running into some weirdness with mods. I'll continue to hash it out.