Removable Science

[FREEFALL1984]

Here's a suggestion based on a question asked in the tutorial section.

How about having removable science, by that I mean a component, which takes in all of a vessels science as it collects it for return to kerbin, this component would weigh a considerable amount and fits onto a port component which can be attached to any vessel. the removal and refitting procedure can only be performed by a kerbal on EVA. the science packet can then be sent back to kerbin by any means necessary, if the science packet is lost or destroyed, then the research must be performed again. I think this will allow people to create "micro return" vessels and have them designed solely to return science to kerbin. it could potentially add new options to the game, either, spam transmit & clean experiments, or return a single science packet with several thousand points of science aboard. Even make several docked probes on a single unmanned ship, each probe carries a science packet, and once a certain amount of science is complete, a single probe returns to kerbin to allow the larger mothership to continue around the system : )

[Kasuha]

Send a kerbal on EVA, get him near an instrument, right-click on the instrument, and select Take Data from the menu. When the Kerbal enters the pod, he stores all science he's holding in it. This way you don't have to return a single scientific instrument, all you need to return to Kerbin is the pod.

[FREEFALL1984]

Indeed, but if you then want to transfer the data from one pod to another there is no option. Having science transport modules would allow people more flexibility with regards to science without having to return either their full larger vessels, or core elements of their ships.

[Superfluous J]

Your EVA'd Kerbal can remove science from anything that has science. Experiments, pods, even other Kerbals.

I had a Mun mission where I went down with a small pod, scienced up a crater, removed all science from the instruments and put them in the pod, returned to the orbiter, removed the science from the pod and put it in a pod destined to return to Kerbin, scrubbed the goo and jr's with a lab, and then went back down to a different crater to repeat. 8 biomes got me 6000 science and all that came back was 2 mk1s stuck together with a tiny engine, some fuel, and a parachute. That science had been all over the place on the bigger ship though.

That said, I like the idea of a "science storage" part though I'd suggest it not be so big. It has to be smaller than the smallest capsule else people would just use that.

Edited March 20, 2014 by 5thHorseman

[Kasuha]

It might be comfortable if probe cores had an option to "suck" science from all parts of the ship. But I think Squad is not going to implement that because then sending Kerbals would lose some of its key advantages.

[FREEFALL1984]

Ah, I was never aware a kerbal could remove science from another command pod and replace it into another, I always thought once it was in a pod it was fixed until landing, I assume this is the same procedure for removing science from instruments, I shall have to try this technique.

Can a kerbal store science in an unmanned probe body? if so that would then eliminate the need for such a part. And simple group of 3 radial engines attached to an FL-t100 tank with a lightweight probe body and a parachute would make a splendid return craft. They could even be stacked on top of each other using decouplers ultimately making a group of simple return craft weighing in at less than 0.9 tons each.

Thank you for this advice, in my current career I have abstained from visiting minmus, (I'm trying to clean Mun first) once I create a minmus craft I shall use your method and expand on it to build an oversized minmus rover, complete with a science lab, all the experiments a kerbal could ever want and a series of docking ports attached to the top (to allow the future addition of new science instruments) and also a string of 4 of 5 micro return crafts, each capable of attaining an orbit and landing on kerbin.

[Seret]

IIRC it does have to be a pod. My Mun exploration programme is based on a lander that hops back and forth between the surface and a station in orbit, where the science is transferred to a shuttle with a pod. Shuttle flies back to Kerbin, drops the pod, picks up a new pod launched from KSC and takes it back to the station orbiting the Mun.

[Superfluous J]

It might be comfortable if probe cores had an option to "suck" science from all parts of the ship. But I think Squad is not going to implement that because then sending Kerbals would lose some of its key advantages.

I see no reason why they couldn't implement that but only on the Kerbal's right click menu. So you gotta bring him along but it saves a lot of drudgery work. Especially if they add more science parts. Right now it's like 5 this you gotta collect, but if it was 20... ew.

Can a kerbal store science in an unmanned probe body? if so that would then eliminate the need for such a part.

Yes, he can. I actually set my lander up so the Kerbal could get out and grab all the science from the ladder, then right click the pod and store it. Very easy. However, you could justify a small (somewhere between the size of a pod and a size of a probe core) "science module" that could store science and also be a probe core, but it couldn't store science itself. A Kerbal would have to put it in there, but then it could fly home on its own. Marginally useful? Sure. But less so than the science lab

[FREEFALL1984]

Marginally useful? Sure. But less so than the science lab

But when used in conjunction with a mobile land based science lab, it saves you having to spam transmit results and minimizes the time spent cleaning experiments. I'm thinking, Large land based rover, fitted with a science lab, multiple SSTO minipods, each comprised of a small vessel capable of getting into a stable orbit and performing a rendezvous. once docked the science is transferred to the main station and the pods are refueled, and returned to the surface, either to re-dock with the rover or land within close proximity. Then at every transfer window, a nuclear tug is sent to meet the station and bring additional fuel supplies and/or planetary escape vehicles to the target planet before then return to kerbin with all the science vessels. While the SSTO minipods are travelling to orbit the science lab scrubs all the experiments and performs a few transmits in order to clean the last bit of research from the biome, before slowly chugging off to find more science. That way you can clean the science from a planet without having to spam the crap out of the experiments

[Seret]

The science lab is awesome around a body with multiple biomes. Getting a robot lander to shuttle back and forth to the surface caning goo and materials bay is an easy way to pick up tons of science in the early career game.

[Superfluous J]

The science lab is awesome around a body with multiple biomes. Getting a robot lander to shuttle back and forth to the surface caning goo and materials bay is an easy way to pick up tons of science in the early career game.

I totally agree. That means it has a grand total of 2 uses currently.

[Joonatan1998]

The lab weights more than 11 * (goo container + materials bay), it is more efficient to just use lots of those and just leave them on the surface, return only with a command pod and refuel at the station/ship and dock a new science module (goo + materials bay) and return to the surface. While mun has over 12 different biomes you have to remember the weight of the fuel it takes to get the materials bay (and goo container) back to orbit.

Even if you want to take several experiments in each biome it will weight less to just bring lots of materials bays and goo containers.

Yes, the lab is good for roleplaying, but at the moment it is useless for almost everything else.

(If you want to use rover to visit all biomes on mun/minmus and take 4*goo + 4*materials on each biome then it is better to use the lab, but that takes so much time that most players will just use a lander(s))

[Superfluous J]

The lab weights more than 11 * (goo container + materials bay), it is more efficient to just use lots of those and just leave them on the surface, return only with a command pod and refuel at the station/ship and dock a new science module (goo + materials bay) and return to the surface. While mun has over 12 different biomes you have to remember the weight of the fuel it takes to get the materials bay (and goo container) back to orbit.

Even if you want to take several experiments in each biome it will weight less to just bring lots of materials bays and goo containers.

Yes, the lab is good for roleplaying, but at the moment it is useless for almost everything else.

(If you want to use rover to visit all biomes on mun/minmus and take 4*goo + 4*materials on each biome then it is better to use the lab, but that takes so much time that most players will just use a lander(s))

While that may be true if you take the lab to the surface, it is NOT true if you leave it in orbit and go down-and-up with a single goo and jr on your ship. I culled the mun for science in a few hours with less than an orange tank's worth of fuel by leaving the lab in orbit.

EDIT

Oh I see what you're saying, sorry. I totally missed the last half of your first paragraph. I still prefer the lab for simplicity's sake but your technique does render it's use to even greater marginality.

Edited March 20, 2014 by 5thHorseman