Benefits of Multiple Science Instruments?

[Captain_Brian]

I've always generally just put 1 of everything on a Science Jr. along with a ladder and saved it as a sub assembly to use on all my craft. (Usually with 3 to 4 of these subassemblies on my ships.)

Recently, I figured out that only the Science Jr. and Goo Canister actually need to be scrubbed before reusing them, whereas everything else can be reused indefinitely.

So should I just have multiple Science Jr's and Goo Canisters and only 1 set of the other instruments on my command pod, or is there a reason to have multiple ones of them too?

I generally bring all my science back instead of transmitting, in case that's relevant.

[Roastduck]

I have actually never used the mobile processing lab. Is it possible to pull data from a unit, then scrub it and reuse it?

[Mitchz95]

Science Jr's and Goo Canisters are way heavier than the little ones. You're best off doing exactly what you're doing.

Is it possible to pull data from a unit, then scrub it and reuse it?

Yes.

[Captain_Brian]

Science Jr's and Goo Canisters are way heavier than the little ones. You're best off doing exactly what you're doing.

So, 3 to 4 copies of all the instruments?

But if you can just take the data and reset the smaller instruments then why take all the other copies of them? Not to mention having them all attached to the command pod makes retrieval extremely easy.

[Mitchz95]

Ah, I misunderstood the question. Sorry.

Yes, you can have one each of those parts on the cockpit and the big ones separate.

[No one]

A command pod can only carry one result per instrument per biome/scenario. It generally takes more than one measurement to get all the science from an instrument. Thus, unless you have multiple command pods/have a science lab/have a kerbal in a command seat, it's generally best to have multiple science instruments. Especially given how the smaller ones are massless and thus there's no downside to taking more of them (At the moment. Budgets will change this).

[Pthigrivi]

I did the math on this and this and the break even point is about six collection points depending on design. The method is to take 6 or more lander cans with docking ports each side and a reusable lander assembly with gear, rcs, lander engine and one of each sensor you'll need. The mothership houses the fuel and science lab for scrubbing the equipment between landings. That way after you reach orbit you can detatch the lander module, bring down a lander can, collect the science and load it onto the can, return to the mothership, rinse, and repeat with a new lander can. You can do the same doubling everything if you want to do low-orbit science over each of these biomes. Once all of your cans are filled you can trek back and aerobrake>rendezvous with a parachute assembly in LKO to bring down just the cans.

[Vallius]

Why not just take 1 lander (and maybe 2 command modules to store experiments), and reuse the same lander for each biome? You'd save a lot of spaceship mass that way.

[magnemoe]

You want multiple gravtional detectors, at least for places with biomes, I say four of them, one to store one to transmit and some extra so you don't have to eva all the time and collect data.

Two thermometers is also nice.

An two pod lander has benefits, mostly for surface samples, but also for goo and material lab samples. It also make it easier to keep track of stuff like eva reports and surface samples, you want to store two and also transmit to get maximum returns, multiple mods also let you store result in special units so you can do two samples and keep the pod free for data to transmit.