Double C Seismic Accelerometer - sswelm/KSPInterstellar GitHub Wiki

Since KSPI 10.0's release it is now possible to perform impactor type experiments using a repurposed stock science collection tool.

  1. Attach the accelerometer(a little yellow stock science thing) on the probe.
  2. Land it (gently) on the surface.
  3. Click on accelerometer - "Record Seismic data". It will say "Surface will be monitored for impact events".
  4. Smash some spacecraft into the ground FOR THE SCIENCE! Impactors needn't even be within physics range (2.5km) of an active science instrument. Just crash a ship into the ground, it doesn't need anything special on it. The impactor must be the active vessel: you have to control it when it crashes, rather than watching from the surface or from orbit. You will see the message "Impact recorded, science report can now be accessed from one of your accelerometers deployed on this body".
  5. Go to the accelerometer probe and click on it - "Collect Impact Data".
  6. Transmit data (you will need a lot of electricity - maybe several thousand) or land the probe back on Kerbin and recover it to receive the science.
    • Specifically, the size of the transmitted data is fixed at 2.5 Mits per point of science. If you know how much power your antenna uses per Mit transmitted, you can translate the maximum science given below into the maximum possible power requirement.

The amount of science you get depends on the number of detectors you have and their position (more detectors will give you a bit more science beyond what one alone will give you). It's infinitely repeatable but the gains will get smaller with each impact, the result of that is on low science worlds (like Kerbin) only a few experiments are necessary to get almost all of the science that is practically available. Science yield for each impact is half of the previous one (subject to any changes in the sensor grid). If you sum 1+1/2+1/4+…, the limit is 2, so max science is twice the yield of the first impact. Distant high science worlds will be viable for a larger number of experiments.

When using multiple impactors you will need to rename each of them to a unique name; the game remembers the name of the impacts that have hit and won't award you science for repeated strikes. Work around this by renaming them 2, 3, etc.

Here are the Impactor Science Multipliers:

DUNA EVE IKE GILLY multiplier = 7.5 MUN MINMUS multiplier = 5 JOOL TYLO POL BOP multiplier = 12.5 LAYTHE VALL multiplier = 15 EELOO MOHO multiplier = 25 DRES multiplier = 9.25 KERBIN multiplier = 0.5

Max science for first impact with one detector is 50multiplier. Max science for first impact with multiple detectors is 3.550*multiplier

This type of experiment does not work with the typical biomes (or lack of biomes) that each planet/moon has. Instead it depends on the relative location of where the detectors have landed. For example, on Duna you can get 375 science for first impact, if you use one detector. Or 1312.5 science if you use six detectors (assuming you have landed data collection probes at the following locations: 0 degrees longitude, 90 degrees longitude, 180 degrees longitude, 270 degrees longitude, north pole, south pole). This apparently works regardless of whether or not a planet has been given biomes by Squad (e.g. it will work on Duna, Eeloo, where ever.)

  • Mass of impactor does not matter to science amount.
  • Speed of impactor matters in that it must be more than 40m/s. If it is less, then it will not register on the data collection device and no text will pop up after you have crashed.
  • Information about performed impactor experiments is stored in WarpPlugin.cfg (not in save file). If you perform an experiment and then load a previous savegame- the science will be lost;
  • If you dislike your result or you lost it in quickload you can go to saves\savename\WarpPlugin.cfg and delete SEISMIC_SCIENCE_CELESTIALBODYNAME{--many lines--} and perform the experiment on CELESTIALBODYNAME again. Backup this file and quicksave before you make changes;
  • The runway is a model so crashing into it doesn't generate the right behaviour. You need to crash into the ground;
  • If you want the stock science functionality of accelerometer back, go GameData\WarpPlugin\science.cfg and delete this: !MODULE[ModuleScienceExperiment] { }