Stock Resource Scanning
🔝 Stock Resource Distribution
Before going on with resource prospecting it's worth noting how resource distribution is handled by KSP.
Planetary resources use a biome-based distribution model.
- Each biome is assigned an average resource concentration value
- That value remains consistent across all instances of that biome on any planet
- Within each biome resource concentration can vary in a procedural manner
- Generally, the resource concentration variance within a biome is relatively small
- The concentration difference between biomes can vary significantly depending on the global minimum and maximum resource concentration values.
The resource distribution model progresses from global, to planetary, to biome-specific values. Each level specifies minimum and maximum resource concentrations, along with a few other values.
- Global Resource: This setting specifies resource distribution for any planet and biome not given a specific definition; these are the default values
- Resources can be given a certain chance to appear on any given planet; anything less than 100 means that the resource might not appear on some planets
- The amount the resource concentrations can vary from one biome to another and within each biome can also be controlled
- Planetary Resource: This setting specifies resource distribution for one specific planet; it can be used, for instance, to not allow any Ore on Jool
- Biome Resource: This is the most specific setting; it specifies resource distribution within one biome on the specified planet; it is used to set the Ore concentration to 0% on Kerbin's oceans, for instance
In general, without changing the stock resource configuration, most planets will end up with a few biomes that have no Ore, while others have varying concentrations.
🔝 Stock Resource Scanning
Before we go over SCANsat's resource scanning methods we need to discuss the stock resource scanning, or really prospecting, system. Keep in mind that the following applies only to planetary resources, other types have much simpler detection and scanning methods and aren't covered by SCANsat.
🔝 Scanning Instruments
There are three primary stock parts for determining where best to drill for resources.
- M700 Survey Scanner: This is the large, clamshell shaped dish; it is used for the initial orbital scanning
- M4435 Narrow-Band Scanner: This is the hexagonal spinning detector; it is used for precise resource scanning over a limited area
- Surface Scanning Module: This is a small, surface-attachable part found in the science parts tab; it used for surface, or ground-truthing; it basically improves the accuracy of other resource scanning data
🔝 Scanning; From Orbit to Biome
The stock system follows a basic progression starting from the M700, moving to ground-truthing (verifying orbital scans with surface-based data) on the surface, and finally using the Narrow-Band scanner's high resolution resource abundance data to find a good location for drilling.
🔝 Orbital Scanning
The M700 is almost always the starting point; most of the other resource prospecting parts don't fully work until the M700 has been used to scan a celestial body.
To scan a planet with the M700 a few requirements must be met
- You must be in a nearly-polar orbit; an inclination greater than 80°
- You must be in a stable orbit (no fly-bys or suborbital scans)
- Your orbital periapsis and apoapsis must be within a certain limit (25km - 1500km, but differs for very large or small planets)
- You must have a working antenna on board the vessel and enough electricity to complete the transmission
When these conditions are met the scan can begin. It will take a few seconds and will transmit data back home, giving some science points. After this the planet has been scanned and all of the prospecting and scanning functions of the other parts will be unlocked. At this point it is not necessary to leave the scanner in orbit, all overlays and other resource scanning functions will remain unlocked with or without an M700 in orbit.
The orbital resource overlays are also unlocked at this point. These can be activated and controlled in two ways.
- The M700 has an orbital overlay toggle and controls within its right-click context menu; these can be used from the flight scene
- In map mode or at the tracking station the overlays can be controlled by focusing on the planet (double click on it, or tab to it), selecting the knowledge base icon (along the middle-right of the screen) and selecting the resource to display
- Controls are available to adjust the color scheme, overlay style, resource abundance cutoff levels, and the resource being shown if more than one is available
- The resource cutoff level is adjustable in steps of 10% from 0-100%
- This cutoff level does not directly correlate to resource abundance
- The 0-100% value is a percentage of the the maximum resource abundance for that planet
- So if a planet has a max Ore abundance of 15%, a 30% cutoff will show anything above 4.5% Ore
It is important to keep in mind that the orbital overlay map is not particularly accurate. It gives a very general sense of whether and where resources are present on the planet. More accurate results require different scanners and surface data.
🔝 Ground Truthing
For truly accurate resource abundance results you need to land on the surface and collect data. Without collecting any surface data resource abundance data will be limited to the average amount for each biome. This applies to abundance readout in scanners' right-click context menus, the Narrow-Band scanner's high resolution map, and the planetary overlays.
To collect surface data you simply land and collect data with the Surface Scanning Module, that's it. Once you collect data you will now get fully accurate resource abundance readouts for that biome. To get accurate results everywhere you will need to collect data from each biome.
Collecting a full data set for each planet is generally not necessary. The resource overlay map will usually provide a good idea of the two or three best biomes for each planet. From there you can land at each of those biomes and collect data.
It should be noted that, while collecting surface data does improve the accuracy of the resource overlay, it isn't by a tremendous amount. You will still need to conduct closer resource scanning to find the best location.
A minor oddity to note here is that the Surface Scanning Module has a resource abundance readout in its right-click context menu that only functions below 1km. The value given here reflects the actual abundance, regardless of whether the biome has been scanned, even though the readout says (x% avg) when it hasn't been scanned. The readout for the Narrow-Band Scanner does require that the biome has been scanned before showing the fully accurate value, though it can be used up to 500km.
🔝 High Resolution Resource Data
For highly accurate resource data you will need to use the M4435 Narrow-Band Scanner, the smaller, spinning, hexagonal detector.
This instrument provides two sources of data
- The right-click context menu provides a resource abundance readout from orbit; this readout does not require that an orbital scan with M700 be completed before using
- The resource map provides a localized, very accurate, image of the surface centered around the vessel's current position; this function does require that an orbital scan with the M700 be completed first
- It is important to note that there is no way to store images from the narrow-band resource map aside from manually writing down coordinates or taking a screenshot; there is no way to access scans from anywhere other than the current vessel position
The small resource map is the most valuable tool for finding the best location. It gives you an idea of what the planet's surface looks like, provides full resource abundance accuracy, and while mousing over the map tells you the coordinates and concentration of resources at that location.