Kerbal Space Program – Required Altitude to Register Above a Biome

In Kerbal Space Program, Science depends on the location and the type of experiment.

Altitude Corridor

In detail, for Kerbin, this makes five altitude corridors (with some caveats):

• On the Ground (0m)
• Lower Atmosphere (≤ 18km)
• Upper Atmosphere (≤ 69km)
• Near Space (≤ 250km)
• Outer Space (> 250km)

Biomes

On top of that, Kerbin knows various biomes:

• Grasslands
• Highlands
• Mountains
• Deserts
• Badlands
• Tundra
• Ice Caps
• Water
• Shores

Additionally, the Space Center also has various mini-biomes which return separate results, but only when on the ground (above ground, the whole space center counts as "Shores"):

• Administration
• Astronaut Complex
• Crawlerway
• Flag Pole
• LaunchPad
• Mission Control
• R&D
• Runway
• SPH
• Tracking Station
• VAB

Experiments

Depending on the experiment, some of these altitude corridors have per-biome results, others only have one result for the entire corridor.

In particular:

The Surface Sample is a biome-dependant surface-only experiment.

The EVA Report is biome-dependant on the surface, in the lower atmosphere and in near space; it is global everywhere else.

The Crew Report is biome-dependant on the surface and in the lower atmosphere; it is global everywhere else.

The Mystery Goo Observation (available through the Mystery Goo™ Containment Unit from the Basic Rocketry tech node) is biome-dependant on the surface; it is global everywhere else.

Storing Experiments

There can only be one crew report per part that produces a crew report (that is, per capsule), which is stored in the part. It can be transmitted, in which case it makes space for a new crew report.

Both the EVA report and the Surface Sample experiments can be stored in the capsule as well, with each combination of altitude corridor and biome once. So, you can store a surface sample from every biome, and EVA reports from every biome all at once.

Transmitting Results

Results can either be recovered by landing the craft on Kerbin and then recovering it from the Tracking Station (or from the craft view, where it's hidden at the top of the screen), or by transmitting them home.

Transmission is hardly effective this early into the tech tree - you lack the electricity to send the results back. Nevertheless, you can - for example - send back one crew report to make space for another, so here's some information about transmission as well:

Every experiment has a transmission efficiency, which reduces the Science yield on transmission (as opposed to recovery).

In the case of the Surface Sample this is 25%, which makes them an undesirable candidate for transmission.

Similarly, the Mystery Goo Observation has only 30% efficiency.

All reports (be that EVA or Crew), however, return a full 100%.

Contracts are currently your only source of income in KSP*.

When you don't have any contracts you find profitable, you can reject any contracts you haven't accepted yet without a penalty. You should do so until you get some which are lucrative and easy to do.

Your best bet are "Test [part] in flight over Kerbin" contracts, which have a low height requirements. It is often possible to build a single vessel which can complete multiple of them with a single flight and then land near the KSC in one piece. When you recover the vessel at the KSC, you get a refund for almost the complete launch cost.

To secure your financial future in the long term, you should get a capsule with solar panels and an antenna into the orbit. When you have one, you can fulfill the "Return science data from Kerbin orbit" just by switching to the vessel, making a crew report (even when it is only worth 0.0 science) and transmitting it. The contract is repeatable indefinitely, so you can do this again and again to get unlimited money with zero effort.

*) Edit: OK, I lied. Contracts are not really the only one. You can also use the "Patent Licensing" strategy in the administration building to convert some of the science points you get into cash. But the transfer rate is so bad and the number of science points you need to pay to activate it is so high, that it is not a viable option to make lots of money, especially in the beginning. The only useful application for this strategy is when you already unlocked all parts and want at least some use for additional science points you make.