Take a reading

Measure the air with a Thermometer or a Barometer in flight, and find the measurement again in your log afterwards.

You need this the first time you fly an instrument, and every time you reach somewhere you have not measured before.

Steps

  1. Put the instrument on the ship. In the hangar, tap the category tabs down the left edge until the drawer's header reads ‹ Sensors, then pull the Thermometer or the Barometer sideways out of the drawer and drop it on the flank of a tank or a pod. It joins with one point, flat against the hull.
  2. Launch. Tap Fly, then STAGE to light the first stage.
  3. Fly to where you want the measurement. The altitude readout at the top left of the flight screen is the figure the reading will be filed under.
  4. Tap the instrument on the ship. Its sheet opens over the flight screen, titled Thermometer or Barometer.
  5. Tap Take reading. The sheet closes and the measurement appears in a line under the ship: what it read, the same figure in degrees Celsius if there was air, and the altitude.
    A flight screen with the line Thermometer: 281.5 K (8.35 °C) · 1000 m under the ship.
    The reading's line sits under the ship. An achievement it earned pops up above it.
  6. Find it again in the hangar. Tap the credits chip at the top of the hangar. The sheet that opens is titled Player; tap Readings on it. Your whole log opens, newest first.
    The Readings sheet listing Pressure 0 kPa over the Moon and Temperature 281.5 K over Earth, each with a delete button.
    Each row names the measurement, then where, how high, whether there was air, and which ship took it.
Note
To read at an exact point in an ascent without taking a thumb off the controls, put the instrument in a stage instead. It reads the moment that stage fires. See Staging.

What you should see

A reading that worked prints one line under the ship with a figure in it, and adds a row to your log. If it earned an achievement, its own panel appears above with the credits and discovery it paid.

A reading that found no charge prints the instrument's name and no power instead of a figure. Nothing is measured, nothing is filed and nothing is paid. Add a battery, or wait for a solar panel to put charge back.

A row marked saving… in the log has not reached your account yet. It goes on its own the next time the game connects. To throw a reading away, tap the ✕ beside its row.

Related