How is probe speed determined?

[dudeworthington]

I have high thrust probes and contributed the most research to the mission to mars technology. It was my understanding that these two things determined how quickly a faction can scout a location. So I was quite surprised to find a primo spot on Mars and another on an asteriod unlocked by the Mars mission already had bases under construction by exodus and protectorate respectively. It is entirely possible that I was just careless, mis-clicked something, etc, etc. But I thought I took the correct precautions but here I am line-cut out of the best spots. I started wondering, could this due to both of those factions having certain power plants and drives researched? It would make sense but then again this is not as yet documented anywhere that I know of. If true, it would incentive the player to keep up with current propulsion technology, even when it is not complimentary to the overall plan for fleet composition.

[Ericus1]

Engine and drive techs do not effect probe speeds.

Total probe time is composed of three factors: a fixed 14 days to build the probe, the transfer time which only depends on the specific techs that say they impact probe speed - i.e. high thrust probes - and where the probe was launched from, and the scanning time which is based on the number of sites at the destination.

The latter is the only one impacted by your contribution to the global Mission to X tech. Still, if you have high thrust probes and contributed the most, your probe should have gotten there and finished first.

Probes can be built at any shipyard, however, not just Earth so it is possible, unlikely but possible, that they had orbitals with shipyards that were significantly closer to Mars and that asteroid than wherever you launched your probe from, and so their transit time were sufficiently better to beat you there.

[mk11]

Did they have a shipyard in orbit while you were launching from Earth surface? Not sure how much difference that can make.

[Aranador]

It is possible, if super unlikely, that they had a ship with a science lab that they fired off to mars early, so as soon as Mission to Mars unlocked, they could probe it then and there.