How do I use the scanning arm, and does it work on asteroids?

[ezpzggsqueezy]

Hey all, so I just got back into the game and am super excited, the gear you can deploy like the mini ground stations and stuff seem awesome, there's just one main thing I'm wondering right now, and that's how to use the sampling arm.

I took one on a vehicle to the monolith and trees near the ksp base hover both times it said there was no target, I saw a picture of someone sampling a tree, so I'm not sure if I have to designate a target, or if it just automatically does it to things that are interesting and nearby.

Also curious if you need to run some sort of wires from the ground deployable mini solar panels to other gear, or if they just work based on proximity or something like that.

[Bobington]

Get close to the thing, right click the arm.

[accent]

The deployable parts just need to be close by. Set the solar panels up with your best engineer to maximize their output. Expect it to start spamming you with "no connection to KSC" messages when the solar panels don't generate power during nights and it will keep thinking it doesn't have a connection until you visit the station and time accelerate until daylight (even if it was daylight already but you haven't visited or been in control of the station)

[Bobington]

For that reason, I suggest not using ground stuff until you get the RTG. The message spam will slow the game down.