How to rescue a stranded Kerbal with low tech

[WanderingKid]

Hello folks, I'm here with an updated tutorial video to help you get your stranded Kerbals home in career mode with relatively low tech and no upgrades, and to introduce the K.U.R.S.E., the Kerbal Urgent Recovery System, Extraordinaire.  My old video still gets plenty of hits, so I figured it was about time to bring it to the current version and cleanup the tutorial somewhat.

You can find the craft file for the KURSE here: https://www.dropbox.com/s/32c4rrlb7cgp1kk/K_U_R_S_E_.craft?dl=0

Happy Hunting!

Edited November 20, 2016 by WanderingKid

[nascarlaser1]

THANK YOU!!!!!!

[wumpus]

Impressive.

For those wondering about the video, "low tech" means "with only the tracking station upgraded" (for maneuver nodes) and "advanced rocketry" [level 4], and stability [level 3] unlocked (I suspect it might even work at lower tech levels if you can get a contract to test the LV-909).  It also shows the critical setting "show craft labels" first thing.

Note that the pad is upgraded, and electrics are available (shown when demonstrating the KURSE2).  I'm suspecting that Valentina got to level 3 thanks to a single-seat KURSE2 (with solar panels), otherwise I'll need another video.

[WanderingKid]

18 minutes ago, wumpus said:

For those wondering about the video, "low tech" means "with only the tracking station upgraded" (for maneuver nodes) and "advanced rocketry" [level 4], and stability [level 3] unlocked (I suspect it might even work at lower tech levels if you can get a contract to test the LV-909).  It also shows the critical setting "show craft labels" first thing.

Note that the pad is upgraded, and electrics are available (shown when demonstrating the KURSE2).  I'm suspecting that Valentina got to level 3 thanks to a single-seat KURSE2 (with solar panels), otherwise I'll need another video.

A clarification, as I'm not sure the tone you're intending via simple text:

The tracking station doesn't need to be upgraded, I don't use maneuver nodes nor orbital targetting at any point.  The KURSE fits on a basic Launchpad, it comes in under 18t. Finally, you can get level 1 prograde controls for your pilot simply orbiting, and is simply convenient, not necessary.

Yes, you do need the Terrier, however.  If you were looking for a way to pick up a Kerbal at Tier 1 science, no, I don't have that solution.  I did record the video later in a career game I was playing mostly because I was waiting to remove orbital clutter for ease of viewability.  Having 12 different returning and departing vessel orbits was cluttering up the screen.

[wumpus]

1 hour ago, WanderingKid said:

A clarification, as I'm not sure the tone you're intending via simple text:

The tracking station doesn't need to be upgraded, I don't use maneuver nodes nor orbital targetting at any point.  The KURSE fits on a basic Launchpad, it comes in under 18t. Finally, you can get level 1 prograde controls for your pilot simply orbiting, and is simply convenient, not necessary.

Yes, you do need the Terrier, however.  If you were looking for a way to pick up a Kerbal at Tier 1 science, no, I don't have that solution.  I did record the video later in a career game I was playing mostly because I was waiting to remove orbital clutter for ease of viewability.  Having 12 different returning and departing vessel orbits was cluttering up the screen.

Ouch.  I noticed the lack of targeting nodes, but didn't notice lack of maneuver nodes. 

I really don't think you can get back from orbit without unlocking at least tier 2 (so unlocking stability and those fins is an option).  I suppose you *could* do your first orbit with two capsules and hope to get a rescue contract while in orbit, but that seems overly complicated (I'm assuming the rescue contracts pop up once you orbit, not land).  I'm pretty sure you can't get those contracts without at least hitting orbit first.  If you managed to do EVAs above most of the Kerbin biomes, I imagine it wouldn't be hard to unlock advanced flight after landing on your first orbit (and you would be very unlikely to have any tech not used in your video).

Mostly of my comments had to do with the sudden realization that Val was level 3 and that it looked like the rest of your tech was really low (but not quite at the minimum you were using for the video) and wondering just how little tech you did/could have managed it with.  Once I saw that I checked that the tracking station and pad appeared to be upgraded (which must have been handy for leveling Val, even if you didn't need it to rescue kerbals).

[silly bug report] Note to devs: we want to debrief Dudebal to give up the tech for a mk2 cockpit.  How in the world do other kerbals keep having better tech than the player but still need to be routinely rescued (and never seem to show up to rescue our own kerbals).

[WanderingKid]

51 minutes ago, wumpus said:

Ouch.  I noticed the lack of targeting nodes, but didn't notice lack of maneuver nodes. 

I really don't think you can get back from orbit without unlocking at least tier 2 (so unlocking stability and those fins is an option).  I suppose you *could* do your first orbit with two capsules and hope to get a rescue contract while in orbit, but that seems overly complicated (I'm assuming the rescue contracts pop up once you orbit, not land).  I'm pretty sure you can't get those contracts without at least hitting orbit first.  If you managed to do EVAs above most of the Kerbin biomes, I imagine it wouldn't be hard to unlock advanced flight after landing on your first orbit (and you would be very unlikely to have any tech not used in your video).

As far as I can tell even simply orbiting won't get you those contracts, though you can get tourist contracts right after an orbit.  I'm hoping some more mod writing or investigative players can help me here with nailing that down:

Also, I guess it depends on what you consider Tier 2.  I consider the first node that's open by default Tier 1, just so I line up with the wiki when I do my videos.

51 minutes ago, wumpus said:

Mostly of my comments had to do with the sudden realization that Val was level 3 and that it looked like the rest of your tech was really low (but not quite at the minimum you were using for the video) and wondering just how little tech you did/could have managed it with.  Once I saw that I checked that the tracking station and pad appeared to be upgraded (which must have been handy for leveling Val, even if you didn't need it to rescue kerbals).

[silly bug report] Note to devs: we want to debrief Dudebal to give up the tech for a mk2 cockpit.  How in the world do other kerbals keep having better tech than the player but still need to be routinely rescued (and never seem to show up to rescue our own kerbals).

I was going to comment that Val wasn't level 3 there, but I had the wrong career in mind...   As for the tech levels, since it was a tutorial video there was a few things I wanted to make sure the ship had:

• Enough Delta-V for newbies to adjust to mistakes (like I did in the video when I flattened out too early and stayed in the drag atmo too long, I usually get apo above 50km on the T-45).
• Enough Delta-V that you don't have to wait ages for orbital rendezvous if you're off slightly.
• A very safe default parachute pattern.
• Solid flight controls for the gravity turn.
• Ease of controls in orbit so you're not flipping SAS on and off to deal with electrical drain.

As to the bare minimums:

• 2xMK1 Pod
• Mk16 chute on top, adjust to 1,250m altitude deployment to avoid bricking.
• TR-18A
• 19xFL-T100 Tank
• 1xT-45 Swivel
• TR-18A
• RT-10 Hammer at max thrust.

17.630t, 19.1m tall, 26 parts.  You'll hit orbit with ~245 m/s dv left.  You'll need ~60 of that to de-orbit cleanly aiming for 32,500 altitude.  Leaves you about 180 m/s of dv to play with.  You have to adjust incredibly slow, and let your orbit do all of the work.  Turn off SAS for turns and turn it on again once you've rotated, to save on electricity.  It's a monster and the SAS will chew on it.  Once you're within the 2.2 km of the target swap out and have the rescue victim come to you.  It's a long flight but they've got more dv than you do!  

That's my tier 2 solution, but I don't like flying it.  It has absolutely no room for errors, and landing in highlands/mountains is dangerous, if not suicidal.  On a side note, the KURSE requires Flight Control and Advanced Rocketry.  It's not obvious at first glance but those are AV-R8s on the tail, not AV-T1s.  Hard to tell without having the craft file in front of you however.

So the KURSE, as the craft file stands, requires:

• Advanced Rocketry (45)
• Flight Control (45)
• All of Tier 3, 2, and 1 (63)
• Total: 153

So, you're right in a way, I suppose it depends on what you consider 'low-tech'.  Those nodes to me though are very early opens, even in a Hard career.  I did however adjust my saved version of the KURSE to simply use the Tier 1 tailfins instead of the AV-R8s to drop the price on the ship further, but I wouldn't want a newbie trying to fly that thing.  It requires a practiced touch.

Edited December 15, 2016 by WanderingKid

[wumpus]

On 12/15/2016 at 3:24 PM, WanderingKid said:

As to the bare minimums:

• 2xMK1 Pod
• Mk16 chute on top, adjust to 1,250m altitude deployment to avoid bricking.
• TR-18A
• 19xFL-T100 Tank
• 1xT-45 Swivel
• TR-18A
• RT-10 Hammer at max thrust.

After playing with this I came up with:

• 2xMK1 Pod (remove monopropellant for a ~30m/s boost.  At this level it might be critical)
• Mk16 chute on top, adjust to 1,250m altitude deployment to avoid bricking.
• TR-18A
• 14xFL-T100 Tanks
• 1xT-45 Swivel
• TR-18A
• 2xRT-10 Hammer at max thrust connected to a modular girder segment (yes this is pretty cheesy but it does allow two boosters to connect to a single upper stage.  One booster means the lousy TWR that makes the old "minimum tech" less fun to fly and three would have bad ISPs that eat too much into the mass budget (and mean less precious FL-T100s).  Connect the "no tech" modular girder segment to the TR-18A and put the RT-10s on with symmetry.

On my first try this managed getting into orbit with 313m/s of delta-v to spare (and 282 m/s after a deorbit burn).  That might be what the space shuttle had in its orbital maneuver engines, but it seems pretty low without Houston computing all your moves for you.  I'd recommend it for combining a "tourist in space" with your first orbital flight, or possibly a scientist and pilot team (for SAS and experiment resets).  While it might have less delta-v according to Kerbal Engineer (didn't check, a previous test with three stages and a LV-30 engine had more delta-v but didn't make orbit: I suspect that the K.E. edition I have is sufficiently "updated" to work with 1.2, the values need fixing), the high TWR means less gravity losses and more than makes up for the missing "official delta-v".  I suspect that reducing thrust would also help, but I won't play with that until I think K.E. is working (or feel like manually doing the calculation).

Oddly enough, an earlier all-liquid fuel try that used a LV-30 first stage only had 281 m/s after orbit, and a three-stage attempt (that K.E. said had more delta-v) didn't make it into orbit at all.  I didn't expect SRBs to help (they don't appear to help as a third stage) until I noticed that LV-30s and T200s require more tech than you had used.

Edited December 19, 2016 by wumpus
apologized for the cheesiness