Who has abort proceedures?

[Algiark]

Abort procedure? You mean press space really fast till the last stage, wobble the capsule off the top, deploy parachute seconds before kerbal pancake, then when the kerbal is saved, revert anyway to avoid clearing up all the mess of debris all over the KSC.

This should be the abort procedure by default.

[M5000]

Abort procedure? You mean press space really fast till the last stage, wobble the capsule off the top, deploy parachute seconds before kerbal pancake, then when the kerbal is saved, revert anyway to avoid clearing up all the mess of debris all over the KSC.

I came here to post exactly this. I was going to start typing but there's really no way to more accurately describe my abort procedure.

[Taki117]

Abort procedure? I've launched hundreds of rockets without a hitch. This is due to extensive unmanned sandbox testing before anything gets put in career. I build a rocket, plop it in my sandbox save. Stick a probe core on it, and see what goes wrong.

[alacrity]

Last thing I do after fixing all the staging, double checking chute placement and crewing the ship is fixing the abort button sequence. Basically kill all engines decouple last seperator, punch the pod out and open all the chutes.

Alacrity

[Corw]

Sometimes. I only make abort procedures for maned flights and only for those that I suspect might have issues in first 20 seconds. Anything that can fly without exploding for the first 20 seconds can be shut down and staged manually. I try not to add additional weight for it, so some sepatrons are OK, but no home made escape towers, they don't go well with parachutes and docking ports on top.

[sta7ic_matt]

I've always wondered what that button did....

...and that's why I asked the silly question =)

"Abort procedures" became useful immediately after I figured out that the big red button could do something useful!

[SpaceSphereOfDeath]

I do, it's just like the Apollo escape tower with a docking port on the front

[Saberus]

All my ships have an abort sequence. In general it's much like others have described, Mine force all engines to shutdown, closes all intakes (if present) pops all decouplers and deploys all parachutes. Even at the beginning of the tech tree, abort is there in the form of a parachute and the capsule being mounted on a truss, so the chute's opening can stress and fail that joint (hopefully).

In aircraft the cockpit also has sepratrons to push the cockpit (and attached science gear) up and forward. This module contains batteries and solar panels or RTGs, and a Communotron 16 so I can still transmit if I was in the process. Usually this changes the CoM so greatly that the rest of the body immediately flips and stalls, then plummets to the surface.

[Bacterius]

My piloting skills sucks, so I started to put midair escape system to my planes:

It makes me feel better, becouse I can save my fellow kerbal pilot even if I crush again and again while trying to perform island airport landing or fly through R&D building tunnel.

Haha, I love this, the middle panel just looks like it's saying "screw it, I don't need a plane"

[rdfox]

My abort procedure involves three action groups. The Abort group shuts down all liquid-fueled engines on the booster, jettisons all solid boosters, fires all the Separatrons on the booster, decouples the spacecraft from the booster, and fires the escape tower. (Basically, it kills all forward thrust by either jettisoning it or, if possible, shutting it down, uses the Separatrons to guarantee good separation, and punches the capsule out.) Then I use another action group to jettison the escape tower, and the third deploys the parachutes. I can whack all three in less than a second for low-altitude, bad-attitude aborts, but if I'm higher up or at an attitude that doesn't have the escape rocket pulling me towards the ground, I can wait for escape tower burnout to jettison it, then wait until I'm descending (and below about 3km) to deploy my parachutes. Much more realistic and reliable than trying to either frantically stomp through the staging (particularly since I set up my staging to jettison the escape tower once I'm pretty much in orbit) or to have everything happen in the abort stage, while still giving me the quick response needed for a really low abort...

[SpacedCowboy]

Abort ?! Hell, I either cash or enjoy the "ticker tape parade"!

[MonkeyFuzz]

Most all of my Mercury/Gemini/Apollo-style ships have escape towers. They're especially useful on the Apollo-styled designs since those take several flights to work out the first stage bugs. I try to make automated launches first to get out most of the problems, but every so often I'll have a mid-launch error (such as a side of engines breaking free and ramming up the side of the ship).

Later simpler designs don't usually end up needing escape towers owing mostly to the eventual reliability that the styles develop. Even my 72 ton-to-LKO is reliable to launch an interplanetary flight with three Kerbals aboard.

[Vostok]

There was one episode in my space program where one half of a duna-lander (I was building it in two halves and docking it together) broke in orbit, just after the insertion stage was jettisoned. The nuclear engine shrouds pinged off the nuke engine, breaking it off.

Anyway, by sheer luck I had placed a docking port on the just-jettisoned insertion stage, so I wrestled the ship and re-docked (back to front) with the spent stage, and used the last few drops of fuel to return to Kerbin.

It wasn't much, but I felt that it was like Apollo 13 or something. Failure was not an option.

I suppose that was a sort of launch abort 'system'.

[PrathamK]

I set procedure for all manned launchers, but i recovery all the rocket (if not exploded yet) except LES and some fuel. Abort for Plane is nice concept my all planes fail, except one (after 1 long day for correction)

[GarrisonChisholm]

Its ALIVE!!!!!!!!

*runs in terror of the woken dead...*

[Kerbal01]

LES for capsules, parachute for planes, on everything I build 

[Piper]

In previous career modes, I used to never care much about abort modes, because I never "needed" them.  In my first career mode, I always just reverted to launch/hangar, and in my second career run, I would always simulate a launch with KCT.

But now, KCT doesn't have a simulate option anymore, so any launch I make, will be the first time I've launched that rocket.  As such, I've incorporated an abort mode in every manned rocket I make now, and I have used it on three occasions now.  Twice during launch, and once while doing a botched aero-capture.

The basic actions that happen in every abort mode I do, is shutting off all engines aboard the rocket, decoupling the capsule from the launch vehicle, and activating the motors for the launch escape system.  Depending on the design, those motors could be simple seperatrons placed on a nose cone, an actual LES tower, or even simply the final stage engines if they are powerful enough for the task.  If I'm at all unsure if it will be suitable, I test.  The first test is simply from the pad, unmanned with a probe core attached, and the second on top of a high-gee reusable rocket to test it in flight, usually with just a single test pilot.

[TotallyNotHuman]

@Piper: If you really want simulations again, take a look at this:

Over at the KCT thread, they recommend using KRASH instead, ever since their own simulation mode was dropped.

On 4/15/2017 at 5:55 AM, Errol said:

Use this instead. Since this mod is more comprehensive in features the simulation functionality built into KCT has been dropped in favour of the dedicated mod version. 

 

 

[Tex]

I usually have either an escape tower or some form of decoupler built in so I can use the abort button, though the majority of the time I attempt to wrestle crippled rockets into doing something at least partially useful.

[Piper]

I have indeed seen KRASH, and likely will add it soon since I'm getting to a point in my career mode where designs are starting to become much more complex and intricate, and I've begun doing/building things I've never attempted before, or things that I know require a lot of tweaking, and I can't "simulate" in Kerbin's atmosphere.

[Tau137]

Once you've done this a few times (and/or have Kerbal Engineer or MJ to get all the TWR and DV stats needed), there is really no need for abort sequence in 99% of launches.  And if you do something really weird non-conventional, it is likely not going to save your green dudes anyway.  Essentially, it is just a homage to real space programs - cute, but rarely useful/used is KSP, unless it is your first playthrough, or if you are a real stickler for no reverts and no quicksaves (and even then, for complex accent vehicle you will need quite elaborated escape sequences; pis is part of fun, just depends on hoe much time you have to play and how much of a masochist you are).  Just IMHO.

[joacobanfield]

My abort procedure is called Hyperedit.

[Archgeek]

HeeHEHEHE, I smell grave dirt.

1. ABORT: Kill main engines, separate crewed modules, fire (escape system | sufficiently-rated lander/upper-stage engine)
2. Action group 0: Dump escape system, pop chutes
3. Hit landing gear if present

[Overfloater]

Mine is esc→revert flight, i use it a lot! At least 10 times per mission, even if it's just to get to orbit. Because sometimes Bob leaves the kettle on, or forgets to wear his lucky socks, or accidentally got the wrong brand of cheese snacks... that kind of stuff.

But i do put a launch escape system on some of my vehicles, just in case i'll need to pass regulations. 

Edited May 3, 2017 by Overfloater

[Freds]

If something fail during the launch, i just hit esc->revert.

But, if i have an Kerbaled vessel designed to do atmospherical missions, i usually have the cockpit attached to a decoupler (or separator) with at least 3 radial parachutes - 2 normal and 1 drag (in Duna, due to the thin atmosphere i double the number - 2 drags and 4 normals). No sepratron needed. 

If something bad happens, i just kill the engines and activate the emergency group.
The entire front session is separated from the ship, and, (usually) lands safe.