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I am running a 10x scale game using Galileo's planet pack in 1.2.2. I am getting kerbal rescue contracts (standard) for low Gael(Kerbin Equivalent) orbit. The only issue is that the orbits are often within the atmosphere - their AP is just in space but the PE is as low as 40-50km. Is this intentional?

Something odd that I don't quite know how to describe: Recently, I rescued a Kerbal from LKO. I got her back safe and sound, but then she disappeared from the Astronaut Center without a trace-- but her capsule is still in orbit. I went to the tracking station to terminate it, but all I can do is to "track" and "untrack" it, as if it were an A-class asteroid. Thinking of sending a mission to deorbit it or plant KAS explosives on it, so it's actually giving me some mission ideas, but I'm still not sure how it happened. Any ideas? I run several mods, primarily parts mods in addition to KCT, Stage Recovery, and KIS/KAS.

So, I managed to get a Kerbal stranded in a nasty orbit. I burned out of a moon mission with bingo fuel and chose too high a periapse; it was just within Kerbin's atmosphere but it was high enough that after a few successive orbits my apoapse was still inside the Mun's SOI. I was warping aggressively and ended up accidentally getting a Munar slingshot that put me in a highly inclined, highly eccentric orbit without enough monopropellant or bipropellant to get back to an aerobraking trajectory. Worst of all, it was a powered lander, so I didn't even have a chute to use even if I'd been able to EVA-push the ship into an aerobraking trajectory. Of course, I could have just terminated the vessel, but I didn't really want to. So I needed a rescue mission. At this point, I'd never done even a single orbital rendezvous (not with another spacecraft, that is), let alone a highly inclined, highly eccentric orbit with a dead target. This was tricky. I couldn't really find any specific set of instructions, so I figured it out as I went along, and figured that someone else might also be interested in them. Step 0: dV for days You're going to need a lot of fuel to pull this off, so for the love of Kraken use a large launch vehicle with a hefty amount of bipropellant for orbital maneuvers. There are ways of doing this that are slightly more efficient, but they aren't nearly as straightforward, so just plan for extra Step 1: Match inclination It's really dV-costly to change inclination once you're already in orbit, so wait until KSC passes directly under the orbital path of your target and then launch either North or South, depending on the angle of your target. Go to map view and set your target as target so that you know the inclination of the descending and ascending nodes, and vary your launch direction in order to keep this value to a minimum. Once you're in orbit, use a normal or antinormal burn at the ascending or descending node to zero out inclination difference. Step 3: Circular intercept To have any chance of intercepting your target, you need to be in a circular orbit that touches the orbit of your target. The most efficient way to do this is to touch the orbit at your target's nearest approach to Kerbin, its periapse. So write down that altitude, then burn prograde to raise your apoapse to that altitude. At your apoapse, burn prograde again to circularize to exactly that altitude, so you end up with something like this: Technically, it is more efficient if you are in an eccentric orbit where your apoapse matches the periapse of your target, but this is more difficult to achieve and makes your timing a lot less forgiving. Step 4: Timing the Rendezvous This is the part that confused me, and it took me forever to figure it out. It does no good to match the orbit of your target before the rendezvous. Don't do it. Instead, set up a rendezvous as close as possible to the periapse of your target. Here's the magic. When you are next at the interception point, your target will still be some distance away, with a certain time (2 hours, for example) separating it from that point. You need to burn at that interception point until the total period of your new orbit exactly matches the time separating the target vessel from your current location. This will ensure that you complete your new orbit just in time to meet up with your target at its periapse. Voila! Thankfully, this isn't the 1970s, so you don't have to calculate these periods using Kepler's Laws. You can simply place a maneuvering node at the interception point and drag it prograde until the "closest approach" markers line up at the interception point. Make this as precise a match as possible, then go ahead and do your burn when you reach the node. It's a good idea to burn about 90% of the maneuvering node and then delete it and complete the burn manually, since your screen will be less cluttered and you can see the closest approach markers more clearly. You should aim to be within a few kilometers of your target. Step 5: Catching up Once you reach your rendezvous point, switch to targeting mode on your navball, point retrograde (which, in this case, is a relative retrograde), and burn to reduce relative velocity to zero at your nearest approach to your target. You want to be lined up along a radial vector with as little prograde-direction misalignment as possible. You'll probably want to split this into a few burns. Once you've zeroed out relative velocity, you can proceed to approach and dock (or EVA, or whatever) normally; there are plenty of good tutorials for that.

I am still fairly new to the game, I managed to get jeb to the mun, but he's out of fuel. I have tried time and time again to create a design that can get him home. If anyone could help me out, it would be appreciated. I don't have a large amount of tech unlocked yet, so my request is to help me out with a rocket that can get there and at least get him back into munar orbit without running out of fuel. I really need to get jeb home. Thanks. Current Tech Tree:

A while back I turned down a couple of rescue missions, but now I find I need to increase my astronaut numbers, but I haven't had a rescue contract in ages. Is there any way to get the game to produce more reaches at Mission Control?

My first thought was that is was odd that for rescue operations I now had Kerbals as icons in orbit. My suspicion was comfirmed as I got closer to the "vessel" to rendez-vous with... Lo and behold! Just to the right of the exhaust of the rescue vessel... there it is, the elusive lonely Kerbal to be rescued from space! I thought they were all in vessels now... Apparently, not!

Hello I am having some real problems with doing this "rescue contract" I got. I have to save Irra Kerman from Low Kerbin orbit, and bring him/her back. I launched my vessel, and adjusted the orbit so it's the same as Irra's, but... There's always a 1,750KM difference (a lot), and for every turn it changes half a kilometer or so (I have limited Electric charge). I know there are a LOT of tutorials in rendezvousing (I think thats how you say it?) but No one seems to help me fix this problem, either that or im doing it wrong. Every time I change my orbit I fall into Kerbin, or it just doesn't change at all We have the EXACT SAME orbit, just different locations. Any help? The tutorials didn't help me at all That's the only reason im bothering with this newbie question in the first place (Sorry) Thanks, DONUTS

I've been trying to mount a rescue mission to pick up Jebediah who is orbiting around the Mun. He ran out of fuel and is simply unable to get home O_o For the life of me I can't seem to build a ship capable of making it to the Mun, performing intercept maneuvers to get close to him, and then has enough fuel to make it home. Most of my ships seem to just falter even getting into orbit at this moment due to how much fuel I'm trying to carry. All my previous ships can -get- to the Mun, but once they get there they too are unable to make it back. So what's my best option here? Should I build a low orbit docking + fuel station, or is there some way to build a ship capable of doing everything I need with tier 4 branching into tier 5 tech?

Welcome to the Kerbal Rescue Challenge! I have a savegame available here with one Kerbal stranded on every planet and moon. Your mission is to rescue as many of them as possible to get a score of up to 14 points (1 per Kerbal). They must be landed safely at Kerbin to count! Many of them have the ship they landed nearby (usually a 3-4 part small lander, generally out of fuel, probably useless except for the Moho ion ship), which you may leave behind or try to use in some way. These do not count against your number of launches. Some rescues will be very easy, some will be VERY difficult, getting the last few points will be very challenging. I'm pretty sure nobody will get a 14 kerbal score on a single launch. Score will be the number of Kerbals you are able to rescue, and in the event of a tie (quite likely as max score is 14) the winner will be the player that used the fewest launches to complete the mission. Time will not be scored, either in game time or IRL time, so post your results as soon as you have rescued a few, and I will update your score as it improves. Please post which Kerbals you have rescued, and how many launches so far. Just for fun, I actually flew the mission to strand all the Kerbals in a single launch (see spoiler tag below) Mods are allowed, but will be noted next to your score. All scores will be on the same board, with a special note for stock entries. To qualify as a stock entry, only informational and visual mods are permitted. KIS in particular would be a fun mod to tackle this with, and a cool way to use existing lander parts to help. No HyperEdit or debug menu etc is permitted. Feel free to use ISRU, bases, refueling ships, whatever you like, just track total number of launches. Scoreboard: 1) 2) 3) 4) I'll be posting my rescues soon, and there will be a badge for competing, and a special badge for saving all 14 Kerbals.

I discovered that early in the game, crew accommodations are lacking. You have your mk-1 command pod and your mk-1 crew cabin and nothing else for quite a while unless you sacrifice some more important tech mods. If you want to perform multiple rescues or EVA multiple kerbonauts, the crew cabin isn't the greatest thing because its doors are inline and usually obscured by things attached to its nodes. This early-game ship allows you to take 17 crew up with an exposed egress point for each crew module. And it looks great doing it! The Starship Too v3 is designed to allow enterprising young Kerbals to conduct up to 16 LKO rescues and return your new slaves Kerbonauts safely to Kerba Firma! She doesn;t require high levels of tech or lots of funds to operate, just a pilot! If you have already unlocked the tech node that has fuel hoses (I hadn't when I designed it) you can increase the delta-V by adding a couple. You could probably add a couple more tanks to the first stage, too, but as-is, this ship will get to LKO with 3k delta-V to spare. You will need to burn about 1300 delta-V during re-entry as she has no heat shield, but slowing down with the engine is very effective - remember to do that high (69km-40km) as the poodle will be most effective then. Pop the drogues as soon as their safe followed by the main chutes as soon as they are safe and the landing is a breeze (as long as it's on water or flat and level ground). Download the craft file from KerbalX! Danny. How do you get 16 rescue contracts active at once? Use the moar contracts modlet!

Okay, so as I mentioned in the "What Did You Do In KSP Today" thread, I started a new career recently after the 1.1 patch dropped. However, I find myself in a bit of a conundrum, and I hope I can get some advice from other experienced players. So, like you do in a new career, I took some contracts to rescue stranded Kerbals in Low Kerbin Orbit, both for the funds and to build my roster. I designed a small craft big enough for a pilot and two passengers, sent up Jeb to rescue one, and he brought the stranded Kerbal back with no trouble. Craft worked great. So I got two more contracts for rescuing Kerbals, both also in LKO. I sent up the same craft with Valentina at the helm this time, because Jeb already had one star in his piloting skill and I felt that Val could use the experience, and since I knew the craft was solid, I figured this was an easy run. So Val went up and performed two separate rendezvous in the same flight, successfully getting Nana and Katly onboard. Yay! Okay, time to return to the surface. ... and that is where things got complicated. You see, the craft is built with low-tech parts and no heat shielding. Now, if it can keep its engine pointed retrograde during the descent, it will be fine. The engine can take the heat, and if it starts overheating I can burn fuel to transfer heat outside and slow down further at the same time. But my last flight had two advantages over this one: Jeb had one star and could keep the craft pointed retrograde through SAS, and since it only made one rendezvous it had more fuel left to burn during descent. While Val can keep a craft relatively steady, she cannot keep it pointed retrograde, introducing the possibility that incidental forces might push it into an unrecoverable turn (which leads to rapid and fatal overheating at the airspeeds involved) given the relatively weak electric torque forces provided by the command capsule. While I had to burn some fuel on the descent previously to help give the pilot more ability to fight those incidental forces and slow the craft at the same time, I have much less of it now, not enough to burn willy-nilly and finding just the right moment to light the engines and with just what amount of throttle has been troubling to me. Here is a picture of my craft. It has two radial drogue chutes, two radial regular chutes, and one nosecone chute, set in stages to activate the drogues then the other chutes. Can anyone advise me about how best to deal with this?

So, this is kind of just a thread about one of my missions and its motives. I have been playing a career game for a while, and suddenly I realized something: Jeb was missing! In all of my manned launches, my ship was flown by Valentina or some other random pilot. So I did some solar system digging and realized that Jeb was on the moon. In a lander. With no fuel. Guess I forgot that when I took a 3 month break from KSP. So I hastily threw together a rescue rocket. I'll post more as I go along.

Good news and bad news. The good news is I've gotten in a lot of practice of the finer points of Kerbal. The bad news is it's been all in a massive attempt to rescue Crew A from the surface of the Mun. As I mentioned in my report about Luna 10's mishaps, my next plan was to attempt to land two ships, Lunar 11 and lunar 12, on the Mun at the same time. Unfortunately, upon landing, Lunar 11 came down at a bad angle and lost it's engine. I could have simply reverted, but no, I had to do the macho thing and try to rescue the Jeb, Bob and Bill. First I attempted to land an Emergency Crew Return Vehicle ("ECRV", an automatic version of my direct Assent lunar ship). I was able to drop the ECRV, with some considerable effort, about 12KM away from where Lunar 11 landed. I then spent about three days designing and testing some sort of rover develry system that would be able to get the boys from their stuck command module to the rescue ship. Each and every attempt ended in disaster. Then I decided to just have them walk. When I realized how slow they moved, I had to make plan C. after trial and error, I finally had something that world work. The "ECRV Super Heavy", the same craft with a few tweaks, launched from the bigger and stronger Moho Six booster. All said and done, with a massive amount of mid landing course corrections, my final landing... 1.6 KM from Lunar 11! Walking distance! almost as good as Pete Conrad. Now I just need to get the crew to the other ship and off we go.

I just read an interesting article on Ars Technica about whether a rescue mission could have been mounted if the critical damage to Columbia had been recognized before reentry. The article is based primarily on an appendix to the Columbia Accident Investigation Report. Reading it brought to mind the movie Marooned and the dilemma of risking additional personnel to attempt a rescue. Thanks to eight months of KSP, I have a much more intuitive understanding of the constraints imposed by orbital physics.

A very interesting read. Best to set some time aside for it though because it's pretty long. I remember a few months ago we were talking about whether or not it'd be ethical to make a movie about a "what if" scenario. Reading this made me feel like I was watching that movie. http://arstechnica.com/science/2016/02/the-audacious-rescue-plan-that-might-have-saved-space-shuttle-columbia/

(From 19th Janurary) Tonight I am meant to be drawing. I have drawing and illustraion projects to be getting on with. But I also have a stranded kerbal in a peculiar orbit between the Mun and Kerbin, it is playing on my mind, I will just get Kellong Kerman back. It won't take long.... So I got my "multi-kerbal-orbiter" 5-seater and filled 4 seats with young kerbals that could do with the experience. I thought I would deliver Kellong to the station taking them along for the ride. After docking to kellong's ship I thought i could tow it into an orbit near the station so I could deorbit it easier, or use it later. I did this and 6kms from "L30 Station 1" I undocked from it and went to the station taking all the kerbals, including Kellong. I needed two scientists in the station's lab so that would be Bob and Kellong. Damnit Bill, get out of Kellong's seat. Got them transferred and then decided to bring the Kerbals that were along for the ride, home...... while towing the dead ship. I can always disconnect it if it causes a problem on re-entry, the Kerbal's will be fine. They died on impact with Kerbin while trying to hold onto as much debris as possible in order to get the funds. This annoyed me. I don't like killing Kerbals. It upsets me, I don't want to be resposible for their deaths. I loaded up my last save...... Kellong is back stuck in orbit. So I got the multi kerbal orbiter out again. Added some extra tanks, for a safety margin, and set it off this time without kerbals. It can function autonimously anyway. It was in orbit and about to do the transfer burn to get close to Kellong when I couldn't...... SAS was off. What has gone wrong? No power? I had forgotten to deploy the solar panels and the ship was dead with a full load of fuel. Multi kerbal orbiter number 3. This one is to dock with the other one and then deploy its panels and the one with the most fuel goes after Kellong. On getting this one into orbit I started recording the video. Dock with the other MKO and deployed its panels......save! I get to Kellong, rescue him and then tow the ship to the station, get Kellong onto the damned station and then went back to the ship.... I am going to deorbit it and the MKO now there are no Kerbals to hut and see how much survives.... it is in the video. I forgot what I was sopposed to be doing tonight.... https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2QGqD0fy1FQ

What do people do with the leftover pods? I've got quite a few of them cluttering up the place. I can't seem to designate them as scrap, and I only terminate flights that have a Pe inside the atmosphere. ventually I'm going to build a garbage collector, possibly a drone carrier with as many drones as possible. They'll each have a claw and maybe parachutes.

So... I think you all know the premise: "It wasn't supposed to be a colony." Well, in my desperation to land something on Duna, I sent a one way mission, and landed it on the surface. I feel obligated to get my crew of the surface because I've already killed three similar crews in botched capture burns (I failed to capture around Duna because I designed a terrible ship, and the kerbonauts were flung into frigid, interplanetary space). Considering I managed to save Jeb, Bill, and Bob from a horribly protracted death, and I actually have a chance to bring them home, I figure I should send a rescue party. I barely managed to get a one way mission down to the surface however, and though I designed a perfectly functional interplanetary shuttle for transport, I'm still not sure how to manage the landing. Here's where things stand: I'm playing in stock sandbox mode. I know how to fly interplanetary missions and build launch vehicles. Landers are not my forte. Three kerbals are stranded in a Mk 1-2 Command Pod. They're landed well below the equator. That's the entirety of my assets on the Dunatian surface. The biggest issue I've found in ship design is crew capacity. I haven't been having trouble building something simultaneously light enough to reach Duna and big enough to carry three crew and a pilot for the trip out. Any advice as to procedure, Duna landings, and actual plausibility would be greatly appreciated (and I don't use the word appreciated lightly, least of all in bold font). I've been thinking of getting a rover down to the surface to help with transport in case the landing sites of the postulated rescue ship and the stranded lander are too far apart. Is this a necessary step? Are wings a good way of landing a ship on Duna? They didn't seem to help my shuttle (I sent a shuttle mission, but after numerous failed landings and quickloads, I abandoned the mission, and flew back to Kerbin. The shuttle is now stuck in retrograde orbit around Kerbin). TL;DR: The original three are trapped on the surface of Duna with no provisions for return. How do I bring them home?