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Kerbals stuck on the Mun


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Hello everyone, 

I am new and although I have been playing ksp for a while I got 6 kerbals stuck on the mun in two spots with only their capsule. Can I get them back to kerbin or at least my space station with an apoapsis of  130,000 and periapsis of 100,000 wihout cheats?

Thank you in advance

-Ribby Kerman

Edited by Ribby Kerman
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10 hours ago, Ribby Kerman said:

Hello everyone, 

I am new and although I have been playing ksp for a while I got 6 kerbals stuck on the mun in two spots with only their capsule. Can I get them back to kerbin or at least my space station with an apoapsis of  130,000 and periapsis of 100,000 wihout cheats?

Thank you in advance

-Ribby Kerman

Well, it's certainly possible to build a lander that go to the Mun and return, so it's possible to do it with a probe-core attached and take it too the Mun empty as rescue mission - probably safer than a manned rescure - you don't want even more stranger Kerbals.  The key to this is a mixture of planning and practising landings.  For the planning bit, have a look at the delta-V maps and make sure your rocket is at least theoretically capable of a voyageto the Mun and back - see the map here:

http://wiki.kerbalspaceprogram.com/wiki/Cheat_sheet#Delta-v_.28.CE.94v.29

Your ship will need at a bare minimum of nearly 6000m/s of dv to do - plus a fair bit more depending on where your landing site on the Mun is, and how inefficient your launch/landings are. 

As for practise,well, just practise efficient landings till your confident and capable.  

If you're not sure how to find out how much dv your rocket has in the VAB, then go and install something like KER - the data it provides is arguably essential for proper planning.

Wemb

 

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Oh, yes, it's quite possible to resuce all of them.  You just need to decide if you want to bring them all back in one trip or several trips, because that will determine how big of a ship and rocket you'll need.  Also, what's your current level in the tech tree?  Are you playing Sandbox, Science or Career?  This will determine what parts you have available

To bring them back all at once, and if you have the parts, you can either send the Hitchhiker Storage Container + Mk1-2 Capsule or three Mk1 crew cabins + Mk1 capsule as the main ship, then add a small lander with a probe core that can go down to the surface empty and bring up the Kerbals. Put lots of fuel on it and/or carry extra on the ship for refeuling.  Depending on the crew capacity of the lander this could mean doing up to 6 rescue landings, launchings and dockings.  You also have to get the lander close enough to the stranded Kerbals so that they could at least do a long-tange jetpack trip to the rescue craft.

The rocket to launch this ship will be on the larg-ish side, 2.5m tanks and engines as a minimum.  Better err on the "too large" side to be safe if you aren't using a delta-V readout mod like Kerbal Engineer Redux.

Bringing fewer Kerbals back at a time means you can use a smaller ship and rocket, it will just take more trips to the Mun and back to your station.  The smallest ship needed would be an empty Mk1 capsule or lander can with a probe core attached and enough fuel to go to the Mun, land and return.  Launch this into Kerbin orbit, then shuttle it back and forth between Kerbin orbit and the Mun.  You'll have to do it 6 times, so it might be better to send a ship with more crew capacity.

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I will not need to worry about the rocket design because i can get kerbals to duna and back and it is not too hard. What i can not do is get close enough to them on the landing. I have tried a rescue mission with the probe core but i forgot to add sas modules. 

Also can i get a capsule with no docking port to a space station and somehow attach them?

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49 minutes ago, Ribby Kerman said:

I will not need to worry about the rocket design because i can get kerbals to duna and back and it is not too hard. What i can not do is get close enough to them on the landing. I have tried a rescue mission with the probe core but i forgot to add sas modules. 

Also can i get a capsule with no docking port to a space station and somehow attach them?

Ah, the targeted landing is the issue.

I suggest using a lander with a LOT of fuel and engine power, like an FL-T400 tank with four more radially attached to it and a Terrier on each radial tank; run a fuel line from the central tank to the radial tanks.  This will give you plenty of delta-V and TWR to play with.  Then adjust the plane of munar orbit (burn in the Normal and Anti Normal directions), and time warp until the lander will pass right over the Kerbals you want to rescue at a low altitude, like 10000 m.  When the lander nears the desired spot, do a full-thrust retro burn until you kill a horizontal velocity.  If you time it right you will come to a stop right over or very close to the stranded group of Kerbals, then you can land like normal.  If you end up close enough the Kerbal(s) can jetpack over to the rescue ship; a 1-way trip with a full pack can go pretty far.

If you don't have a docking port on a capsule, the ship can't dock, so you'll have to EVA the Kerbals over to the station using the jetpack, old-KSP style.

I have successfully rescued a stranded Kerbal before (it was on Minmus).  I think I had to jetpack him over to the rescue craft, but he did get back to Kerbin without any furthur mishap. :)

 

Edited by Laguna
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3 hours ago, Ribby Kerman said:

I will not need to worry about the rocket design because i can get kerbals to duna and back and it is not too hard. What i can not do is get close enough to them on the landing. I have tried a rescue mission with the probe core but i forgot to add sas modules.

You don't need to add an "SAS module" (there's no such thing), just make sure you're using a probe core that has SAS ability-- i.e. an OKTO or better, not a Stayputnik.

Precision landings are a skill that takes practice.  With sufficient practice, you'll be able to drop a lander from Mun orbit within a few meters of your target.  However, if you don't want to wait until you've developed the skillz to do that, you have another option:  fly the Kerbals!

A Kerbal EVA jetpack has a ridiculous amount of dV in it, something like 600 m/s.  It's actually possible (though only just barely, in ideal conditions) for a Kerbal standing on the surface of the Mun to get into a (very) low Mun orbit.  If you're a relative newbie, I don't suggest trying to do that.  But even if you don't take them to orbit, they can actually fly quite a long way on the Mun before running out of propellant.

So as long as you can land your rescue ship within a few dozen kilometers of your kerbals, you're fine.  Just land it as close as you can manage, then switch to the kerbals and fly them to the rescue ship via EVA.

Another option is to land not just a rescue ship, but also a rover.  It can drive to the kerbals, pick them up, and then drive to the rescue ship.  However, depending on how far you need to go, this could be pretty tedious-- driving any significant long distance on the Mun is quite a chore.

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Rescue missions are a regular part of KSP :D

As you have 6 of them in 2 spots, I assume you have the Mk1/2 pod unlocked, and the station suggests you have some reasonably heavy lift capability.  Personally I'd take a remote controlled mk1/2 pod with a couple of thousand dV, RCS  and an extra dockable tank.  Use the landers engine but the extra tanks fuel to get to the Mun, leave the tank in orbit, collect the first team, rendezvous with the station, EVA them across, rendezvous with the tank, refuel, collect the second team and take them straight back to Kerbin.

Precision landing is tricky but you set up a low orbit, put a node above the target and set to reduce the velocity to 0, you'll see how long you need to burn your engine for to stop.  Bear in mind that the planet is still rotating though.  Stopping above the target and then dropping down isn't particularly efficient but it should get you nice and close as you can adjust on the way down, but you don't want to start from too high because obviously you'll be accelerating down.

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On 2/8/2016 at 1:55 AM, RizzoTheRat said:

I assume you have the Mk1/2 pod unlocked, and the station suggests you have some reasonably heavy lift capability.  Personally I'd take a remote controlled mk1/2 pod with a couple of thousand dV, RCS  and an extra dockable tank.

One thing to bear in mind about the Mk1-2 command pod is that it's extraordinarily overweight.  Dang thing weighs FIVE TIMES more than a Mk1 pod.  It's a pity... it looks nice, is a convenient shape.  But it's so excruciatingly heavy that I just can't bring myself ever to use it, unless it's part of a ship so massive that its contribution to overall ship mass is low.  The one place I never use it is in a lander.  (Or, ironically, the Mk2 lander can, which is also crazy silly overweight.)

You can get the same crew capacity in only 40% of the mass by sticking a Mk1 pod on top of a Mk1 crew cabin.

Yes, the geometry's a bit less convenient than the Mk1-2 pod, but if you try to mention that, I'll just say "sorry, I couldn't hear you, I was too busy singing about the MORE THAN TWO TONS OF DEAD WEIGHT I just saved."  :)

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Hi everyone,

Good news, I used the mk1/2 pod with a lander and probe that I launched to my space station to refuel. I was able to land within 2 km of the first 2 kerbals. The lander almost tipped but it was fine. I was able to get them to the station where they got down in an escape pod. 3 more to go :) Thank you all for your help

-Ribby Kerman 

Edited by Ribby Kerman
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