KSP kerbin polar orbit rescue mission.

[nascarlaser1]

Hello KSP!

A few days ago I called on the community to help with an issue with my drone, and now I need your help again. I recently tried going to the north pole.... and I managed to get my ship stuck in a polar orbit without any engines at all, and no RCS fuel left after trying to use it to deorbit myself. I have a plan A rescue shuttle built and ready to go, but I tend to have a habit of my plan As' ending in failure. Anyone have a suggestion of plan B? My stranded ship is no longer in any condition to deorbit, due to a small accident with the engines causing my heat shield to explode. I cannot revert, (already went back to space center) and I really am fond of my pilot so I do not want him to die/be stranded. Can someone give me suggestions of a plan B? My plan A is to just send up a small shuttle with a mk1 crew cabin and enough fuel to deorbit, EVA my stranded pilot into said shuttle, and then land it using parachutes and the heat shield. I have a feeling this too with end up stranded and in pieces, so that's why I need a plan B,

Thanks in advance guys!

[Tyko]

A pod with a heatshield and parachutes is really simple...you mentioned a "shuttle" not sure how complex that is.

[Pecan]

Get out and push

(Really - EVA 'jet pack' can be refuelled an infinite number of times, just by re-boarding the command pod.  Get out, push pod retrograde, re-board = refuel, repeat until desired periapsis or you're coming back into the atmosphere anyway and it isn't safe to EVA).

[nascarlaser1]

15 hours ago, tjt said:

A pod with a heatshield and parachutes is really simple...you mentioned a "shuttle" not sure how complex that is.

The stranded ship is made out of a mk1 command pod and a science Jr. It has 2 radial parachutes but no heat shield. The shuttle was trying to land at one of 2 poles when I realized I'd messed up the staging, causing most the ship to rip itself apart above the north pole. I had a radial attached engine from the booster that clipped the 10m heat shield, promptly ripping it off the rest of the shuttle. This has caused it to be unsafe for reentry. As stated above my plan A is to use the same booster set up (fixed the staging ) and replace the science Jr. with a mk1 crew cabin. Then just launch this thing, rendezvous, EVA to rescue ship (my last docking attempt resulted in the accidental deorbit of my shuttle after being hit too hard...), and finally just deorbit my rescue ship on one of the poles like the original mission was. Does anyone have any ideas on how to tweak this idea and/or anyone know of a plan B in case I end up with 2 stranded Kerbals instead of 1? EVA pushing takes way too long for me btw. I've got about the same amount of patients that Bop has gravity. 

Thanks for the responses so far.

 

p.s. I think I put this post in the right forum section, but if not can someone move it to the right one? I haven't figured out how to do it yet on my own.

[Pecan]

1 hour ago, nascarlaser1 said:

... Does anyone have any ideas on how to tweak this idea and/or anyone know of a plan B in case I end up with 2 stranded Kerbals instead of 1?...

p.s. I think I put this post in the right forum section, but if not can someone move it to the right one? I haven't figured out how to do it yet on my own.

Don't send good Kerbals after bad - use an unmanned vehicle with a probe core to fly up there, then the Kerbal already there can get in the one command-pod seat.  Smaller, lighter and safer.

This isn't really the right place, as it's a question not a tutorial.  A moderator will probably have performed his magic before you know it ... (I will report the thread for a move)

[Frybert]

2 hours ago, nascarlaser1 said:

p.s. I think I put this post in the right forum section, but if not can someone move it to the right one? I haven't figured out how to do it yet on my own.

Moved. In the future if you want a thread moved reporting it will bring it to moderator attention.

[Zophos]

2 hours ago, nascarlaser1 said:

... my plan A is to use the same booster set up (fixed the staging ) and replace the science Jr. with a mk1 crew cabin. Then just launch this thing, rendezvous, EVA to rescue ship (my last docking attempt resulted in the accidental deorbit of my shuttle after being hit too hard...), and finally just deorbit my rescue ship on one of the poles like the original mission was. Does anyone have any ideas on how to tweak this idea and/or anyone know of a plan B in case I end up with 2 stranded Kerbals instead of 1?

Your plan A should work; it's a basic orbital rescue scenario (except the polar orbit thing), and the simplest way to get your Kerbal back safely. Just be sure that the extra mass of the Mk 1 cabin doesn't require you to tweak your launcher. Or, if your probe cores are up to the challenge, you can also send an empty 1-man capsule with a robo-pilot instead of using a second Kerbal, as Pecan suggested. The probe core should weigh less than the materials bay, so no worries there.

For plan B?  Hard to come up with something simpler, though there are certainly other ways to skin this cat.  For example, a tug with a Claw could latch on to the stranded pod and then deorbit it, or tow it to a space station with a lander or spaceplane waiting. But that's at least as hard as docking, so probably not what you want. Any way you slice it, though, you have to bring a second craft to rendezvous with this pod, and the simplest thing at that point is to EVA the stranded guy to the second craft.

[nascarlaser1]

Thxs guys! Later I will try out my plan A and tell you how it went. For most of my Kerbin orbital missions I use a heavily modified stock munsplorer shuttle. For the rescue shuttle I also removed some of the fuel and engines to make absolute sure that it is light enough, since the original craft made it up there with even less fuel that the rescue craft currently has.

[nascarlaser1]

Good news and bad news. Good news. I have a new manned satellite around Kerbin! Bad news, I need to work on my orbital readvenous. I missed the disabled ship by a few kms, and then the rescue ship ran out of gas... I am not going to rescue the rescue ship (what's the point?), but now I need another solution for my original mission.... sob :(. Plan A is officially over with.

[Tyko]

I recommend working your rendezvous skills first. Practice on your new manned satellite. There are some great youtube videos.Here's one, but you can google KSP rendezvous and find a bunch.

 

 

[nascarlaser1]

18 hours ago, tjt said:

I recommend working your rendezvous skills first. Practice on your new manned satellite. There are some great youtube videos.Here's one, but you can google KSP rendezvous and find a bunch.

 

I think I found a bug in my game. No matter where I look on any ship I have around/on Kerbin or the sun, I can't find any distance markers all of a sudden. There is no little yellow thingy telling me how far out it is. Is this a glitch or a hotkey I hit by mistake? I think that might be part of my problem with missing the ship since I was using map view to do the entire mission. In the video it shows the tiny little distance markers where the second shuttle is.

Edited July 21, 2016 by nascarlaser1

[bewing]

Try hitting F4.

[nascarlaser1]

1 hour ago, bewing said:

Try hitting F4.

ok thxs. Must of hit it while trying to hit f3 during the testing phase of one of my earlier prototypes. I managed to finish plan B and I survived... (plan B was to throw my Kerbal at the atmosphere with a seat, heat shield, and a parachute.) It worked! thxs for all your guys' help.