How to recover scrap from the Highlands of Minmus?

[Bungthebadger]

So I accepted this contract to both save the Kerbal (Already done) And recover a scrap of the ship (Which is an MK1 Lander Can) And I have the Klaw,  but I don't exactly know how to put it on my ship and get the scrap, survive reentry without the pod exploding, and  get it back to Kerbin. I have gone to the highlands, and about every single biome on Minmus. ( Also, does SOI mean? Does it mean Sphere Of Influence?)

[Magzimum]

You slowly approach the lander can with the extended Klaw. That Klaw will then 'attach' to the lander can when you get close enough. It may take a few tries (as in: it may bounce off instead of attach) so don't worry if it does not attach on the first try. It is essentially a docking procedure, except the 2nd ship does not have a docking port, and you can just attach the Klaw anywhere you want.

Surviving re-entry without everything blowing up is indeed your biggest challenge. But if you have managed to attach the Klaw in a symmetrical way to the lander can, then your ship just got a little longer and heavier. If the attachment is not symmetrical, then the combined ship may tumble around on re-entry and eventually blow up.

Experienced players may try to put the Klaw inside a cargo bay, so that the lander can will attach inside the cargo bay. They then just close the doors, and fly home without problems. That makes the re-entry a lot easier, but the docking procedure (attaching the Klaw) is more difficult. Also, the ship is a lot larger, because you need a Mk3 cargo bay.

SoI = Sphere of Influence - if you are within the SoI of a planet/moon, you can orbit it. If you are outside it, you cannot orbit it.

[edit] I just realized that your scrap is on the surface of Minmus. Attach the Klaw anywhere, and try to get to orbit around Minmus. Then (1) save your game, (2) release the cargo - hopefully it does not start to spin wildly, and (3) attach the Klaw again in a more symmetrical way. (4) Don't accept such contracts again. Getting scrap from the surface is a cool challenge, but is usually more trouble than it's worth.

Edited December 9, 2016 by Magzimum

[Bungthebadger]

Well, here's the pic of the ship that I use to go to Minmus (And occasionally the Mun) Here is what I researched so far:  And here is my own ship that I use to journey to Minmus:  Download link for ship:  https://mega.nz/#!pVdzxSIT!NgD6q010r1oQTlMhfAIORYiWa6fwkrsvMfU4-LgZsG4 If anyone can improve the ship to fit this contract they can. It will help me very much as well, and anyone can use it too.

[GoSlash27]

If it was me, I'd use 2 craft to make this happen. 1 with a claw to retrieve the scrap from the surface and 1 with a cargo bay to protect it during reentry.

Best,
-Slashy

[kball]

I came up with a much different (and much more Kerbal) approach for a number of reasons.

• My first contract of this sort was on the Mun so hovering for a precise grab of the scrap would have taken a crazy amount of dV.
• I like to send the smallest craft that will get the job done, especially the first time I'm doing a particular type of mission.
• Small items released from the claw pick up serious roll and killing the roll with time warp feels like cheating, so I ruled out reorienting in space.
• Previous attempts ended up with some major thrust offset after imperfect alignments

My approach was to put the craft up on a frame with rover wheels. Land near the debris. Arm the claw, drive over it and line up a precise grab. Then decouple the rover wheels so the craft falls directly down on to the debris. Optionally extend some lander legs to stabilize things. Liftoff for home. I've done a couple of these now and managed to line it up with a maximum of 0.1 - 0.2 degrees thrust offset.

Of course every time I set out I'm crossing my fingers that the debris isn't something super fragile that will burn up on reentry, but so far they've just been cockpits and command modules of various sorts and with a precise grab reentry is smooth, even without a heat shield.

Spoiler

 

Looking at it now, it occurs to me that it doesn't need those little Twitch reverse thrust engines which I used for landing and I could just turn the main engines around. 

I guess it ended up this way because I was used to having the grabber at the fore end of the ship.

EDIT: On second thought, now I remember why the engines are pointing that way: It's to ensure the captured debris doesn't interfere with their thrust. Learned that lesson the hard way.

Edited December 9, 2016 by kball

[Aegolius13]

If you use KAS and KIS, you can try to use the harpoon or electromagnet to tow the thing.  It's much easier to attach at least the electromagnet than to hit the scrap with the klaw (a kerbal can go out and attach it).  But I've found towing to be pretty problematic.  If you do it this way, you might want to bring a klaw anyway and attach it as soon as possible once you're off the ground.  

[Bungthebadger]

From what I'm thinking is this. I make a probe to go to Minmus with the MK3 cargo bay (Of course using the same thruster and stuff, but without the science modules) And then I would recover the scrap and I would use a standard 1.25 M heat shield or a larger heat shield if I want to be sure to be alive.

[Bungthebadger]

Well. Never mind. The MK3 is too big for VAB ships except for the huge ones. I don't really know how to make a spaceplane. I only know how to create a regular plane.

[Jestersage]

5 minutes ago, Bungthebadger said:

Well. Never mind. The MK3 is too big for VAB ships except for the huge ones. I don't really know how to make a spaceplane. I only know how to create a regular plane.

First, learn to fly using the Dove . You basically fly it at 10 degree, until you reach the AP of about 75k, then circularize

Then, add group commands to Aeris 4a, then fly with a similar flight path.

Lastly, Grab the Steerwing D45 from either one of your old backup, or from KerbalX, either this one or this one, then modify it to do SSTO. If you can figure out how, you basically did the SSTO most people do effectively. All that is left is replace the space thrusters with a NERV and you can go to Minmus.

Mk3 is tough no matter what. You will be lucky to get it to LKO if you can't fly properly. You also need to max out your SPH/VAB no matter what.

[bewing]

I just want to say that reentry at Kerbin is the least of your problems. I make a ship that's a passive deorbiter. This one can deorbit 9 items.

It sits in low orbit around Kerbin. You fly over to it and attach your thingie to one of the klaws, decouple the klaw from the ship, burn retrograde until your Pe is 65km, let go of the thingie, turn around and raise your own Pe to above 70km, switch focus to the thingie, and watch it deorbit and land gently on Kerbin.

But picking the thing up off the surface of Minmus is going to be a pain.