No battery, no docking. Anything I can do?

[Geonovast]

I'm planning on dropping a mining station onto the Mun, and I got the first chunk in orbit.  I put enough batteries on it to get me there, but somehow missing putting any solar panels outside the fairing.  The only exposed docking port is the shielded one... and it's closed.

I have a comsat orbiting Kerbin about half the distance to the Mun and another satellite already orbiting the Mun, as well as a manned craft with more pieces of the station.  At first I thought it was a comm problem until I noticed that the batteries were dead.

I'm 100% stock and plan on staying that way for awhile.  Is there anything I can do, or do I need to abort and re-launch?  1.3 if that matters.

 

 

TIA

[Kryxal]

I don't know if a Kerbal would be able to open the port manually, but at the least you could use a Klaw to jump-start it.  If it's not going to be much trouble, I'd probably go for a redo.

[Streetwind]

Whenever there is a problem that could be solved by docking, but you have no docking port - you can use The Klaw(tm).

It is basically a docking port that doesn't require a partner. It force-merges anything it hits that is also a ship part (which, yes, includes asteroids).

[Kurld]

Maybe an engineer can open the shielded port from the outside? No idea really.

 

[Aegolius13]

6 minutes ago, Kurld said:

Maybe an engineer can open the shielded port from the outside? No idea really.

 

I would wager any class of Kerbal could do this on EVA.  

Or, as mentioned above, you can Klaw on a module with more batteries or solar panels.

[Geonovast]

Bill is on the other craft that's orbiting the Mun, so I'll rendezvous (had to anyway) and I'll try that.  He's only got one star though.

I didn't even think of the Klaw as I've never used one.  If Bill fails me, I'll send a Klaw probe out.  Thanks!

[Kurld]

I've never ever used the claw. I don't even realize it's in the game most of the time.

 

[Spricigo]

You can use [infinite electricity]  from the cheat menu to deploy fairings and extend panels (/antenna?) .  

If you prefer a non-cheating solution,  you can use the Advanced Grayingham Unit to connect to the vessel. Kerbal in EVA can activate parts of an otherwise uncontrollable vessel but I'm not sure  [deploy fairing]  is among the possibilities. 

[Geonovast]

3 minutes ago, Spricigo said:

You can use [infinite electricity]  from the cheat menu to deploy fairings and extend panels (/antenna?) .  

If you prefer a non-cheating solution,  you can use the Advanced Grayingham Unit to connect to the vessel. Kerbal in EVA can activate parts of an otherwise uncontrollable vessel but I'm not sure  [deploy fairing]  is among the possibilities. 

Definitely prefer not to cheat.  If it was a couple hundred days out and a relaunch would be a total PITA.. maybe.  But this is the Mun.

Externally triggering the fairing would be nice so I don't have to dock, but I imagine I still need electric charge to extend the panels?

[Tex_NL]

Can you still ignite your engine? Most engines produce electricity and you need only very little to stage the fairings.

Or bolt on some solar panels with KIS/KAS.

Edited July 20, 2017 by Tex_NL

[Spricigo]

13 minutes ago, Geonovast said:

Definitely prefer not to cheat.  If it was a couple hundred days out and a relaunch would be a total PITA.. maybe.  But this is the Mun.

Externally triggering the fairing would be nice so I don't have to dock, but I imagine I still need electric charge to extend the panels?

I'd say that as long you don't make it a habit, 'debugging a player mistake' is fair. In any case that is up to each one to decide.

Not 100%, but I'm pretty confident that astronauts can extend solar panel regardless of EC.

[Geonovast]

6 minutes ago, Spricigo said:

I'd say that as long you don't make it a habit, 'debugging a player mistake' is fair. In any case that is up to each one to decide.

Not 100%, but I'm pretty confident that astronauts can extend solar panel regardless of EC.

I can agree with that.  But I think it'll be more fun to fix it with EVA

[monstah]

25 minutes ago, Spricigo said:

Not 100%, but I'm pretty confident that astronauts can extend solar panel regardless of EC.

100% correct. Problem is, OP's panels are inside the fairing. I'm 50% sure opening the shielded docking port is not among the possible EVA actions. I think the Klaw is your best shot her-

Just occurred to me.This is Kerbal Space Program, right? Break the damned fairings away!! Bump whatever at them at a high enough speed (which shouldn't be high, anyway), then open a panel with the EVA Kerbal and eject what's left of the fairings. Just be sure to break the sunlit side, and, you know, try not the get the thing spinning out of control as you do it  

And if you break the whole damned thing... vOv like you said, this is the Mun, right? Casualties for SCIENCE!.

[MiffedStarfish]

I'm pretty sure fairings are not breakable like solar panels. I have hit them with 2.5 ton projectiles travelling at 400+m/s designed specifically for blowing up armoured ships, and they werent even scratched.

[Snark]

1 hour ago, Geonovast said:

The only exposed docking port is the shielded one... and it's closed.

Just use an EVA kerbal to open the docking port.  Any kerbal can do it, doesn't have to be an engineer.  Works just fine.  Proof:

Or you can use the Klaw, as has been suggested.

1 hour ago, Tex_NL said:

Can you still ignite your engine? Most engines produce electricity

I'm guessing he probably can't-- the control icon shows that the vessel's totally dead.  Which means that even if the engine has an alternator on it, it doesn't help him if he can't actually start it up.  (Having trouble telling from the screenshot what that engine is-- I'm guessing it's a modded part?)

26 minutes ago, monstah said:

Just occurred to me.This is Kerbal Space Program, right? Break the damned fairings away!! Bump whatever at them at a high enough speed (which shouldn't be high, anyway)

In general that would be cool advice... however, I seem to recall reading that fairings have a freakishly high impact tolerance (to the point that people can exploit them as nearly crash-proof "landing gear").  They're probably by far the most impact-resistant part on the ship.  So it might be pretty hard to break them without vaporizing the ship itself.

[Geonovast]

41 minutes ago, Snark said:

Just use an EVA kerbal to open the docking port.  Any kerbal can do it, doesn't have to be an engineer.  Works just fine.  Proof

Yup, did just that.  I had no idea Kerbals could actually do anything useful in EVA.

Couldn't trigger the fairing, but the docking port worked fine.

 

41 minutes ago, Snark said:

I'm guessing he probably can't-- the control icon shows that the vessel's totally dead.  Which means that even if the engine has an alternator on it, it doesn't help him if he can't actually start it up.  (Having trouble telling from the screenshot what that engine is-- I'm guessing it's a modded part?

Yup, it was completely dead.  As I said in the original post, I'm 100% stock.  The engine is the Kerbodyne KR-2L+ "Rhino"

Way too happy about a job well done.

Edited July 20, 2017 by Geonovast

[Spricigo]

1 hour ago, monstah said:

100% correct. Problem is, OP's panels are inside the fairing. I'm 50% sure opening the shielded docking port is not among the possible EVA actions. I think the Klaw is your best shot her-

Just occurred to me.This is Kerbal Space Program, right? Break the damned fairings away!! Bump whatever at them at a high enough speed (which shouldn't be high, anyway), then open a panel with the EVA Kerbal and eject what's left of the fairings. Just be sure to break the sunlit side, and, you know, try not the get the thing spinning out of control as you do it  

And if you break the whole damned thing... vOv like you said, this is the Mun, right? Casualties for SCIENCE!.

I'm 100% sure you never tried to crack a fairing open. for perpective Of course the base is much less resistant, but destroying a part in the middle of the stack will have its own detrimental consequences.

Edited July 20, 2017 by Spricigo
note to self: check for new replies before hitting submit