Proud moment, with a twist

[StryfeMccloud]

Hello everyone, 

Not sure if this is the proper place to post this, but I must explain my exciting night to others that understand.  After many trial and error builds of a rocket that could orbit the Mun, I successfully made one.  I even added landing struts (just in case).  While in orbit around the Mun, I decided I had enough fuel to land.   After many quicksaves, I successfully landed Jebadiah Kerman on the surface of the Mun.  Unfortunately, it was on the dark side of the mun, which made the landing especially difficult.  After landing, I conducted all the science experiments that I could, and planted a flag.  I then tried to take off for Kerbin.  I quicksaved, and tried with no success as now I don't have the required fuel for the trip home.  Luckily kerbals are still (almost) invincible, because poor Jebadiah is stuck on the mun.   I couldn't be happier that I am now going to have a rescue mission.  I have already started on a new rocket design to get to the mun, rescue Jeb, and return home with the happy green payload.   This game makes me so happy, I just had to share tonight's experience.  I have attached a screenshot of proud Jeb standing by his flag and ship.  http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=1208620065

[monstah]

Hello! Welcome, and congratulations. It's a hard game, but it does make us very proud of our achievements!

Moving thread to KSP Discussion, this subforum is for real life Science and Spaceflight discussion!

[James Kerman]

Greetings and welcome to the forums, @StryfeMccloud.  As monstah says the game has a steep learning curve but I don't think it would be fun otherwise. 

[swjr-swis]

Congrats on visiting the next celestial body!

There's nothing quite like setting yourself a challenge or goal, and then achieving it. KSP certainly offers many opportunities for that.

What it's also very good at is surprising us with the difficulty of said challenges, or throwing entirely new ones in our faces that we hadn't even considered yet. In Real Life(tm), this would likely mean death and destruction, but in KSP we can retry again and again, learning with each failure until we succeed. Kerbals are quite resilient, and they willingly face the perils of space-faring with defiance, which one can't help but smile at.

Keep us informed on your progress in both bringing Jeb back home and your continued exploration of the Kerbol system, and keep challenging yourself - you're in for an experience.

[Piatzin]

I can confidently say that your next proudest moment will come when you manage to return from Eve. (The big purple planet with oceans)

Edited November 23, 2017 by Earthlinger

[monstah]

6 minutes ago, Earthlinger said:

I can confidently say that your next proudest moment will come when you manage to return from Eve. (The big purple planet with oceans)

I dunno, from the description it seems like a direct landing. Maybe they haven't docked yet, and man, is that satisfactory when you learn it properly.

[Zeiss Ikon]

Jebediah stuck on the Mun => Jebediah stuck in Munar orbit (you do know, don't you, that if you have enough fuel in the lander to get even a fraction of the way to orbit, Jeb can finish making orbit with his EVA jets?).  Munar orbit is a much simpler rescue mission -- even if you have to learn how -- than landing in a precise enough location for Jeb not to take weeks to walk to the new lander.

I did this once, in my first sandbox save -- landed without enough fuel, got Jeb stranded in Munar orbit.  Sent a rescue mission, didn't yet know how to rendezvous or dock.  Didn't know how to fly an EVA pack, other than one direction boost to get to Munar orbit.  Got the rescue craft stuck in Munar orbit, out of fuel and monopropellant, with dead battery, and Jeb now out of EVA propellant.  Sent a second rescue, with more seats, and got that stuck in Munar orbit, without enough fuel left to return to Kerbin, and empty monopropellant -- and my last pilot aboard.

That was the point where I deleted the save and started over, and spent time learning to rendezvous and dock before going to the Mun.  There's a good reason NASA did those things before sending anything manned anywhere near the Moon...

[StryfeMccloud]

Thanks for all the replies and the warm welcome!  I do have plenty of fuel to orbit the Mun.  I think I will try both types of rescue missions, strictly for the enjoyment of the challenge.  I didn't think about a orbital rescue, so I thank you for this advice!  I will definitely keep you guys posted on progress, although right now, I am still in the building phase of the rescue ship.

 

First attempt at Munar surface rescue is a success thus far, I have achieved orbit around the Mun, with enough fuel this time.  I used a larger capsule and removed one Kerbal to make room for the hero Jeb.  

 

 

Edited November 23, 2017 by StryfeMccloud

[Snark]

4 hours ago, Zeiss Ikon said:

(you do know, don't you, that if you have enough fuel in the lander to get even a fraction of the way to orbit, Jeb can finish making orbit with his EVA jets?)

Actually, he can get to orbit from the surface of the Mun without any ship at all ... barely.  A kerbal EVA pack has just enough dV to get into a very, very low circular Mun orbit, if you do it right. 

[Zeiss Ikon]

4 hours ago, Snark said:

Actually, he can get to orbit from the surface of the Mun without any ship at all ... barely.  A kerbal EVA pack has just enough dV to get into a very, very low circular Mun orbit, if you do it right. 

And since almost no one can fly an absolutely perfect gravity turn in EVA, never mind know exactly how low their orbit can be, even if you only get 100 m/s or a couple km altitude out of your lander's remaining fuel, you virtually guarantee success at an orbit height that doesn't risk the rescue ship crashing while trying to match orbits.  An orbit at 25 km indicated is high enough -- one that clears terrain by 500 meters isn't.

[StryfeMccloud]

All of this is great advice.  Really glad I decided to join this forum!  Thank you everyone.