help poor val get back from the mun

[putnamto]

she was the first kerbal to land their, she didnt have enough fuel to even get back off of the rock.

ive played for almost five hours, sent three different ships to her, 2 of them had the same problem her ship did, and the final one, the one in the picks landed 30km away from her, after a long space walk she's in the craft and ive launched it a dozen times now and can never get my kerbin pe low enough to make it back.

ive also found what i think is a bug, kerbals+inclines+eva-gravity leads to some very weird circumsances where they just slide on the ground with no animation and the controls lock.

https://imgur.com/a/ozXZt

sorry if the pictures dont help much, its really REALLY late her and i just pulled them out real quick, will get better ones tommorow.

Edited March 20, 2018 by putnamto

[Draalo]

1034 m/s dV is pretty enough to reach Mun orbit and return to Kerbin, look at:

https://wiki.kerbalspaceprogram.com/wiki/Cheat_sheet

(scroll down to the picture)

 

Try to reach a stable low altitude orbit first. Remember that Mun has no atmosphere, lift off and turn near the horizon (make sure you are not coliding with obstacles), a 12km AP/PE orbit is reachable with less than 600m/s.

 

At this point a rendevouz is possible, according to how much dV you have left it is also possible to burn a return manouvre which bring you back to Kerbin with a PE of 33km - which is enough to land, aerobreaking is the keyword.

 

When planing this manouvre, move it around a bit to find the best spot. That is when the AP-marker point exactly at the Mun.

 

Edit: The EVA-propellant of a Kerbal is worth 600m/s dV - enough to reach Mun orbit for a rescue vessel to pick her up.

Edited March 20, 2018 by Draalo

[steuben]

It looks like you're getting her to kerbin orbit. Just get her out and push for a while around the AP. You'll want to keep about 1 to .5 of jet pack fuel to get her back in, depending on how good you eva manoeuvering is. When I have to do it I aim for a PE around 40km.

[putnamto]

10 hours ago, steuben said:

It looks like you're getting her to kerbin orbit. Just get her out and push for a while around the AP. You'll want to keep about 1 to .5 of jet pack fuel to get her back in, depending on how good you eva manoeuvering is. When I have to do it I aim for a PE around 40km.

is this the only way? i would rather not, ive done this before and well...... the results werent pretty.

if i do have to do this any pointers? suggestions? things NOT to do.

i was also thinking, what if i dont try to go straight from where she's at now, what if i do a series of "hops" to get her on the kerbin facing side, then just blast straight up from their and hopefully get into the kerbing SOI and do landing maneuvers from their.

[Ace in Space]

2 hours ago, putnamto said:

then just blast straight up from their and hopefully get into the kerbing SOI and do landing maneuvers from their.

This was the critical mistake I made at first that stranded Jeb. You don't burn in the direction of the thing you want to go to. To go down, you burn backwards. To go up (including to another planet), you burn forward. To get from mun to kerbin you want to go prograde (forward). And you don't necessarily want to do it on the side of the mun facing kerbin, as crazy as that sounds.

I believe the way it's done is, if you're going counterclockwise around the mun's equator, you want to burn prograde when you're on the side facing kerbin. If you're going clockwise, you want to burn prograde on the side facing away from kerbin. Don't be alarmed if your apoapsis seems to be going away from Kerbin - once you escape the mun's sphere of influence it'll work out.

Orbital physics is not intuitive.

[putnamto]

11 minutes ago, Ace in Space said:

This was the critical mistake I made at first that stranded Jeb. You don't burn in the direction of the thing you want to go to. To go down, you burn backwards. To go up (including to another planet), you burn forward. To get from mun to kerbin you want to go prograde (forward). And you don't necessarily want to do it on the side of the mun facing kerbin, as crazy as that sounds.

I believe the way it's done is, if you're going counterclockwise around the mun's equator, you want to burn prograde when you're on the side facing kerbin. If you're going clockwise, you want to burn prograde on the side facing away from kerbin. Don't be alarmed if your apoapsis seems to be going away from Kerbin - once you escape the mun's sphere of influence it'll work out.

Orbital physics is not intuitive.

yeah i figured that out.

ive got 22ms of dv left and my kerbin pe is only 34km every time i try to land she dies   i cant get my speed below the 8ms that i need to stop from destroying the pod.

heres a video of her dying, repeatedly, any help is appreciated.

ok, the video is going to take 1/2 an hour to upload to youtube, why is that so slow? its only 750mb

[Ace in Space]

3 minutes ago, putnamto said:

i cant get my speed below the 8ms that i need to stop from destroying the pod.

If you're aerobraking (dipping into the atmosphere and letting it slow you down) you should be able to slow down enough... you are using parachutes right?

[putnamto]

1 minute ago, Ace in Space said:

If you're aerobraking (dipping into the atmosphere and letting it slow you down) you should be able to slow down enough... you are using parachutes right?

yes i have a parachute, im trying to aero brake, but i think my kerbin orbit is way to....i dont know the word for it, my Ap is something like 10mil and my pe is only 35km.

should i try again and raise my pe up to 50km? i dont really understand aerobraking, i assume its just coming into the planets atmosphere horizontally and letting the atmosphere slow you down but they slowest that does for me is get me to 10-15ms.

 

[Ace in Space]

11 minutes ago, putnamto said:

should i try again and raise my pe up to 50km? i dont really understand aerobraking, i assume its just coming into the planets atmosphere horizontally and letting the atmosphere slow you down but they slowest that does for me is get me to 10-15ms.

You could try it. Sometimes you need multiple passes through the atmosphere but that really shouldn't be the case when you're coming back from Mun. When are you deploying your chutes (as in, speed and altitude)?

[putnamto]

default on the parachutes, and i dont know what the speed is, ill try again when i get back on the game later tonight

 

[Ace in Space]

1 minute ago, putnamto said:

default on the parachutes

Just so we're clear: the time the parachute opens (what the setting is for) is not the same as the time you deploy your chute (when you stage them). You get some slowdown just from deploying it, and then slow down more when it opens. Try deploying the chutes at like 5km and see if that helps.

[putnamto]

3 minutes ago, Ace in Space said:

Just so we're clear: the time the parachute opens (what the setting is for) is not the same as the time you deploy your chute (when you stage them). You get some slowdown just from deploying it, and then slow down more when it opens. Try deploying the chutes at like 5km and see if that helps.

oh, i was opening them as soon as the game would allow it.

[Ace in Space]

Just now, putnamto said:

oh, i was opening them as soon as the game would allow it.

Well that works too. I am just saying you don't have to WAIT for whatever you set it to before you deploy, so long as the icon isn't red.

[putnamto]

https://www.facebook.com/codytheputnamto/videos/1882088788497653/

holy excrements that actually worked.

this has to be the fiftieth time ive tried to land this. next time more parachutes.

it was pure luck that she lived, thank you guys.

if you watch the video just skip to the end.

[Zeiss Ikon]

I routinely reenter to 35 km Pe on a direct Mun return orbit.  If you have a heat shield, it shouldn't be a problem, just turn SAS off when you get down to around 55 km altitude.  The regular Mk. 16 parachute (fits the nose of the Mk. 1 command pod) is plenty for a Mk. 1 pod, but don't forget to jettison your heat shield after you get the parachute open; that'll make a difference of a couple m/s in your descent velocity.

[putnamto]

1 hour ago, Zeiss Ikon said:

I routinely reenter to 35 km Pe on a direct Mun return orbit.  If you have a heat shield, it shouldn't be a problem, just turn SAS off when you get down to around 55 km altitude.  The regular Mk. 16 parachute (fits the nose of the Mk. 1 command pod) is plenty for a Mk. 1 pod, but don't forget to jettison your heat shield after you get the parachute open; that'll make a difference of a couple m/s in your descent velocity.

i was using the lander can, and i realize its not made to reenter kerbins atmosphere, well easily.

[Zeiss Ikon]

10 hours ago, putnamto said:

i was using the lander can, and i realize its not made to reenter kerbins atmosphere, well easily.

Yeah, not so much.  May as well reenter in a plastic milk jug.