The Tylo Snatch

[Snark]

*KSSSHHHHH* "Joolseeker, come in Joolseeker, this is Tylo Lander, do you read me, over?"

Val rolled her eyes.  "Yes, we read you, Bob, and you don't need to make 'kssssshhh' noises into the microphone."

"Um, Val?  Was the thermostat control the little blue glowy button, or the bright red flashy one?"

"The blue one, Bob."

"Oh. Um."

"Bob... please tell me you didn't just do what I think you just did."

 

As the Joolseeker orbits Tylo, Bob went down to the surface in the Tylo Lander.  Unfortunately, he got a little confused during ascent and jettisoned his booster stage too early.  Now there's nowhere near enough fuel to get to orbit... and the Joolseeker has such low acceleration that it hasn't a prayer of landing on Tylo.

Your mission:  Recover Bob aboard the Joolseeker.

Bob has only one hope:  Take off in Tylo Lander, burn until he runs out of fuel, then bail out and use his EVA fuel to accelerate further.

That's still not enough to get to orbit... so the Joolseeker will have to slow to suborbital speed, quickly snatch Bob from his doomed path, and then accelerate back to orbit before it crashes into Tylo.

Download

 

Scoring

You get 10,000 points for a successful mission.  However, partial points are awarded based on how far you get:

• 500 for getting within 15 km of Joolseeker
• 500 for getting within 5 km
• 1000 for getting within 1 km
• 3000 for boarding Joolseeker
• 5000 (and a successful mission) for raising Joolseeker's periapsis to at least 10 km after Bob boards.

Mission fails if any kerbal dies, or if Joolseeker is destroyed.

 

Notes

• Margins are tight, this is a hard one.  Don't say I didn't warn you. 
• It's up to you how you maneuver and when you launch and so forth (there aren't any time limits) ... but as a helpful guide, a little "launch now!" message pops up when Joolseeker is at a position that I've found works pretty well for launch.
• It's hard, but if well-executed, not insanely hard.  It's possible to complete the mission with a fair bit of safety margin.

If you're a glutton for punishment and want to make it harder, find this node in the mission editor:

...and raise the number to something higher than 225.  That will make Bob have his little "accident" sooner, and you'll have less dV.  Bragging rights to the person who can successfully complete the mission with the highest number set here. 

[Kerbalstar]

Looks fun @Snark!

[zanie420]

I cannot start the mission

[Snark]

1 hour ago, zanie420 said:

I cannot start the mission

Yes.  That's because you're running KSP 1.4.1.  Update to 1.4.2 and you should be good.

[zanie420]

17 hours ago, Snark said:

Yes.  That's because you're running KSP 1.4.1.  Update to 1.4.2 and you should be good.

D'oh! That's what I get for letting other games take my attention!