Recover scrap mission impossible b/c scrap blows up

[dangros]

I have a mission where I have to rescue a Kerbal on the mun and return their scrap back to Kerbin.  As I descend, I see the kerbal and the remainder of his ship on a very very steep slope inside a crater. The problem is, the scrap is rolling down the wall of the crater and explodes.  Is there a way around this?

[Cavscout74]

Hope for the best, they don't always do that.  I don't bother with those contracts any more because they do it too often - it they don't spawn on a cliff, they spawn several hundred meters in the air then crash and explode.    You could always try to switch to the scrap, use the alt-F12 to set orbit into a stable orbit & just rendezvous and grab it from orbit. 

[Snark]

Yeah, unfortunately this type of contract tends to be kind of buggy that way.

When this sort of thing happens to me-- i.e. there's a contract that's impossible to complete, and it's entirely the game's fault and not mine... then I just use the alt+F12 menu with a clear conscience to cheat the contract completed.

[dangros]

lol a cheat to deal with a bug is an acceptable work-around to me!! 

 

outside of using Kis/Kas, how do i pick it up?

Edited September 16, 2019 by dangros

[Geonovast]

9 hours ago, dangros said:

outside of using Kis/Kas, how do i pick it up?

That game's intention is for you to use the Advanced Grabbing Unit to grab onto it.  The only other stock option I can think of is to roll it or otherwise trap it into a cargo bay, but that's pretty tricky to get it all the way back to Kerbin without it exploding inside from rattling around.

You might be able to use the "Hack Gravity" function the F12 menu to get it to not roll, or at least not roll fast enough to get away from you, but I think this would provide its own challenges, and it could mess up the orbits of... everything else.

With a situation like this, I would just the F12 menu to complete the contract.

[Guest]

31 minutes ago, Geonovast said:

The only other stock option I can think of is to roll it or otherwise trap it into a cargo bay, but that's pretty tricky to get it all the way back to Kerbin without it exploding inside from rattling around.

If you have Breaking Ground you can also make a giant robo-hand to grab it.

It's not any easier than using a Klaw but it is more impressive.

[dangros]

9 hours ago, Brikoleur said:

If you have Breaking Ground you can also make a giant robo-hand to grab it.

It's not any easier than using a Klaw but it is more impressive.

 

9 hours ago, Geonovast said:

That game's intention is for you to use the Advanced Grabbing Unit to grab onto it.  The only other stock option I can think of is to roll it or otherwise trap it into a cargo bay, but that's pretty tricky to get it all the way back to Kerbin without it exploding inside from rattling around.

You might be able to use the "Hack Gravity" function the F12 menu to get it to not roll, or at least not roll fast enough to get away from you, but I think this would provide its own challenges, and it could mess up the orbits of... everything else.

With a situation like this, I would just the F12 menu to complete the contract.

The thing is, it's on such a severe hill that there would be no way to roll up to it.  I cant imagine the contract being done this way on purpose.  I do like the idea of the robo-hand. Yes, I do have both expansions.  

[Guest]

Surface craft recovery missions are sometimes really hard. I do think they are that way on purpose, it's to provide a random challenge that's sometimes pretty easy, other times really super hard and sometimes even impossible. Failure is an option from time to time.

(If you can't roll up to it, then fly up to it. Takes some pretty serious piloting chops but it can be done, I've done some stunt flying like that and I'm a rank amateur compared to some here, @EveMaster for example tried out my Eve shuttle and landed the orbiter module on the lifter module's wing... on Eve. I.e. his handle ain't all bragging!)

[EveMaster]

Thank you @Brikoleur, for the compliment. The lack of atmosphere makes this rescuing mission different, but you also have to be quick. To be fair, I had to reload the final landing approach some times to get the timing for the parachute deployment right.

Even if the slope is too high for a stand still, you can still roll or slide it up under rocket power. I tried out something like this recently:

The wings won't on the mun however. Only gravity or thrusters can keep you from accidentally leaving the ground.

I would recommend that you use a dedicated and more maneuverable ship for picking up the scrap and park your orbital Lifter somewhere near, outside of physics range.

If the scrap ship has electricity and reaction wheels, you could also try if you can stop the roll by immediately switching to the scrap ship. For this you could enter the physics range with a Kerbal on EVA, so you don't have to land your ship first. Of course the ground must not be to steep for a Kerbal to stand, so that this can work.

[dangros]

Thanks @EveMaster and @Brikoleur.  I ended up moving on b/c I wanted to complete other missions.  In the future, I'll create something that can hover and snag.  
This mission is darn near impossible, however.  IF you get in physics range, the ship starts rolling down the hill. It wont stop till it blows up. If you turn on cheats and prevent it's destruction, it rolls into a V shaped crevice.  I had the kerbal up against the ship as it got stuck in a loop, constantly rolling and bouncing off the kerbal, rendering the kerbal impossible to move.  

I'm happily enjoying other contracts at this point and trying to obtain some sort of ability