HELP! Jeb is stranded in an orbit around the mun with no electric power or Fuel.

[NikOwO]

Jeb is stranded after my first mun landing.  I didn't get to quick save on the way, so, i'm kind of stuck.  I only have ~20 hours, any ideas to get him back semi easily?  I am guessing rendezvous is the  best option, but , idk if i can do that.  Please help!

[peteletroll]

Welcome to the forums, @NikOwO! Your question was moved to Gameplay Questions.

[adsii1970]

10 minutes ago, NikOwO said:

Jeb is stranded after my first mun landing.  I didn't get to quick save on the way, so, i'm kind of stuck.  I only have ~20 hours, any ideas to get him back semi easily?  I am guessing rendezvous is the  best option, but , idk if i can do that.  Please help!

This is a fairly common thing for everyone to experience in their early game play. I've stranded Kerbals in the same way you are describing.

Here's the best thing you can do - launch a rescue mission!

I always keep a probe in high Kerbin Orbit (HKO) when start doing Mun or Minmus missions in an early science game. That probe has a probe core, solar panels, a docking port, batteries, and an abundance of monopropellant (two of the 1.25m tanks worth) and LFO (the medium 1.25 tank), RCS thrusters, a main engine, and of course, antennae. If I find Jeb (normally it's him ), in a situation where he is stranded, then my "rescue probe" comes into play.

If you do not have a docking port on the capsule you've used, add a command pod to your rescue craft (in addition to the probe core) and make sure you have a claw on it. That way, you can grab the capsule Jeb is in and hold onto it while you spacewalk Jeb from the useless pod into the rescue craft. And during the space walk - since you are a newbie - use <F5> and <F9> a lot. This way, if something goes wrong on your spacewalk, you can revert back to the moment things were going right.

 

[Snark]

50 minutes ago, NikOwO said:

Jeb is stranded after my first mun landing.  I didn't get to quick save on the way, so, i'm kind of stuck.  I only have ~20 hours, any ideas to get him back semi easily?  I am guessing rendezvous is the  best option, but , idk if i can do that.  Please help!

What sort of orbit is he in around the Mun?  i.e. what's the Ap and Pe?

[adsii1970]

2 minutes ago, Snark said:

What sort of orbit is he in around the Mun?  i.e. what's the Ap and Pe?

 

55 minutes ago, NikOwO said:

Jeb is stranded after my first mun landing.  I didn't get to quick save on the way, so, i'm kind of stuck.  I only have ~20 hours, any ideas to get him back semi easily?  I am guessing rendezvous is the  best option, but , idk if i can do that.  Please help!

After reading the original post by @NikOwO, I might have been wrong. I am assuming Jeb's still in orbit. But what if he is actually on the surface of the Mün. It would still be a rescue mission but would be a little more involved!

[king of nowhere]

59 minutes ago, NikOwO said:

Jeb is stranded after my first mun landing.  I didn't get to quick save on the way, so, i'm kind of stuck.  I only have ~20 hours, any ideas to get him back semi easily?  I am guessing rendezvous is the  best option, but , idk if i can do that.  Please help!

yes, rendez-vous is the best option. no, it is the ONLY option. you can't do anything with him right now, you must send help.

you will have to learn rendez vous anyway sooner or later

43 minutes ago, adsii1970 said:

I always keep a probe in high Kerbin Orbit (HKO) when start doing Mun or Minmus missions in an early science game. That probe has a probe core, solar panels, a docking port, batteries, and an abundance of monopropellant (two of the 1.25m tanks worth) and LFO (the medium 1.25 tank), RCS thrusters, a main engine, and of course, antennae. If I find Jeb (normally it's him ), in a situation where he is stranded, then my "rescue probe" comes into play.

If you do not have a docking port on the capsule you've used, add a command pod to your rescue craft (in addition to the probe core) and make sure you have a claw on it. That way, you can grab the capsule Jeb is in and hold onto it while you spacewalk Jeb from the useless pod into the rescue craft. And during the space walk - since you are a newbie - use <F5> and <F9> a lot. This way, if something goes wrong on your spacewalk, you can revert back to the moment things were going right.

 

he said he's played 20 hours. I strongly doubt he has unlocked any of that stuff

[Snark]

1 minute ago, king of nowhere said:

he said he's played 20 hours. I strongly doubt he has unlocked any of that stuff

There's no way to know-- he could be playing a sandbox game, for all we know.  And in any case, if he could build a ship that could get to the Mun, down to the surface, and back to Mun orbit again... then he can certainly build a ship that can just go to Mun orbit to pick up the stranded kerbonaut.  It's a question of talking him through how to do a rendezvous, probably.

But would be really handy to know what the current orbit looks like.

[Mikenike]

Just now, Snark said:

But would be really handy to know what the current orbit looks like.

Orbit, Gamemode, and tech tree info would be great.

[Snark]

Just now, Mikenike said:

Orbit, Gamemode, and tech tree info would be great.

Though, really, just the orbit.  He got to Mun orbit before, he can get to Mun orbit again (regardless of game mode and tech tree)-- especially since the rescue won't require going down to the Mun's surface and back, which saves over a km/sec of dV. 

[NikOwO]

1 hour ago, NikOwO said:

Jeb is stranded after my first mun landing.  I didn't get to quick save on the way, so, i'm kind of stuck.  I only have ~20 hours, any ideas to get him back semi easily?  I am guessing rendezvous is the  best option, but , idk if i can do that.  Please help!

The reason i am stuck is because I landed, then messed up my orbit. .Alright, screenshots for tech tree and orbit (normal, career, also have). Ap: 1mil pe: 6000: 

Spoiler

 

Edited January 28, 2021 by NikOwO

[NikOwO]

I commented the images

[Snark]

20 minutes ago, NikOwO said:

Alright, screenshots

Great shots, thanks! 

So yeah, your best bet's going to be sending a craft to rendezvous with your stranded one, then spacewalk Jeb from the old craft to the new one (bringing along any science you may have aboard).

You can totally pull this off (and you'll learn some useful KSP skills in the process).    Advice to help you will depend on what you've unlocked in-game, though.  Have you upgraded both Mission Control and Tracking Station at least once each?  i.e. are you able to make maneuver nodes?

[adsii1970]

35 minutes ago, king of nowhere said:

he said he's played 20 hours. I strongly doubt he has unlocked any of that stuff

It depends on what mode they are playing in and how rapidly they are fulfilling contracts. I know I try to cover as many contracts as I can in one mission. It maximizes the return and allows for rapid development of the tech tree.

[NikOwO]

Just now, Snark said:

Great shots, thanks! 

So yeah, your best bet's going to be sending a craft to rendezvous with your stranded one, then spacewalk Jeb from the old craft to the new one (bringing along any science you may have aboard).

Have you upgraded both Mission Control and Tracking Station at least once each?  i.e. are you able to make maneuver nodes?

Yes, I can do all of that

[adsii1970]

2 minutes ago, NikOwO said:

Yes, I can do all of that

And put a claw on the rescue ship. That way, you can grab it and not have that big of a gap for Jeb to have to traverse.

[Snark]

Just now, NikOwO said:

Yes, I can do all of that

Okay, yeah, so, you got this!  We'll talk you through it. 

First, the design of the rescue craft.  You need to build something that can get to Mun orbit, pick up Jeb, and bring him home.

You have two design strategies you could follow:

1. Piloted
2. Unpiloted

A piloted rescue craft would likely be a Mk1 pod with a pilot in it (to fly the craft), with a Mk1 crew cabin attached that's empty at launch (so Jeb has a place to ride).

An unpiloted craft would have a probe core and some decent antennas, so it only needs a Mk1 pod (which you launch empty).  It flies uncrewed to the pickup, then Jeb's aboard.

The former is easier to guarantee that you maintain control (since it doesn't depend on comms at all), but will be somewhat heavier since you're lugging around that crew cabin.  The latter can be lighter, but you'll need to ensure battery power and antenna connectivity.

Got any preference for one or the other?  Not sure what your preferred play style is.

1 minute ago, adsii1970 said:

And put a claw on the rescue ship.

Looks like he hasn't gotten that far in the tech tree yet.  Probably easiest just to rendezvous, spacewalk Jeb across to the rescue ship, and then just leave the old ship in orbit around the Mun.

[NikOwO]

5 minutes ago, Snark said:

Okay, yeah, so, you got this!  We'll talk you through it. 

First, the design of the rescue craft.  You need to build something that can get to Mun orbit, pick up Jeb, and bring him home.

You have two design strategies you could follow:

1. Piloted
2. Unpiloted

A piloted rescue craft would likely be a Mk1 pod with a pilot in it (to fly the craft), with a Mk1 crew cabin attached that's empty at launch (so Jeb has a place to ride).

An unpiloted craft would have a probe core and some decent antennas, so it only needs a Mk1 pod (which you launch empty).  It flies uncrewed to the pickup, then Jeb's aboard.

The former is easier to guarantee that you maintain control (since it doesn't depend on comms at all), but will be somewhat heavier since you're lugging around that crew cabin.  The latter can be lighter, but you'll need to ensure battery power and antenna connectivity.

Got any preference for one or the other?  Not sure what your preferred play style is.

Thanks! I think I would do a crewed mission.  I can get easily get a mun encounter/orbit and I have some different rockets for getting there.  They all are manned, so I may just throw valentina in there, with a lunar command pod under the main pod for jeb.  I can attach a pic of my rocket for reference.

Edited January 28, 2021 by NikOwO

[Snark]

Just now, NikOwO said:

Thanks! I think I would do a crewed mission.  I can get easily get a mun encounter/orbit and I have some different rockets for getting there.  They all are manned, so I may just throw valentina in there, with a lunar command pod under the main pod for jeb.

OK then, sounds like you've got the ship-design angle all figured out.   

Okay, on to "how do I rescue the poor guy".  So, the way you'll rendezvous will have steps like this:

1. Launch rescue craft to LKO, then burn to put it on course to the Mun.  (I'll assume you know how to do all that, since you've already done it before.) 
2. Make it so that as you approach the Mun, your Pe is just barely inside Jeb's orbit.  Basically you want your projected path to be just "kissing" the target craft's orbit, with your Pe barely inside it.
3. You're now on a hyperbolic flyby path of the Mun (since you haven't captured yet).
4. Right at your Pe, set a maneuver node and give it some dV:  enough to capture to the Mun, but not enough to match orbits yet.  Lower your Ap to something that's still substantially higher than Jeb's orbit.
5. Ideally you'll be coplanar at this point, assuming that you've kept everything equatorial (both the orbit of your rescue craft, and Jeb's orbit).  Following description assumes this.
   • If this is not the case-- i.e. if Jeb isn't in an equatorial orbit, but is in an inclined one-- tell us, please?  Then you'd have extra steps.
6. So, you should now see markers for "next two encounters" that will give you a sense of how close your craft will pass to Jeb as it orbits around.  You've got the right geometry set up, now you need to work on the timing so that they'll be in the same place at the same time.
7. Carefully give some more dV to your maneuver node.  This will shrink your orbit, and as you slowly/carefully add , you'll see the closest-approach markers move around.  Your goal is to adjust it until the amount-of-separation is at a minimum, i.e. so that the markers for the two ships coincide.
8. Once you've gotten that, you just do the burn. Then coast around until you approach the encounter.
9. When your ship gets within a certain distance of the target (like 50 or 60 km), then your navball will shift to "target-relative" mode.
10. From this point, follow the first few steps from this illustrated guide to docking (only as far as step 3, since you're not actually docking), until you end up parked next to Jeb, fairly close by, at near-zero relative velocity.

At that point, you then switch ships (use the [ or ] key), send Jeb EVA, have him collect any science out of the pod, then he lets go and spacewalks over to the rescue craft to get in.

Then you just fly home.  Ta dah! 

[NikOwO]

1 minute ago, Snark said:

OK then, sounds like you've got the ship-design angle all figured out.   

Okay, on to "how do I rescue the poor guy".  So, the way you'll rendezvous will have steps like this:

1. Launch rescue craft to LKO, then burn to put it on course to the Mun.  (I'll assume you know how to do all that, since you've already done it before.) 
2. Make it so that as you approach the Mun, your Pe is just barely inside Jeb's orbit.  Basically you want your projected path to be just "kissing" the target craft's orbit, with your Pe barely inside it.
3. You're now on a hyperbolic flyby path of the Mun (since you haven't captured yet).
4. Right at your Pe, set a maneuver node and give it some dV:  enough to capture to the Mun, but not enough to match orbits yet.  Lower your Ap to something that's still substantially higher than Jeb's orbit.
5. Ideally you'll be coplanar at this point, assuming that you've kept everything equatorial (both the orbit of your rescue craft, and Jeb's orbit).  Following description assumes this.
   • If this is not the case-- i.e. if Jeb isn't in an equatorial orbit, but is in an inclined one-- tell us, please?  Then you'd have extra steps.
6. So, you should now see markers for "next two encounters" that will give you a sense of how close your craft will pass to Jeb as it orbits around.  You've got the right geometry set up, now you need to work on the timing so that they'll be in the same place at the same time.
7. Carefully give some more dV to your maneuver node.  This will shrink your orbit, and as you slowly/carefully add , you'll see the closest-approach markers move around.  Your goal is to adjust it until the amount-of-separation is at a minimum, i.e. so that the markers for the two ships coincide.
8. Once you've gotten that, you just do the burn. Then coast around until you approach the encounter.
9. When your ship gets within a certain distance of the target (like 50 or 60 km), then your navball will shift to "target-relative" mode.
10. From this point, follow the first few steps from this illustrated guide to docking (only as far as step 3, since you're not actually docking), until you end up parked next to Jeb, fairly close by, at near-zero relative velocity.

At that point, you then switch ships (use the [ or ] key), send Jeb EVA, have him collect any science out of the pod, then he lets go and spacewalks over to the rescue craft to get in.

Then you just fly home.  Ta dah! 

TYSM

[Snark]

10 minutes ago, NikOwO said:

TYSM

Good luck!  Let us know how it turns out?