Stranded - Kerbal Retrieval Project: Now with stranded spacecrafts! Minor tweaks add

[Ziv]

my Starflight One Tube Rescue would be the one for you...

"DISASTER! The first stage of our new Space Colony construction has hit on one or two little snags. For a start, some dimwit forgot to attach the Clamptron Senior to the ass of the beast to allow the attachment of major station parts including science, a docking hub with escape pods, and long-term life support systems. The second crew capsule sent up with constructors including Bill and Bob also carried an unwanted passenger. A computer virus invaded the guidance system, and sent the station core on a direct course into the Sun, right before it jettisoned the entire propulsion system! The last communication we had from the crew suggested that the docking port had taken some damage when the propulsion systems were jettisoned as the rockets were still firing. The last bit of that transmission indicated that they had in fact enough air and power to survive until impact, but radio range of only about 3,000km. Suits and EVA systems are all nominal.

THE CHALLENGE:

Using the provided Save package (just unpack into your "saves" folder), create and execute a mission to rescue the seven stranded Kerbals before the station crashes into the Sun, and return them to Kerbin. Your FIRST and ONLY priority is the crew! The station is fully expendable."

This is probably unique in KSP Challenges being that it has a Death Clock on it. Literally. Fail to rescue the Kerbals from their stricken station in 30 days, it crashes into the Sun killing them. Nice, huh? And definitely unique in that the only way to rescue them is to perform a suborbital rendezvous and freeflight EVA transfer.

I'm sorry but it needs too much mods and I don't want to hassle with them...

[Batz_10K]

Corsby:

Setting up the intercept on Corsby. (yes, I have MechJeb installed, but didn't use it for this intercept...I'll accept the loss of cookies anyway )

Corsby steps aboard...

Heading back into orbit after the pickup. Next time it might be worth making the ship capable of landing in case it all goes wrong

Anwin:

This is probably cheating right?

...and delivered to the runway.

[kookoo_gr]

Saved Crosby and the "How Hard can Rocket Science be, Anyway?". For the first rescue i jetpacked Crosby to orbit and saved him later with an empty rocket. For the "How Hard can Rocket Science be, Anyway?" i built the Claaaaw^TM. It has girders thet detach with rcs probes and i use the main body of the ship to capture the capsule then i reattach the girders and i have the capsule inside a cage. Of course thsi plan didn't work out well and i had problems navigating around the capsule. After a few attempts i managed to have a contact with the capsule and time warped to Ap, at my surprise i had completely forgotten about the clip time warp bug an the capsule entered the cage and i was able to deorbit them safely, i timewarped again so the capsule can clip out of the cage again.

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[JiWint]

I have done kerbol orbit retrieval once,and kerbal had no eva fuel.I wish I had time to do this :/

[Whirligig Girl]

Corsby Kerman has got stranded in orbit around Kerbin...

The leaders at KSC are fed up with spending on expensive giant rockets so asked the engineers to make EVERYTHING reusable.

So the engineers came up with this SSTO rocket. There's a KAS pocket on it's top with instruments for Corsby to build his own rescue return vehicle...

(click on the image for the album)

http://i.imgur.com/FK2kJuv.jpg

why was Corsby not in the atmosphere? wasn't he the Kerbal in the 50 km orbit?

[Batz_10K]

....With a different take on the Klaaaaw - in this case attached to a standard fuel tanker I use.

Coming in for the capture

...Almost there

...and captured. Having the capsule bounce around inside the basket makes for interesting handling characteristics.

I was considering fixing the orbit and landing back at the KSC, but the warp/clipping bug... so a simple deorbit will have to do.

The capsule is released once on the proper trajectory, and the capture vehicle is boosted back into a stable orbit

[kookoo_gr]

Next is the rescue of Melnard, Jeb and Dony.

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A question, do i need to return the debris form Jeb's crashsite?

[Whirligig Girl]

Next is the rescue of Melnard, Jeb and Dony.

http://imgur.com/a/tFv54

A question, do i need to return the debris form Jeb's crashsite?

No, but it would be really cool.

[Ziv]

why was Corsby not in the atmosphere? wasn't he the Kerbal in the 50 km orbit?

Yes, he was in the atmosphere so I used his Jetpack to go into a higher orbit so I had time to build the rescue vehicle.

[Whirligig Girl]

Yes, he was in the atmosphere so I used his Jetpack to go into a higher orbit so I had time to build the rescue vehicle.

tencharacters

[Ziv]

By the way now I have saved some of the guys and some has disappeared, or the one on escape velocity from Kerbol had escaped...

[Ziv]

There was a 3-Kerbal Pod stranded in a strange orbit, with a strangely closed hatch... who did that? And why? What a mystery! Anyway, I went and rescued them, maybe they will be able to tell more!

all the pictures: http://imgur.com/a/3NBU6

[Whirligig Girl]

There was a 3-Kerbal Pod stranded in a strange orbit, with a strangely closed hatch... who did that? And why? What a mystery! Anyway, I went and rescued them, maybe they will be able to tell more!

all the pictures: http://imgur.com/a/3NBU6

http://i.imgur.com/OgMdP1M.png

I love how the grabber is shaped like the pod. Extra cookies for aesthetics.

[Ziv]

Okay, I saw you were sad that I moved Corsby out of the atmosphere, so I have rescued him from the atmosphere, with a parachute!

all the pictures: http://imgur.com/a/Z1ZTx

[kookoo_gr]

Before the release of 0.23.5 is the rescue of Richgan

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[Whirligig Girl]

Before the release of 0.23.5 is the rescue of Richgan

http://imgur.com/a/tFv54

I think that's just about everything in Kerbin's SOI. Well done!

[kookoo_gr]

i've trying for full day to save the Kerbal that is going out of the solar system but i can't get an encounter no matter how hard i try. What happens if we can't save a Kerbal?

[Whirligig Girl]

If you can't save a Kerbal then I get some of your cookies.

[airbus_sai]

Could you please reupload it to another hosting? For some reason "*.live.com" is not working.

Nevermind, must have been error with DNS servers, cos' several websites stopped working and now are back online.

Edited March 27, 2014 by airbus_sai
it's working! :D

[Batz_10K]

i've trying for full day to save the Kerbal that is going out of the solar system but i can't get an encounter no matter how hard i try. What happens if we can't save a Kerbal?

I tried this too... it was ~850ms escape from Kerbin, 3100ms to generate an intercept, and it wanted a little over 12000ms to match velocity. (and presumably some extra dV to get back into a stable Kerbol orbit.)

So either a really BIG rocket or magic mod engines required, I think....

[SlayerMcGee]

Here is a preview of my upcoming mission, which I just completed (now I need to document the imgur album). I was able to successfully retrieve all 15 kerbalnauts. I used the original scenario file, so I needed KSP Interstellar to get two of the extremely difficult kerbalnauts (which was not possible with stock), mostly stock parts for the rest. I did the entire mission with a single launch, and I was fighting off the kraken nearly all the way, details are forthcoming... but until then, here is a shot of Jeb welcoming the 15 brave kerbalnauts back to KSP.

Edited March 27, 2014 by SlayerMcGee

[Batz_10K]

..From his crazy polar near-escape orbit.

Actually didn't realize that the observatory had some fuel left, but I bought it back into low Kerbin orbit anyway...

Docked at the station waiting for the next shuttle back to Kerbin.

Next up. Rescuing the crew from the Mun and Minmus...

[Ziv]

I was able to successfully retrieve all 15 kerbalnauts. I used the original scenario file, so I needed KSP Interstellar to get two of the extremely difficult kerbalnauts (which was not possible with stock), mostly stock parts for the rest. I did the entire mission with a single launch.

http://i.imgur.com/C3v2ZSM.png

Single launch??! And did you use hyperedit to refuel? I'm the host at the JOOL-5 challenge and even that is very hard to achieve with one launch...! So I'm very curious about your images, looking forward to it!!

[kookoo_gr]

YEEEEEES!!! i saved Gerbin, he is now at an Eve polar orbit waiting for further rescue. Also i copied the rescue of Anwin from Batz_10K.

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[SlayerMcGee]

Greetings!

Here is my *epic* mission to save all 15 stranded Kerbals in a single launch. Note, all of the fuel I used was taken from what was left over in the heavy lifter, in fact, I only used about 65% of that fuel to rescue all of the Kerbals.

I used the following mods:

- PreciseNode (for amazingly accurate trajectory planning)

- MultipleSavesDA (for multiple named game saves)

- TAC Fuel Balancer (for efficient orbital refueling of crafts)

- KW Rocketry (for 3.75m lifter parts)

- Hooligan Labs blimp mod (for Anwin's blimb and easy-mode Eve escape)

- MechJeb and Kerbal Engineer (for instrumentation and design delta-V estimates)

- Clouds and night city lights (for the charm of it)

- Alex Moon's launch window planner (amazing!) http://alexmoon.github.io/ksp/

- AlterB's aerobrake calculator (also amazing!) http://alterbaron.github.io/ksp_aerocalc/

This was a great challenge, and by far the most complicated thing I have accomplished in Kerbal Space Program. It helped me acquire a lot of new skills (floating craft design, Eve in easy mode using balloons, Kerbin blimp design, steep incline landings, escape trajectory rendezvous, and KSPI craft design).

Incidentally, I was battling the Kraken during most of this mission, I think this challenge really stressed the game engine. For example, when trying to rendezvous with Losy Kermin, I would put my craft on an intercept trajectory to him, and if I accelerated time, he would instantly move 100's of km further away, very frustrating! Ultimately, it took hours of real-time game time to get to him. And my heavy tug would explode into a fiery mess about 1 out of 10 times it docked, and if that didn't happen, it would sometimes eject the Kerbal in the command seat 8km away in an instant! Fortunately, I was able to steer clear of all of these problems in the end.

I hope you enjoy my fully documented mission log!

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