Help Jeb get back home!

[Merandix]

I kind of sent Jeb up to do my first manned Munar reconnaissance mission... it all went fine... until I discovered I exited the Mun's orbit on the wrong side... the Mun caught up with me, and gave me a nice unwanted gravity assist... I only had enough fuel to burn off a tiny little bit of speed, and I discovered I forgot to instal RCS thrusters... Yet I was still carrying RCS fuel in the pod... woops... So yeah, now poor Jeb basically is in a highly elliptical orbit around Kerbin. Dangerously close to the orbit of the Mun... Not so much at risk of hitting it, but I fear another 'gravity assist' will sling Jeb out of Kerbin's SOI eventually.

I still need a lot of practice with orbital manoeuvring.... clearly.

However, I still want Jeb safely back home...

I tried to follow in the footsteps of Scot Manley by instructing Jeb to 'get out and push'. However my skill at this seems appalling... I just manage to get the capsule to spin... while the capsule actually is the only reference point I have... so I no longer know where to push...

I tried a drone rescue mission, but the timing required really is over my head and I had to revert.

I dove headfirst into spaceplanes, and I love it... but I seem to have skipped the basics in doing so...

So yeah... suggestions and tips and stuff on this nooby mistake would be much appreciated.

Now if you'll excuse me, I have to get back on the radio to crack jokes with Jeb, he's starting to get bored up there

Edited January 26, 2015 by Merandix

[Taki117]

Ok, get in the pod, point retrograde, and you have to be very careful when pushing. You could also continue and let Jeb drift (He won't fly off if you don't focus on him) so you can wait until you get the Klaw and rescue him that way

[Wabbit]

I kind of sent Jeb up to do my first manned Munar reconnaissance mission... it all went fine... until I discovered I exited the Mun's orbit on the wrong side... the Mun caught up with me, and gave me a nice unwanted gravity assist... I only had enough fuel to burn off a tiny little bit of speed, and I discovered I forgot to instal RCS thrusters... Yet I was still carrying RCS fuel in the pod... woops... So yeah, now poor Jeb basically is in a highly elliptical orbit around Kerbin. Dangerously close to the orbit of the Mun... Not so much at risk of hitting it, but I fear another 'gravity assist' will sling Jeb out of Kerbin's SOI eventually.

I still need a lot of practice with orbital manoeuvring.... clearly.

However, I still want Jeb safely back home...

I tried to follow in the footsteps of Scot Manley by instructing Jeb to 'get out and push'. However my skill at this seems appalling... I just manage to get the capsule to spin... while the capsule actually is the only reference point I have... so I no longer know where to push...

I tried a drone rescue mission, but the timing required really is over my head and I had to revert.

I dove headfirst into spaceplanes, and I love it... but I seem to have skipped the basics in doing so...

So yeah... suggestions and tips and stuff on this nooby mistake would be much appreciated.

Now if you'll excuse me, I have to get back on the radio to crack jokes with Jeb, he's starting to get bored up there

Poor Jeb... We always abuse him so much

Anyway, a thing you could do is use a similar Munar Rocket, with a command pod, but flown to Jeb by a probe core. Just Target Jebediah, or the command pod. If jeb is away from the pod, target him. Launch your savior probe, and this is crucial: Change your plane (how inclined your orbit is) to his. If no further adjustment is needed, make sure you both have the same orbit. If he is ahead of you, make your orbit smaller to catch up. If he is ahead, make it bigger. Once you catch up, switch the navball to Target mode, by clicking where it either says "Orbit x m/s "or "Surface x m/s". Once it says Target, wait until your closest approach, then turn on SAS and click the one at the bottom that says anti-target. Make a small main engine burn until it says under Target on the navball something under about 5-10 m/s. Then, take out little Jebarooney, fly him over in his RCS pack, and get him in the ship. Then, simply deorbit and bring Jeb home!

[Anquietas314]

You could also continue and let Jeb drift (He won't fly off if you don't focus on him) so you can wait until you get the Klaw and rescue him that way

Another couple possibilities:

1 - send up an unmanned capsule and just recover Jeb, leaving the capsule in orbit.

2 - send up another ship (manned or unmanned, doesn't matter), but stick a bunch of lander legs upside down near the top to act as a "scoop", rendezvous with the capsule, then push it home .

[Cyk0_]

Get to Apoapsis, point the capsule retrograde(the yellow circle with crossings on it), get out of the pod and push it from the bottom.

[Oafman]

So yeah, now poor Jeb basically is in a highly elliptical orbit around Kerbin. Dangerously close to the orbit of the Mun... Not so much at risk of hitting it, but I fear another 'gravity assist' will sling Jeb out of Kerbin's SOI eventually.

If you're on a similar plane to the Mun, then something worth a quick look is to see if you are likely to enter its SoI any time soon, and what sort of encounter that will be (and what it will do to Jeb's trajectory).

Place a maneuver node anywhere on your orbit, then right click it and 3 little buttons will appear. The bottom right button moves the node forward by 1 orbit. Click this a bunch of times, and keep an eye on your predicted trajectory. If you get a Mun encounter it will be immediately obvious, and you'll be able to see what effect it will have. It might even kick your periapsis down much closer to Kerbin, though that would be very lucky; it's more likely to make things worse

[Merandix]

Well, capturing it when I'm near isn't an issue... I designed it to dock with a munar space station that is in another save *facepalm* (why would I even check? <.<) So it actually has a docking port.

The problem is synching such a huge orbit... I know how to synch small circular orbits... but yikes...

Also, if I leave it unfocussed, do I understand correctly that it will NOT be slingshotted into deep space by the Mun's gravity?

Orbit's inclination is around 45 degrees relative to the Mun's... That large inclination was necessary to fly over the lot where I needed to do a crew report... then I discovered I had too little fuel to make it back home... no biggy, I just need to -hit- Kerbin... and that's exactly what the Mun prevented when it caught up with me... I had enough fuel to get home initially, but not when I got that unintended gravity assist XD

Edited January 26, 2015 by Merandix

[Beachernaut]

Unfortunately you're only 2 real options are pushing, or rendezvous with another ship.

Personally, I've never had much luck with pushing as it was always easier to send up another ship to retrieve a stranded Kerbal. OTOH, learning and practicing encounter and rendezvous is better in LKO. It's really not that hard once you "get it". Until then it can be very frustrating.

Using the "encounter/target position" markers makes rendezvous in just about any type of orbit easier. Unfortunately, if you don't know how to use them, I'm not sure I could explain. Not sure if there is any "tutorial" for using them on youtube.

Edit: Although it doesn't really explain it. I have a video where you can see how I use the markers.

From about 5:10 to around 7 minutes or so.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ctuQiW7D-qw

Edited January 26, 2015 by Beachernaut

[Alshain]

Get to Apoapsis, point the capsule retrograde(the yellow circle with crossings on it), get out of the pod and push it from the bottom.

This has become a lot more difficult to accomplish since they moved SAS to the pilot. Every time you get out of the craft, SAS turns off. Unless you have more than 1 kerbal.

[tater]

A problem in 0.90 with the usual "get out and push" is that the capsule might just tumble as soon as the pilot leaves and it is not under control.

If this is the case, a rescue might be the only option (capsule and probe core, as stated above). RCS would not be required, you only need get close enough for Jeb to EVA across.

[Starhawk]

The problem is synching such a huge orbit... I know how to synch small circular orbits... but yikes...

The principles are really the same for small and large orbits. With that inclination, you'll need a fair bit of delta-v to do the maneuvers. Given that you do have enough, you should be able to take your unmanned probe, put it into a similar but smaller orbit compared to Jeb's, and play with maneuver nodes until you get a good rendezvous. It seems to me that if you have enough delta-v, it's more about patience than timing.

Also, if I leave it unfocussed, do I understand correctly that it will NOT be slingshotted into deep space by the Mun's gravity?

As I understand it, that is correct. I have not tested this, however.

Good luck! I'm cheering for you!

[Merandix]

*cough* I can now confirm that it is INCORRECT, at least, when looking at it from the Tracking station, or a Kerbin based 'base' (runway marker).

Jeb basically flew off into outer space when viewed from the tracking station, and crashed into the moon when looking from my base at Kerbin....

Two very rash F9's later, I'm now in a situation where I literally have a single orbit to catch up with him, and get him away from that blasted Mun...

Oh dear...

[Beachernaut]

Bummer. With only 1 orbit, there's probably no way you'll get a ship to him. Best choice now is probably leaving the ship behind and having Jeb EVA and seeing if he's got enough DV to miss the mun. Remember, the further you are from the mun, the less DV you'll need.

[Merandix]

Daring rescue plan:

I rebuilt a spaceplane from my sandbox game. I realised I had the tech. So why not try it? It's capable of landing on the Mun, and getting back again on a single tank of gas. If anything's going to get Jeb back, it's this thing...

edit: makes me wonder why I didn't use this thing in the first place <.<

In case of emergency and I do need Jeb to use his little jetpack to save his bum from an unfortunate encounter with the Mun... how do I tell which way to go without a navball?

[PnDB]

Does Jeb have enough dV to make a safe Munar landing? Suicide burn in his EVA jetpack? Even if it didn't work, it would be a heck of a remembrance story for the folks back at KSC.

[Wabbit]

I don't know... Towards kerbin might work but may not be exact. Away from the mun seems good, try that.

[Starhawk]

I think Beachernaut is correct. You'll probably have to count on Jeb's EVA pack to avoid the Mun. You should be able to make a fairly big change to Jeb's orbit if you use the EVA jets to thrust retrograde at periapsis.

- - - Updated - - -

how do I tell which way to go without a navball?

I've successfully used visual cues in the background to determine direction without a navball. Maybe that would be enough.

Hopefully your spaceplane rescue will work.

Good luck!

[pincushionman]

In case of emergency and I do need Jeb to use his little jetpack to save his bum from an unfortunate encounter with the Mun... how do I tell which way to go without a navball?

Wait 'till periapsis, then get your ship lined up in the direction you need to go (prograde/retrograde/etc.). Or better yet, get the HATCH lined up in the direction you need to go, EVA, LET GO IMMEDIATELY, GRAB ALL THE SCIENCE, thrust backward from the ship. You don't care which way he's facing as long as you can get the dV.

[Beachernaut]

Pincushionman has about as good an idea as I can think of. Orient the ship, then use it as a direction reference when you go EVA. It will drift, but shouldn't drift much before you don't need it anymore.

[Merandix]

Ok, I managed to get jeb off the ship by docking to it with my spaceplane... I made an elliptical orbit half the size of the ship's orbit, on the same inclination, and in the end I only had to shed a little over 200 m/s in speed difference when the encounter happened.

Jeb's safe...

...the only bummer? The experiment is still in his capsule... oops...

Also been dewingsed again at landing. Put it down safely anyway.

The most awesome thing about this game? When something goes horribly wrong, and you make it right again!

Thanks for all the suggestions!

[Beachernaut]

Congrats!

"oh crap!" moments generally lead to good experience, and a high sense of accomplishment IMO.

[Starhawk]

Congratulations! I, too, love the high-low-high experience of 'Yay! I did this!' to 'Oh crap. Now I'm in trouble.' to 'Yay! A successful rescue!'.

It's truly a great aspect of this game.

[pincushionman]

Now that you've done that…those kerbal rescue contracts should be cake, eh?

[Merandix]

They already were... I actually think low orbit rescue missions miss that sense of urgency that I had today

[Sirrobert]

Yea, there's no fun without a Mun coming to crush them