Fearless Son

Apparently the initial script of the film was a little closer to using actual orbital mechanics, but it got edited out of fear that the general public would not get it and the script would get bogged down in needlessly excessive exposition about how space actually works. Admittedly, this kind of thing is not very intuitive to the uninitiated.

Those sound pretty easy, actually. Make a test rocket with a capsule on a decoupler with a parachute. Place a booster below that. Put liquid engines radially around the booster. Make sure the liquid rockets are in the first stage and the booster is in the second stage. Remove most (but not all) of the fuel from the booster to save weight if that helps. Stick a few tail fins around the bottom if you have them. Launch and accelerate, but be careful to throttle down as you approach the target velocity. You want to conserve enough fuel and keep your speed within that range as you ascend to your target altitude. Once you are above 23km, hit the staging and activate the booster. Cut the throttle, collect your contract completion payment, and wait for the booster to expend its remaining propellant. Let the craft fall straight back down. When the velocity is low enough, activate the decoupler and pop the chutes. Recover the capsule and congratulate the pilot on having "The right stuff."

Grats on the milestone, Perotis! A Munar flyby is one of the best things you can do early in career mode, and you nailed it. This should give you a lot more freedom when planning future missions. Might I recommend you try for a Minmus flyby next? A little more challenging than a Munar flyby, but not too much. You could probably do it with the same craft design, even, and it would give you another boatload of science to go with what you already got.

I would have used a few radial chutes around the nose of the command pod, activated them immediately after separating the fairing. This planet has an atmosphere, and chutes are fairly cost-effective delta-v when it comes to landing. Even if not sufficient to bring it down on their own, they would slow it so the engines have to spend less fuel to touch down and give the operator more time to correct for problems (such as manually activating the engines if they, for whatever reason, fail to start like in this clip.)

Somehow using rocket engine exhaust as a cooling mechanism strikes me as an incredibly Kerbal solution to engineering problems. Yes, I worry about our young MikeyLavender. He has a promising career as a mission manager ahead of him if he can successfully navigate his team through this crisis.

I follow a similar philosophy. Since I play it unmodded, I want to get a good "feel" for landing and delta-v requirements for missions on unfamiliar celestial bodies before trying a Kerbaled mission there. Plus probes are good for some transmitted science which helps me unlock new parts so I am better equipped for future missions to that place.

It was not so much the TWR I was worried about (Duna's thin atmosphere and low gravity makes for a relatively easy escape) but the amount of fuel you have remaining. You seemed to have so little left over by the time you touched down that I was not certain it would be enough to regain orbit.

For all I know, the engines have built-in coolant dispersal systems that only kick in when the engine is under power. Or, you know, it could be a quirk of the way the heating system interacts between surface-heat, internal heat, and how the convection of heating and cooling works.

Beautifully engineered, beautifully executed. It looks like it might not go back up though...

Yeah, and though his limited fuel and lack of a parachute make it a problem in this case, many engines can actually get cooler in atmosphere when under thrust (because they are pushing heat away from themselves.) I have seen my own engines build up reentry heat to nearly intolerable thresholds, then fire the engines and rapidly shed some of that heat.

Something similar: I ended up using a pair of Vectors on radially-mounted fuel tanks to move my ship, and the gimbals end up causing my ship to list side-to-side under acceleration, like it is "waddling" along. Which is why I named it the "Duck".

Consider equipping it with a drill. Then you can fill up your ore tanks without needing to get a shipment of it from elsewhere.

I have not yet made one, but I have been considering the concept since the new hydrodynamic model was implemented. I thought maybe it would do for an Elcano challenge, maybe with some retracting gear beneath it to allow it to go amphibious.

That is not being "total cheapskates", it is "cost-effective management". It is all how you frame it during the inevitably congressional budget committee grilling you get after every failed mission.

Given current precedent, I doubt that would make it into an actual update, but some enterprising mod-maker might make a good MechJeb for rovers at some point. It would almost need a user-defined waypoint system to be effective, considering how irregular the terrain can be. Still, it would be nice to be able to have say "highway" line between an ore drilling station and a spaceport so raw extracted ore can me moved via hauling rovers to a place with better refinement and orbital launches from a place with higher concentrations.

I never use RCS to directly accelerate my rovers, but I have found it invaluable on them for other reasons. For example, rovers tend to do poorly on low-gravity environments due to their wheels powering their movement via friction with the ground. Lower gravity means lower pressure on the tires and less friction, making acceleration (whether speeding up, breaking, or turning) much more difficult and frankly dangerous (nothing like being unable to break fast enough to not go over that crater edge, or fishtailing because you are trying to turn on an incline that your tires desperately want to be off of.) I will often enable RCS in those scenarios and thrust downward into the ground so the tires have a more firm purchase on the surface they are spinning over (usually Munar regolith.) Also great for climbing steep slopes that your tires just cannot seem to get enough of a grip on to climb without some added force.

While not on an extra-Kerbin surface, I did build a "proof of concept" modular base at the KSC (because sending all the pieces of another planet at great expense only to find they do not fit together the way I thought they would because I never tested them would be a bad idea.) But the base modules stood on little landing legs, and I had a short "tug" rover which would slide under the modules, give itself a tiny bit of upward thrust with its RCS, then attach to a docking port on the bottom of the module. The module would then retract its legs, and the rover would (slowly so as not to tip it) drive the module to its designated location (usually adjacent to the docking port on another module) and once it was secured, extend the landing legs again and detach the rover. Repeat as necessary. Never did get around to building the extra-Kerbin bases though. Still figuring out the most efficient way to transport the piece, and I revised the design a bit in the meantime.

Well that is part of the problem right there: of course trying to do a 30 KM periapsis will result in an overheated mk1 capsule. This is why I recommend a more conservative aerobreaking of at least 50K. It will take longer to get the orbit down, but the heat does not build up all at once and exceed the safe threshold, having a chance to radiate out between its orbital passes. By the time it makes its terminal pass, it should be slow enough to take the full reentry safely.

Only if it is given a customized red paint job.

You know, I did some more thinking on this, and you might have just enough fuel left to pull off a landing. Challenging, but you could do it. I advise quicksaving before making the attempt though. Do the first part of what I said above, get your periapsis down below 70K. It does not have to be much below that, and in fact should not be much below that. You want to do a high atmospheric pass. Like above, every time you pass through the atmosphere your orbit will get a little smaller. This is good, it means you are slowing down, and the slower you are going when you get into the deeper parts of the atmosphere, the less heat shielding you will need (since this was a big concern of yours.) Unlike my above advice, do not try to correct your orbit back to a stable one once the apoapsis is low enough, just continue to let it drop. Eventually it will drop to the surface, the camera angle will change, and you will be on a slow downward trajectory toward the surface. Statistically you will likely be over the ocean, which will make this easier. If you are balanced at all the way I think you are, you should be able to flip the rocket around on the capsule torque and come in Terrier-first after getting through the worst of the atmospheric breaking. You can even deactivate SAS and let the aerodynamics correct your position so you are eventually falling almost straight down, with the command capsule on top. You should have some small amount of fuel still left at this point, because you let atmospheric friction do almost all the work of slowing you down. Once you are close to the ground, maybe a few hundred meters, maybe just a hundred (it will depend on your thrust to weight ratio and speed and the terrain you are over) set your engine to thrust upward to slow your descent. You may not have enough thrust to completely arrest your descent, and you almost certainly will not have enough fuel to make any big corrections, but that is not what you want to do. All you need to do is get your rocket slowed to a survivable crash speed. You may end up crushing the Terrier and your fuel tank, possibly some of the scientific apparatus too, but so long as the capsule survives (and those low-tier capsules are surprisingly tough) you should be good using this (non-ironic, for once) lithobreaking technique.

Okay, the lack of heat shields should not be a problem here. Provided your entry is gentle enough, you should not need them. Heat shields are mostly useful for particularly aggressive aerobreaking or protecting especially delicate parts. The lack of a parachute though is a bit more of a problem. Without that, your landing is going to be particularly rough, and I cannot guarantee Jeb would survive. An experienced player might be able to successfully lithobreak or splashdown in a way that preserves the command capsule, but it does not sound like you have the kind of experience needed to pull that off yet. What is your Astronaut Complex level at? If you have not upgraded it, then you will be unable to perform EVA, which is going to be a problem. But if you have upgraded it, your Kerbals will be able to get out of their rockets and move between nearby vehicles, which will probably be your best bet for rescuing Jeb. I suggest you try to do an orbital rendezvous and get Jeb from his capsule into an uncrewed capsule on a rescue rocket (this will be good practice for later too.) I know you said you could not catch up a rescue mission with this capsule. I do not know what kind of Kerbin orbit you have, but is it something highly ecliptic? I noticed you had just a little fuel left, which with your Terrier might be just enough to attempt an aerobreaking maneuver to lower your orbit. Here is how you do it: wait until you are at the apoapsis (the highest point) of your orbit, then gently (with low throttle) thrust retrograte (opposite the direction you are moving) until your periapsis (the lowest point) of your orbit is between 50K and 70K above the surface of Kerbin. That is enough to get it to skim the upper atmosphere, but save a little fuel for later (you will need it.) Then you wait. Each time it passes the periapsis, the apoapsis will get a little bit lower due to the atmospheric friction taking a little of your kinetic energy. It will not be much, but in space a lot of little forces can add up to a big overall change. Once you complete a pass where the apoapsis is between 70K and 90K or so, wait until you get to the apoapsis and thrust prograde (in the direction you are going) until your periapsis is just over 70K (this is why I said to save a little fuel.) You should then be in a low, stable, and relatively circular orbit and much easier to rendezvous with. Once you have a rescue capsule up there (remember the parachute!) and you are in position to rendezvous, have Jeb get out of his capsule by clicking the little EVA button on his portrait. He will hang onto the outside of the door. While he is hanging here, right click the capsule, and click the "Take Data" button. Jeb will grab all the science experiment results he has stashed in there and take it with him. Then press the space bar to have him let go and float off into free-fall. Activate his jetpack and use that to move (slowly!) toward the other capsule. Once you are in front of the hatch, hit "F" to grab, then once Jeb has a firm grip, have him get in. Then deorbit and recover as normal. Then congratulate Jeb on successfully escaping an impossible situation.

Had a small cargo spaceplane recover an empty mk. 1 passenger cabin from Kerbin orbit. Unfortunately my aerobreaking was miscalculated and I ended up at low-altitude over the ocean on a nightside of Kerbin, with not enough fuel to get back to land, let alone KSC. So I decided to risk my luck against the new hydrodynamic model, and went for an oceanic touchdown. I managed to get down to a slow enough speed, but a couple of the engines tore off on impact. Fortunately despite the minor Rapid Unplanned Disassembly, all the individual pieces were intact and could be recovered. Mission successful.

I would actually really love the Kerbals to have upgradable EVA suits, maybe depending on the Astronaut Complex's level. We already have the player require upgrading it to do any EVA's at all, I wonder if that could be made more granular. Presumably they could do EVAs at level zero as long as they are on Kerbin, but need to be at least level 1 to do it anywhere else. Then maybe add lights, the jetpack, and a parachute as the complex levels up?

That... is an idea I never considered. Thank you, that would be brilliant.

I sometimes use rovers for collecting science from different biomes, sure. For example in my current career save I sent a probe ahead to Duna to scout for science, and I equipped it with a disposable lander can to get the science-bearing rover onto the surface near the intersection of a couple of biomes, then transmitted the science from there. However, I have found rovers useful for certain kinds of contract fulfillment as well. For example, I recently had a contract to take gravity readings at three distinct points on the Mun. These points were close together, but distant enough that collecting data from one would not overlap with the other. That meant either sending a ship that could take off and land at each point (requires quite a lot of onboard fuel and is risky since these sites are near a crater edge and landing can be tricky) or it needs a way to transport the scientific apparatus across the surface. I choose the later method and landed a rover there, and drove it to all three locations and back to the lander.