Y-Hat

So, I built my first ship not meant to land, named "Voyager." A cupola, a hitchhiker, a bunch of fuel and two LV-Ns. I launched it under probe control and then sent Jeb up to dock: http://cloud-2.steampowered.com/ugc/504700546805770926/367653F5F2D203D91B3C1F3A6CCEDA97BCD96E5A/ I docked and EVAed Jeb to the cupola to take command. I then docked a lander with Eldred in it and sent the whole thing to Minmus. Arrived okay, sent Eldred down and went to EVA Jeb. And that's when I discovered that the RCS cluster I'd accidentally placed over the cupola door would permit Jeb to get in, but not to get out. Um... I brought the Voyager home, landed Eldred and dumped Jeb's lifeboat. If I could land the Voyager I could just recover the vessel and let KSC engineers cut him loose. But, of course, Voyager was never intended to land. I tried docking two probes, each carrying six radial chutes, but simulations indicate the docking ports can't handle the g-forces when the chutes open. And I don't think Voyager's twin LV-Ns can slow her enough to lithobrake successfully. And so, Jeb remains in orbit, entombed like one of the Emperor's venerable Dreadnoughts until I figure something out or an update saves him. My current best idea is to smash a probe into the cupola door just hard enough to smash the RCS cluster loose, but not hard enough to kill Jeb. D'oh, indeed.

I've built a taxi for this purpose using a probe core and a hitchhiker storage container. The probe core controls everything and the hitchhiker is NOT populated automatically. Gives you tons of space and you can reenter and land the thing safely provided you keep the landing gentle. Mine slows down with two drogue chutes, lands on two radial chutes, and has six of the heavy duty landing legs. Just keep in mind that you have to keep the probe core powered, and it's a fairly heavy hab module to be chucking up and around.

"Failure is NOT an option; it's built right in."

Well, if anyone has an extra copy of Bill Kerman after the next update, I reckon the monolith sent you mine. I mean, think about it: Jebediah isn't reincarnated after every lethal accident, a new version of him just arrives from someone else's game.

During a recent mission on Minmus, Lilly Kerminski and Memer Kerman discovered what can only be described as a hole in spacetime: Radio rangefinding and remote instrumentation failed to reveal any details about the structure. As they were late for a rendezvous with a lander, Lilly and Memer planted a flag and departed. Several days later, Bill Kerman returned to investigate. After using his RCS pack to approach and land near the structure, he was struck by some type of anomaly and slid down the mountain side, spinning like a ballerina on meth. Not one to be intimidated by the unknown, Bill used his RCS pack to attempt an airborne landing. On close approach, the structure appeared to be some sort of wormhole leading to an undetermined point in space (or, failing that, a clipping error): Unfortunately, on attempting to penetrate the structure, all telemetry with Bill was lost. Examination of downloaded long-range camera footage from his rover indicates that on entering the structure, Bill Kerman spontaneously exploded. The Kerbin Academy of the Sciences currently believes that he impacted with the exotic matter framework of the wormhole and was rotated out of our spacetime. Further investigations postponed until superior protective equipment or, failing that, enough liquor is available. For anyone who is curious, it can be observed on Minmus from: 23 degrees, 23 minutes, 45 seconds North, 187 degrees, 23 minutes, 29 seconds West.

I work really, really hard to keep my Kerbals alive. Partly it's sympathy (Gosh Darnit! Jeb does his best for me, so Imma gonna do my best for him!) but part of it is just being a gamer. As hard as it is to get a ship somewhere, it makes it so much more challenging to try to bring the poor guys home again in one piece. I integrate ejection systems into my designs (which actually work quite well under most circumstances) and thus far haven't lost a single Kerbal on mission... even after that unfortunate "the lander just fell over" incident. Fortunately, that mission was to crew my new long-duration Mun lander, so he had somewhere to go. He came home when his relief landed successfully. The one exception is when my 2.5 year old daughter helps me play. She likes it when things explode. That's usually when I work on my spaceplane program, which is pretty much guaranteed to include fireworks.