Recover Enlock and his wreckage from orbit of Kerbin....who was captured by the Mun!

[CorBlimey]

Standard rescue contract.

My first that required a vessel to be brought back, but I had just unlocked the Claw so I thought why not, could be fun.

I spend 20 mins on another launch to LKO doing something then I turn to this contract.

Lo and behold, it seems that, in the meantime, poor Enlock has been captured by the Mun and is facing his imminent demise.

Unfortunately I have no crew shuttle sitting on the Mun to rescue him (let alone his ship as contracted for). I can't see me getting the requisite tools to his orbit in the 2 hours or so he has before reaching the surface.

The contract states recover "what is left of his vessel". A small box of shredded metal and mun rock, this time I think...

Edit: I tried to see if I could EVA him to stabilise his orbit but it wouldn't let me do that to unowned objects. And thus, I had no choice but to grab some popcorn and watch the show.

Edited May 4, 2015 by CorBlimey

[Francois424]

Oh, that's awesome ! It really adds a sense of urgency to the missions!

(As long as one like that doesn't pop in a crash course to Eeloo, then that's fine, haha)

[arkie87]

Standard rescue contract.

https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/54132241/2015-05-04%2017_29_38-.png

My first that required a vessel to be brought back, but I had just unlocked the Claw so I thought why not, could be fun.

I spend 20 mins on another launch to LKO doing something then I turn to this contract.

Lo and behold, it seems that, in the meantime, poor Enlock has been captured by the Mun and is facing his imminent demise.

https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/54132241/2015-05-04%2017_29_13-.png

Unfortunately I have no crew shuttle sitting on the Mun to rescue him (let alone his ship as contracted for). I can't see me getting the requisite tools to his orbit in the 2 hours or so he has before reaching the surface.

The contract states recover "what is left of his vessel". A small box of shredded metal and mun rock, this time I think...

THAT IS AWESOME.

I wonder if later on in the game, we have contracts like that where people are falling into Kerbin atmosphere, and we have to rendezvous before they crash!

[Venusgate]

You put enough stank on it and you cant get to Mun orbit in less than an hour.... just sayin....

[Aragosnat]

Yeah. Depending on the craft. You can get to Minmus in 2 hours or less. Just the slowing down part will be hardish.

[problemecium]

^ This.

Also, it's a small bit "cheaty" but Kerbal Alarm Clock allows you to jump to an unowned vessel, at which point you could EVA Enlock.

[SpenSpaceCorp]

I had this exact situation happen to me, but I saw it VERY shortly in advance; I had to make a very large and inefficient burn (that led me on an escape trajectory from Kerbin) just to approach the vessel in need of rescue in time! It was quite thrilling!

[KerikBalm]

What the.... how did he get captured? when intersecting the mun's SOI, he should be ona hyperbolic trajectory.... that may intercept the surface... but it shouldn't be an elipse.

Given the simplisitic patched conics... that should require another body in orbit around the mun...

Or is it the case where it displays an elipse, where the Apoapsis is outside the defined SOI?

[Spaps]

What the.... how did he get captured? when intersecting the mun's SOI, he should be ona hyperbolic trajectory.... that may intercept the surface... but it shouldn't be an elipse.

Given the simplisitic patched conics... that should require another body in orbit around the mun...

Or is it the case where it displays an elipse, where the Apoapsis is outside the defined SOI?

Yes, that is quite strange, it shouldn't be like that. It'd have too much deltaV.

But maybe it was on an eliptic orbit that was going through LKO and through Mun orbit? Isn't that possible?

[Temeter]

I had this exact situation happen to me, but I saw it VERY shortly in advance; I had to make a very large and inefficient burn (that led me on an escape trajectory from Kerbin) just to approach the vessel in need of rescue in time! It was quite thrilling!

That sounds amazing, I have to watch out for those contracts.

[merendel]

What the.... how did he get captured? when intersecting the mun's SOI, he should be ona hyperbolic trajectory.... that may intercept the surface... but it shouldn't be an elipse.

Given the simplisitic patched conics... that should require another body in orbit around the mun...

Or is it the case where it displays an elipse, where the Apoapsis is outside the defined SOI?

Sometimes if a craft goes through the SOI transition while at moderatly high timewarp its orbit can wind up doing weird things such as autocapture. Its why its generaly recomended to go over the SOI at 10x or less. 50X usualy isnt too bad but 100X or higher will generaly give some different orbit than what was predicted before the SOI.

Back to the OP's situation however you only need about 3.5-4k dv to hit mun from LKO in an hour. If you can get a craft with 10k dv or so into orbit you could potentialy get there and slow down for the intercept inside a 2 hour time window. High speed intercepts like that are rather tricky and you might have to do a non standard launch depending on KSP's alignment in relation to Mun(aka may need to go almost strait up and keep burning) to avoid haveing to waste time going around the planet once.

[SkyRex94]

Sometimes if a craft goes through the SOI transition while at moderatly high timewarp its orbit can wind up doing weird things such as autocapture. Its why its generaly recomended to go over the SOI at 10x or less. 50X usualy isnt too bad but 100X or higher will generaly give some different orbit than what was predicted before the SOI.

Back to the OP's situation however you only need about 3.5-4k dv to hit mun from LKO in an hour. If you can get a craft with 10k dv or so into orbit you could potentialy get there and slow down for the intercept inside a 2 hour time window. High speed intercepts like that are rather tricky and you might have to do a non standard launch depending on KSP's alignment in relation to Mun(aka may need to go almost strait up and keep burning) to avoid haveing to waste time going around the planet once.

That has been fixed with 1.0 actually. Going over SOIs at high warp will barley affect your Trajectory.

[Rune]

Sometimes if a craft goes through the SOI transition while at moderatly high timewarp its orbit can wind up doing weird things such as autocapture. Its why its generaly recomended to go over the SOI at 10x or less. 50X usualy isnt too bad but 100X or higher will generaly give some different orbit than what was predicted before the SOI.

Back to the OP's situation however you only need about 3.5-4k dv to hit mun from LKO in an hour. If you can get a craft with 10k dv or so into orbit you could potentialy get there and slow down for the intercept inside a 2 hour time window. High speed intercepts like that are rather tricky and you might have to do a non standard launch depending on KSP's alignment in relation to Mun(aka may need to go almost strait up and keep burning) to avoid haveing to waste time going around the planet once.

Actually, those high velocity intercepts are quite easy, if you forget everything you know about intercepts and just try to keep your retrograde velocity vector on the target's retrograde vector as you slow down. Oh, and time it so you burn at the last possible minute so normal orbital mechanics don't screw with you. This would make for an exciting mission! And quite the humongous launcher for a >10km/s catcher, burning enough Dv to get to Moho and back in the process...

Rune. The design would be an excellent asteroid capture thingy, BTW.

[Wanderfound]

THAT IS AWESOME.

I wonder if later on in the game, we have contracts like that where people are falling into Kerbin atmosphere, and we have to rendezvous before they crash!

Mods to the rescue: http://forum.kerbalspaceprogram.com/threads/118571-International-Rescue-Mission-Pack

[merendel]

That has been fixed with 1.0 actually. Going over SOIs at high warp will barley affect your Trajectory.

Intresting I wasnt aware that had been fixed. I'd still been doing the slow down to 10x out of habit and hadnt checked as that bug had been around for as long as I've played

Actually, those high velocity intercepts are quite easy, if you forget everything you know about intercepts and just try to keep your retrograde velocity vector on the target's retrograde vector as you slow down. Oh, and time it so you burn at the last possible minute so normal orbital mechanics don't screw with you. This would make for an exciting mission! And quite the humongous launcher for a >10km/s catcher, burning enough Dv to get to Moho and back in the process...

Rune. The design would be an excellent asteroid capture thingy, BTW.

Still a tad tricky to arange when your on a timecrunch and starting in a different SOI. I wouldnt relish trying to hit an orbit behind Mun with a mission profile that required a direct burn from the launchpad with no time for manuver nodes, just dead reconing. Even knowhing how to push the vectors it takes a ton of dV to shift your vector if your initial aim wasnt corect when your at 3-4k relitive.