How to recue a completely strange orbit of Kerbin after miss ~20 dV for re-entry

[RafaMonteiro]

After a science/mun orbit mission I missed the re-entry because of ~20 dV.

At first I thought I was Ok since my periapsis is 42Km [apoapsis 3.5M (or it was 2.5M, dont really remember now)] but I was to fast and got stuck in a orbit.

Tried many times to send a rescue mission but my tech limitations prevent me for reaching that type of orbit (probably because Im bad). I really dont like to farm science but if my only solution is to do another mission to the mun or build a rover and farm science near the KSC Ill do it.

Help me save Jeb and his s*** tons of scientific data.

Album (3 Screens +1 bonus:P) https://imgur.com/a/0pZp2

Edited May 14, 2015 by RafaMonteiro

[Grumman]

You're not stuck - every time you pass through the atmosphere, your apoapsis will drop a moderate amount and your periapsis will drop a little, and as your orbit drops you'll spend more of each orbit deeper in the atmosphere.

In addition, what you can do each time you leave the atmosphere is get out and push. Just work out which side of the rocket is pointing forwards, then send Jeb out on EVA to that side of the rocket, and slowly push on that side of the rocket until you're down to around 1 unit of jetpack fuel, then get back in to replenish your supply and go out and do it again.

[Anquietas314]

If your periapsis is 42km you should have no problems just time-warping until just before you hit the atmosphere (70km). After that just wait; it might take a few orbits to slow down enough to actually land.

[mrclucks]

Periapsis between 60 and 70 doesn't bring down the apopsis very much, try burning retro grade a little at apoapsis to bring your periapsis to about 35, if it doesn't kill orbital speed and cause you to deorbit in one orbit, it should do it by the second. I've tested crafts with an apoapsis just inside kerbins soi to a periapsis of 35km and was able to deorbit in that half of an orbit, burning through the atmosphere at 3km/s for 2/3s of the planet was pretty exciting as well

[everything-is-nominal]

Well, you have to solutions actually, the first as stated above to time warp before going in the atmosphere and wait for the atmosphere to slow you down until you make a complete deorbit, this might take a few orbit to be made, but it's ok.

The second thing is the "get out and push" method, simply point your vessel on retrograde, that way, the back of your spacecraft is pointing prograde, then get a kerbal on EVA and just make him push you spacecraft until the periaps is low enough to allow a reentry.

But in both case, you don't need any rescue mission, just ask jeb to use his "secret technique".

P.S : if you do the "get out and push", do not forget to do it when your vessel as reached apoaps (more efficient) and do not use all the EVA monopropellant, otherwise you will get in trouble and you don't want this...

[Beowolf]

Pushing an exhausted ship home using a Kerbal on EVA is a KSP tradition. Best of luck with it!

[mrclucks]

P.S : if you do the "get out and push", do not forget to do it when your vessel as reached apoaps (more efficient) and do not use all the EVA monopropellant, otherwise you will get in trouble and you don't want this...

I've messed up one time and evad before in lko with bill. Apparently I pushed off enough to get into the atmosphere and proceeded to fall. While I thought he'd burn up, he suprisinglly survive and after waiting for a splat, he simply bounce a meter or two off the ground and stood up grinning. After planting a flag, he was promptly promoted above jeb and I no longer use him for any missions in that save

[RafaMonteiro]

Thanks everyone for the answers.

At first I tried to wait for my orbit to drop but after several orbits i couldnt see any changes so I thought it wasnt working.

After you guys say I should wait.. well it worked! I dont know if I did 100 orbits but Steam says I played for 28 minutes, it was a looonnnnngg time watching Jeb at pretty high warp.

13 days, 2 hours, 22 minutes later, Jeb returns with 283 science in his pockets, now he most walk home.. from northern tundra..

Thanks again!

[everything-is-nominal]

I've messed up one time and evad before in lko with bill. Apparently I pushed off enough to get into the atmosphere and proceeded to fall. While I thought he'd burn up, he suprisinglly survive and after waiting for a splat, he simply bounce a meter or two off the ground and stood up grinning. After planting a flag, he was promptly promoted above jeb and I no longer use him for any missions in that save

One day on a career mode, i went on Mun and after taking off from there and trying to get back on kerbin, i found myself out of fuel, I then proceed to get out on periapsis and push. For what i recall, my math told me i had to do it 4 or 5 times before leaving Mun orbit and another few time to get a reentry...

But, i got for some reason distrated and found myself out of mono while on EVA... I then proceeded to go turn on the "infinite fuel" on the the debug menu... turns out the game didn't want me to cheat on this one...

So i had to set up a rescue mission for a kerbal, in orbit around mun with a very high eccentric orbit. DO YOU KNOW HOW HARD IT IS TO GET THE VESSEL TO MATCH WITH THE KERBAL ??? More over, i didn't at that time unlock the RCS, so i had to improvise a way to gently approach the kerbal with the vessel and then get it to at least grab the vessel... took me at least half an hour to make it... i then proceeded to make a rendez vous with the first vessel because i didn't want to leave the science behind ! ^^

[Reactordrone]

Thanks everyone for the answers.

At first I tried to wait for my orbit to drop but after several orbits i couldnt see any changes so I thought it wasnt working.

After you guys say I should wait.. well it worked! I dont know if I did 100 orbits but Steam says I played for 28 minutes, it was a looonnnnngg time watching Jeb at pretty high warp.

13 days, 2 hours, 22 minutes later, Jeb returns with 283 science in his pockets, now he most walk home.. from northern tundra..

Thanks again!

Always a good idea to manually drop your time warp before approaching the atmosphere if you have a high periapsis to maximise your time in atmosphere under physics. At high time warp you can be fairly deep into atmosphere before the game drops you out warp by itself. 40km isn't too bad for a periapsis. When I return from Minmus my first braking pass is usually at around 38km and that will get my apoapsis down to about 5-6000km.