Rescue missions need to show target orbit before acceptance

[Mokmo]

I got a lovely rescue mission to fetch someone in orbit of the Mun. Thing is he's in a retrograde orbit while the other rescue mission is in a prograde one. I still can do the mission but it'll take a separate ship...

This is why i'm not accepting rescue missions around the sun. Today i saw someone mention he had to get a guy on a solar retrograde orbit... All that dV...

Just give basic info on the rescue's orbit: inclination, Pe, Ap, and it'll be fine.

[Murph]

I'm not against having them shown in the tracking centre before you accept the contract. They absolutely should be shown there.

Having said that, I don't see any problem in the scenario you describe, at least on normal difficulty. Rescuing someone from Mun orbit costs me about 25–30k, using the small pod on a 1.25m launcher with a probe core to get it out there. The taxi contracts pay at least 100–150k from the Mun, if memory serves (I've not had one for a while). Seems just fine to me, doesn't require doubling up to make it viable or worthwhile. It's one of the more profitable contracts either singly or doubly. You can also try to add on a science survey contract or something, for yet more profit from single launch cost. I normally don't wait to double up with other contracts for Mun and Minimus, but will double up when the opportunity is at hand.

Or, take some extra fuel and you can still do both in one trip, even with a 180° inclination difference between the orbits. After picking the first up, raise Ap to something suitably high (but still inside Mun's SoI). Change orbit at Ap for fairly low cost.

I.e. what you describe is no big deal in the first place.

N.B. You can also accept the contract, look at the orbit, then cancel it without the failure penalty (you just have to repay the advance).

[Cocox]

Also, dunno about you guys but for me all stranded astronauts are female.

I know that sometimes women have trouble with orientation (probably no more or less than men), but for example, my wife never got disoriented so badly that she called for help from orbit..

[Sky_walker]

Hehe, I got only males

That said though - I rarely do more than 1 rescue mission per playthrough. It takes way too much time (real-world-time, not in-game time) per money earned.

[Kerbart]

I.e. what you describe is no big deal in the first place.

Maybe not in most cases, but if you encounter a retro-orbit around the sun, that is definitely a big deal.

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Hehe, I got only males

That said though - I rarely do more than 1 rescue mission per playthrough. It takes way too much time (real-world-time, not in-game time) per money earned.

I don't know. I don't walk away from missions that earn me 200,000 or more at a launch cost of less than 50,000 (and that's for a two-for-the-price-of-one rescue mission)

One can never have too many Kerbals, after all.

[Murph]

Maybe not in most cases, but if you encounter a retro-orbit around the sun, that is definitely a big deal.

Yeah, that's the special case to be avoided, unless the bounty is HUGE. In every other case, no big deal, as long as you do check the orbits before launching. It does beg the question of how the hell they got into a retro-orbit around the sun in the first place?!? Just how many boosters did Jeb sell them?

I don't know. I don't walk away from missions that earn me 200,000 or more at a launch cost of less than 50,000 (and that's for a two-for-the-price-of-one rescue mission)

One can never have too many Kerbals, after all.

Indeed, with the new hiring cost, I've been taking every rescue contract offered, as they are not only lucrative at the time, but save a significant amount later by avoiding the hiring cost. Right now, I might earn 100k from a rescue mission, but the net benefit is over 500k, and growing larger as your operation expands. Once I've got about 7 new recruits rescued, I send them on a group tour of Mun and Minimus, to skill them up.

[nholzric]

With hiring costs, rescue contracts are pretty powerful.

I'm trying to save up enough to do the last upgrade of the R&D building and my main activity (that I tailor which contracts I accept around) is building science stations and collecting science in and around Kerbin/Mun/Minmus. The problem is a fully operations science station requires three scientists, two to operate the lab and one to biome hop and collect experiments. So I need lots of scientists (and luckily, I've rescued mostly scientists (and mostly female)).

So given how valuable scientists are to me right now, even though I'd LOVE to see the orbit before I accept a contract, it feels balanced to me. Now, rescuing someone in retrograde around the sun, or really in any non-Kerbin like orbit around the sun would KILL me. I wouldn't want to waste that much money on a rocket if I could even build something sufficient. And I would hate to accept the contract and then abandon the poor dear. But that's just me.

So, given my particular play style, they feel balanced. But it is surprising that you're not given more information about the orbit. The information *feels* missing. It wouldn't have to be specific, even if it said something like High/Low orbit, Inclined, Eccentric, whatever.

[moronwrocket]

Just send up a Mun lander: Pick up kerbal 1, land, liftoff, pick up kerbal 2, journey home.

Been doing this for my rescue contracts - send a pilot from KSC if they need the XP, vacuum up one or two in LKO, get whoever is in Mun/Minmus orbit, head home.