First Rescue finally!!

[MrWolf83]

Just completed my first rescue mission which game time took 5 days to catch up to Barlie Kermans capsule (actually a mk1 Inline cockpit) stuck in a 85,800ish AP/83,600ish PE orbit. What a pain that was. Ended up switching to him and using EVA Jetpack for first time on Barlie, not liking the use shift and ctrl keys to maneuver up/down. but used that the last 100m to rescue pod. I've been wondering on these rescues where you actually dock with another craft, how do you know which docking port to use if you can't switch to craft through Tracking Station?

[RogalDorn]

You can switch to crafts around you using the "\" key. Congratulations on your first rendezvous. It's a huge achievement and it really opens things up to you, now you can refuel things in orbit, build huge monster ships, space stations! The next step is being able to pick a place you want to land on a target and getting close to it! Well Done Sir!

[Frank_G]

Congratulations on that big achievement! My first successful rescue mission really was some giant leap for me. Have some reputation for not letting your fellow kerbals down!

[MrWolf83]

You can switch to crafts around you using the "\" key. Congratulations on your first rendezvous. It's a huge achievement and it really opens things up to you, now you can refuel things in orbit, build huge monster ships, space stations! The next step is being able to pick a place you want to land on a target and getting close to it! Well Done Sir!

Thanks for the tip, but I'm referring to when you get a contract that is a rescue mission that requires docking, how do I determine what docking port to add to my craft, when I can't switch to the craft I'm rescuing through the Tracking Station.

Also, has anyone noticed the velocity of Target mode changes when you are maneuvering closer to it, it'll go up than down even when firing towards or away from craft. Is this from passing an intersect point and the object drifting by?

Thanks for the support guys.

[Terwin]

I've been wondering on these rescues where you actually dock with another craft, how do you know which docking port to use if you can't switch to craft through Tracking Station?

They always have a single-piece pod, as such there is nothing to dock with unless you use the Klaw.

Of course after getting the klaw it is often quite cost-efficient to just send up a light weight rocket with a klaw and plenty of 'chutes. That way you only need tiny bits of fuel for adjusting your orbit.

For orbital rendezvous, I will usually aim for an orbit with the periapps inside the orbit of the other vessel, then just add a maneuver at periapps to extend the orbit until I have a meet up at less than 1km.

(or, if I am being fuel conscious, I will add a second maneuver node and step it forward until an orbit where there is a near miss, then use my periapps maneuver node to turn that into a meeting)

note: the intersection flags are after your last maneuver node, so if you add a 0km/s maneuver node after your current node and step it forward one or more orbits, you can see the impact of your maneuver in future orbits.

Just be aware that any time you touch/move that 0km/s node, it will re-set to +0 orbits and will need to be incremented again.

[heng]

Congrats! Mark the day. that is a milestone! an early one, but an important one

[MrWolf83]

They always have a single-piece pod, as such there is nothing to dock with unless you use the Klaw.

Of course after getting the klaw it is often quite cost-efficient to just send up a light weight rocket with a klaw and plenty of 'chutes. That way you only need tiny bits of fuel for adjusting your orbit.

For orbital rendezvous, I will usually aim for an orbit with the periapps inside the orbit of the other vessel, then just add a maneuver at periapps to extend the orbit until I have a meet up at less than 1km.

(or, if I am being fuel conscious, I will add a second maneuver node and step it forward until an orbit where there is a near miss, then use my periapps maneuver node to turn that into a meeting)

note: the intersection flags are after your last maneuver node, so if you add a 0km/s maneuver node after your current node and step it forward one or more orbits, you can see the impact of your maneuver in future orbits.

Just be aware that any time you touch/move that 0km/s node, it will re-set to +0 orbits and will need to be incremented again.

Thanks Terwin, didn't know they didn't have docking ports at all.

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Congrats! Mark the day. that is a milestone! an early one, but an important one

I'm just waiting till I actually dock with something, using the in game tutorial kinda sucks.

[Plume & Akakak]

Congratulations, MrWolf !

Yes, maneuvering in EVA can be destabilizing at first. I'm pretty sure we all felt lost when we had to get our euphoric first-EVA-performing kerbal back to his pod.

Also, has anyone noticed the velocity of Target mode changes when you are maneuvering closer to it, it'll go up than down even when firing towards or away from craft. Is this from passing an intersect point and the object drifting by?

That's because every move you make slighty changes your orbital path, thus making it differ from your target's one. Which results in a difference of velocity.

And yes, being far from your target makes things worse.

When reaching your intersect point, don't forget to first bring the relative velocity displayed in 'target mode' as close to 0.0 m/s as possible. To do so, burn retrograde (with navball set to 'target mode') at the intersect point. This will make your orbit and your target's one match, and will give you much more time for your next maneuvers.

If you don't have RCS thrusters yet, press the 'caps lock' key to switch to precise controls.

Another good thing to start with when trying to get closer to your target (or reaching it from the good side, like for docking maneuvers) is to cancel your relative velocity after each move :

Just a burn in a single direction, then bring your relative speed back to 0.0 m/s again (like previously, burn towards the retrograde marker).

Then turn for your next move. Then burn and bring relative velocity back to 0 again.

This will help you not feeling completely disorientated. You won't be looking for the prograde/retrograde markers all over the place.

Cheers

Edited June 12, 2015 by Plume & Akakak

[MrWolf83]

Congratulations, MrWolf !

Yes, maneuvering in EVA can be destabilizing at first. I'm pretty sure we all felt lost when we had to get our euphoric first-EVA-performing kerbal back to his pod.

That's because every move you make slighty changes your orbital path, thus making it differ from your target's one. Which results in a difference of velocity.

And yes, being far from your target makes things worse.

When reaching your intersect point, don't forget to first bring the relative velocity displayed in 'target mode' as close to 0.0 m/s as possible. To do so, burn retrograde (with navball set to 'target mode') at the intersect point. This will make your orbit and your target's one match, and will give you much more time for your next maneuvers.

If you don't have RCS thrusters yet, press the 'caps lock' key to swith to precise controls.

Another good thing to start with when trying to get closer to your target (or reaching it from the good side, like for docking maneuvers) is to cancel your relative velocity after each move :

Just a burn in a single direction, then bring your relative speed back to 0.0 m/s again (just like previously, burn towards the retrograde marker).

Then turn for your next move. Then burn and bring relative velocity back to 0 again.

This will help you not feeling completely disorientated. You won't be looking for the prograde/retrograde markers all over the place.

Cheers

Thanks, that's what Mr.Manley showed doing so, i basically used that this time.

[joekidd1992]

Congrats! I haven't done any of those, but I guess I should. I have done an orbiting space station, but not a rescue. Time to get snapping.

[MrWolf83]

Congrats! I haven't done any of those, but I guess I should. I have done an orbiting space station, but not a rescue. Time to get snapping.

Watch these two videos, they are really helpful.

[Scotius]

Congrats! I haven't done any of those, but I guess I should. I have done an orbiting space station, but not a rescue. Time to get snapping.

You better Hiring the crew in career quickly becomes a huge money sink. Rescuing Kerbals from space gives you a new crewmember (with a bit of experience to boot), and usually you can make a bit of money from the contract to save him/her.

[Engineer of Stuff]

My first rescue was retrieving Jebediah Kerman from Mun orbit after his lander was under-built (). It was easy once I learned the steps!

[carlorizzante]

Damn, I've done my first rendezvous and docking the other night. Holy crap, it felt close to impossible until, hours later, I finally managed to do it. I'm not sure that I want to repeat the experience anytime soon :-D

[SAI Peregrinus]

Damn, I've done my first rendezvous and docking the other night. Holy crap, it felt close to impossible until, hours later, I finally managed to do it. I'm not sure that I want to repeat the experience anytime soon :-D

It gets easier. Especially with the Docking Port Alignment Indicator mod, and RCS Build Aid. Once you can see the alignment of the ports and have properly balanced RCS it becomes downright routine.

[Mikki]

Hi There

Congrats, have a heartly rep for your action

[Evanitis]

if you add a 0km/s maneuver node after your current node and step it forward one or more orbits, you can see the impact of your maneuver in future orbits.

I never heard about that option... You can set manuver nodes multiple orbits ahead? How?

[Jason Patterson]

Damn, I've done my first rendezvous and docking the other night. Holy crap, it felt close to impossible until, hours later, I finally managed to do it. I'm not sure that I want to repeat the experience anytime soon :-D

Like anything it gets much easier with practice. Once you've done it a dozen times it becomes trivial, but yes, that first time can be pretty beastly, even if you know your way around an orbit. Congratulations.

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I never heard about that option... You can set manuver nodes multiple orbits ahead? How?

I'm not entirely sure what benefit Terwin is getting from it, but to set a node ahead, click out of it (like you're going to delete it) and there will be two little blue buttons at the bottom of the node. One advances a day, the other removes a day.

[ebigunso]

Congrats!

Now I'm doing pretty much the same contract myself.

I was really surprised to see a pod so far up in orbit, as all those prior to 1.0 was very low kerbin orbit. Noticed it after I accepted, and now I have to do it XD

So much Dv needed to just get there...

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I'm not entirely sure what benefit Terwin is getting from it, but to set a node ahead, click out of it (like you're going to delete it) and there will be two little blue buttons at the bottom of the node. One advances a day, the other removes a day.

Advances one ORBIT, not a day. Avoiding confusion there.

Using this 0m/s maneuver node technique allows you to set up a maneuver that encounters the target few orbits later, since the maneuver node placed on the future orbit will show you close encounters in future orbits.

This allows you to save great amounts of Dv in many cases.

[joekidd1992]

Ok, I just did one today. That's another tick marked off. I didn't too badly with the spacewalk, either. And to the poster that said buying them gets expensive. Hell yes!!!! I hired a few and it took a heck of a lot of dough!

[Zild]

Ok, I just did one today. That's another tick marked off. I didn't too badly with the spacewalk, either. And to the poster that said buying them gets expensive. Hell yes!!!! I hired a few and it took a heck of a lot of dough!

In my last game rescuing them proved rather costly for me - I felt compelled to buy an upgrade to the barracks (or whatever it's called!) to store all the little s****s! What does happen to them if you rescue them and have nowhere to put them, I wonder?!

I got a lot of money and reputation that game by sending 2-3 tourists up and rescuing 1-2 Kerbals every mission. It also let me pad out my science with some of the repeated MysteryGoo / Materials Study collections, both in space and at the various landing locations. (Just don't ask how it ended, poor Jeb... In fact he is scheduled to do the first rescue mission of the new play-through tonight... )

Damn, I've done my first rendezvous and docking the other night. Holy crap, it felt close to impossible until, hours later, I finally managed to do it. I'm not sure that I want to repeat the experience anytime soon :-D

Nobody can tell you what a successful docking manoeuvre is, you must experience it for yourself.</Morpheus>

I think after one or two successful docking manoeuvres you come to understand what works and what doesn't and it becomes much easier from there. The same applies to rendezvous... rendezvouses... rendezvouii? (Somebody help me out here!) Unfortunately until you figure out what works it is a very painful process. Even following guidance from a Scott Manley vid I very nearly gave up.

I do wish you could see the conditions of the rescue target before selecting it; the game gives this kind of facility for visual surveys, and sometimes for probe launches, doesn't it? I imagine this is even more important for "rescue x from orbit around the sun" missions...

[carlorizzante]

Like anything it gets much easier with practice. Once you've done it a dozen times it becomes trivial, but yes, that first time can be pretty beastly, even if you know your way around an orbit. Congratulations.

Thanks. It actually get easier. I think I've managed to dock in less two orbits the other day. The all process was so counterintuitive to me until I figure it out what actually means to get closer to an other object's orbit.

Now it's even fun

ps. The tutorial made by Scott Manley is overly complicated. I found the in-game tutorial of a better quality and help. Also it's more streamlined and straightforward.

[mrclucks]

For rescue contracts I will send a rocket up with a spare seat and after getting within 1km and less than 1m/s different from the target, I'll switch to the craft and Eva the rescuee and use my jetpack to maneuver him/her to the rescue craft(just a couple taps of the keyboard is all that is required and you can always time warp just a little if you need. Rotate your craft if you need the door to face your kerbal). If youre required to save the pod the kerbal is on then ill get within 1km of thebl target andbafter facing the target with the klaw ill use the docking claw to adjust the peograde vector to the center of the target vector (make sure you hit the target going less than 1m/s), and for reentry ill have PE as high as 50 km and you ahouls be safe from burning up.

Like anything it gets much easier with practice. Once you've done it a dozen times it becomes trivial, but yes, that first time can be pretty beastly, even if you know your way around an orbit. Congratulations.

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I'm not entirely sure what benefit Terwin is getting from it, but to set a node ahead, click out of it (like you're going to delete it) and there will be two little blue buttons at the bottom of the node. One advances a day, the other removes a day.

The blue buttons advance or remove one orbit, NOT one day

[Terwin]

I'm not entirely sure what benefit Terwin is getting from it, but to set a node ahead, click out of it (like you're going to delete it) and there will be two little blue buttons at the bottom of the node. One advances a day, the other removes a day.

The utility is that if there is a substantial distance between my rescue vehicle and the rescuee, I can adjust my orbit so that I intersect in 2 or more orbits, instead of in just one orbit. This saves Delta-v(both to adjust my orbit and to re-match with the target) at the cost of taking more time in-game.(this can be particularly important if you are low on fuel or need to save as much as possible to deorbit a rather large object)

(Example: Orbit A that takes 1 minute longer than orbit B can be much closer delta-v wise than one that takes 5 minutes longer, it just takes 4 more orbits to line-up if your target is 5 minutes behind your orbit.)

Note: as mrclucks said, one orbit not one day

[Evanitis]

Hehh, thanks. I needed that function badly, but I never knew what those buttons do. I'm using an SSTO for rescues where all my spare dV source is a small RCS tank that's also needed for deorbiting and descent stability.