First Rescue finally!!

[joekidd1992]

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, almost to the point where if you have a hard time with it, you think, "What the hell was up with that docking?"

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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.

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

So, am I the only one that goes in with the periapsis always at about 56-57K?

[Zild]

It gets easier, almost to the point where if you have a hard time with it, you think, "What the hell was up with that docking?"

Which in my case still happens frequently enough that I wish I knew the answer! I think I am sometimes getting a little short on delta-v, which gets me flustered and makes me try to take shortcuts. Shortcuts never, ever work...

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.

I miss this so badly, but have yet to unlock it in career. Rescues without it are possible, but much more hit-and-miss. (Without the actual hitting - that would actually be an improvement!)

For rescue contracts I will send a rocket up with a spare seat

Any more details on this, or any input from others on your rescue ship designs? I only have the default capsule and the hitch-hiker module so far, greatly limiting my options. This is why I usually combine multiple tourist and rescue missions, to maximise cost-effectiveness when having to lift the hitch-hiker module.

I originally tried probes with a empty single-seat capsules but am still so low in tech that either electricity or stability or both (usually both) tended to be an issue. I tried a ship with two capsules (one for pilot, one for rescuee) on it one time but it resulted in the Kraken eating the rescuee, the pilot, and Kerbin...

[Wanderfound]

I originally tried probes with a empty single-seat capsules but am still so low in tech that either electricity or stability or both (usually both) tended to be an issue. I tried a ship with two capsules (one for pilot, one for rescuee) on it one time but it resulted in the Kraken eating the rescuee, the pilot, and Kerbin...

What probe cores do you have, what cockpits/capsules do you have, what engines do you have? Do you have any batteries or solar? RCS?

[Mic_n]

If you're still early in the tree, then your options are either double Mk1 pods or an empty pod and a probe core. If the latter then I'd highly advise two or three fixed solar panels around the top (I attach them right onto the inline chute housing, angled in to catch sun from as wide a window as possible - run out of juice in the wrong orientation and you can be stuck for a very long time) and some battery. With the pod there you'll have reaction wheels as well (the stayputnik doesn't have any if that's the only probe core you have), but you might want to add another SAS module if it handles particularly sluggishly.

Once you're a little further in.. Myself, I enjoy my SSTOs.. I have a very light one powered by a turboram and lv909.. I can just bolt an external command seat into the cargo bay and bring them down for the cost of fuel. Heck, if I put a Klaw in there I can pull down the capsule too and get cash back for that as well, but that would involve a full proper rendevous. Me, I just like to get 'close enough' and just EVA over... those little dudes have awesome dV

So yeah... my 'ideal' early-tech recovery craft would be something like (top to bottom):

mk16 chute, 3x fixed solar panels

small inline battery

empty mk1 pod

'medium' fuel tank (can't remember the name.. the standard old one, one down from the tallest)

lv909

3x micro struts radial on the tank.

all that on top of your preferred lifter.

If you don't have the octo core yet, a stayputnik can take its place.. You have reaction wheels in the pod, so you can mount your panels direct to it and then put a pair of radial-mount chutes somewhere to maintain symmetry. However - you will need to fly the thing by hand, since you get no SAS in that probe core.

Without the cores or solar panels, you'll need a second command pod. With the two there, you might want to put a structural piece in there to reduce size down from the base of one core to the tip of the next.. not only for looks but it can also be tricky to get kerbals squeezing in there otherwise.

Edited June 16, 2015 by Mic_n

[Zild]

What probe cores do you have, what cockpits/capsules do you have, what engines do you have? Do you have any batteries or solar? RCS?

Probe cores: Stayputnik.

Capsules: Mk1 Command Pod, Mk1 Cockpit.

Engines: LV-T30, LV-T45, LV-909, Skipper and Poodle. No Jet engines.

Batteries/Solar: Z-100 only. Not even the most basic solar cell (which I think comes at the same time as the Probodobodyne core...)

RCS: None.

Seriously, I am doing this VERY early in career; my biggest achievement so far this career is a Mun flyby. Not even a Mun orbit! I suppose I could have gone for Probodobodyne and solar cells instead of Rockomax thrusters, Rockomax fuel tanks and Hitchhiker storage...

However - you will need to fly the thing by hand, since you get no SAS in that probe core.

...were it not for this! I can't fly straight to save my life, so I much prefer manned missions. (Obviously I am nowhere near the tech for SAS modules yet.) That, and my wife starts hitting me if Jeb isn't in the crew.

I still think it works out well, as I get to use the extra seats for tourists and Bob to pad out my science. High orbit rescue missions look to be a different story, however... I wonder if a separate ferry ship to bring them back to my existing rescue ship would be a good idea (except I have no way to refuel it yet...)

[Zild]

(Is double-posting frowned-upon in this context? Seems too long has passed to justify editing my previous post...)

I did a few missions with my existing 4-seat rescue craft last night and the financials worked out as follows:

Mission 1: Three low orbit rescues:

Total cost of launch (re-usable parts, non-re-usable parts and fuel): ($33,000)

Total salvage value (re-usable parts, assuming no remaining fuel): $9,000

Total contract income: 3x $30,000 = $90,000

Net profit (loss): $66,000

Mission 2: One low orbit rescue and three tourists (mix of sub-orbital/orbital):

Total cost of launch (re-usable parts, non-re-usable parts and fuel): ($33,000)

Total salvage value (re-usable parts, assuming no remaining fuel): $9,000

Total contract mission income: 3x $6,000 + 1x $30,000 = $48,000

Net profit (loss): $24,000

Note the above figures are approximate and pessimistic. For example, I have taken the final completion funds for rescues but there may be some milestone payments as well (i.e. when you first pick up the rescuee). I think the profit earned from each tourist was 2-3 times the amount shown (I was not paying that much attention!)

In any case still profitable. Even a poor rescue mission picking up a single Kerbal more than covers its costs.

[Senormeens]

Congrats on getting so close, i normally get within two kilometers, and kill my relative velocity to about 15m/s. Then have the kerbals EVA the rest of the distance, after they rename the left over pod as debris so it doesn't clog up the map/tracking station.

I haven't actually ever seen a rescue mission with a docking port, it might be i haven't profess the tech tree or gotten a high enough Reputation, but still, you make a good point, of you do ever need to dock, it is impossible to switch to the thing you are trying to recover until you are within a couple kilometers, a little to late to put on a new docking port.

[MrWolf83]

I'm currently warping up my orbit to meet Phonie Kerbin at 83,xxxAP/72,xxxPE. What a pain these are.

[Mic_n]

I'm currently warping up my orbit to meet Phonie Kerbin at 83,xxxAP/72,xxxPE. What a pain these are.

Have to time your launch a bit.. If you can't launch straight to a rendezvous (and I can't, especially with a spaceplane), it's better to launch just a bit ahead of those LKO ones - it's faster to go higher and let them catch up than vice versa.

I've been getting the "recover kerbal X and their wreck" lately, though.

I did one in my Mk2 spaceplane with a Klaw in the cargo bay.. get in and close and lock it in then close the doors over it. I also have KAS/KIS installed, so I've taken to putting a winch in the bay.. I don't have the electromag or harpoon unlocked yet though, so it's a matter of taking an engineer up there with a wrench and some connection ports.

I tried doing it "properly" just a while back.. very high orbit (near polar orbit between Mun and Minmus), so I launched a tug/lander to go get it.. had a Clamp-o-tron Jr on top and another one in inventory (along with a few other bits and pieces).. Rendezvoused with the craft, took my engineer on EVA with another Clamp Jr and bolted it on, then proceeded to try to dock the things, where I ran into the good old clamp bug that still seems not to have been squashed, where the 'magnets' kick in and it just wobbles around trying to get close but presumably never quite working it out and actually clamping, until it's eventually thrown clear and the ports basically de-activate, never to clamp again.

I wound up grabbing a couple of KAS connector ports out of inventory (which I'd also fortunately packed), fixing them over top of the clamp ports and then 'joining' the two. Hideously unaligned, but I still managed to get a "good enough" retro burn to get back into atmosphere, where my chutes took over and let the whole hideously asymmetric mass come spinning gracelessly into the ocean.

I really wish they'd fix the damn docking port bugs. They've been broken like that ever since they were made.