How shall I recover this?!

[Mat2ch]

So, I've got this contract, recover unit-xyz to Kerbin. The first thing I usually send is a probe, to see what I have to deal with.

But, uhm, have a look where the unit is:

Yip, floating above the surface. When I switch to it, it falls right through the ground. When I fly near it, most of the time it does the same thing.

Now I guess I've got the build a rover, drive under it with the claw, switch to it and hope that the claw catches it.

Or a very big rover with a few bays and hope one will catch it... or multiple rovers. I'll keep you updated. This is a special kind of challange!

Edited August 30, 2015 by Mat2ch

[Wallygator]

I would try the rover with an open-up bay idea. I would also use hyperedit in a test save to prove it could work first.

The real problem is when the object will load and how fast will you need to be traveling to catch it once it touches the surface.

Otherwise... (actually simpler idea)... Change your terrain settings until the part loads onto the surface correctly, then run your recovery mission, and then return your settings to their previous values. This is a surface mapping problem - so its fair to use the settings to address it IMO.

[mckamx]

I've had this happen on several part recovery contracts. I find that if I get a Kerbal close enough, one of two things will happen:

1. The part will fall out of the sky and come to rest on the surface, where I can use a grabber to attach it to my lander (and, if I am _very_ careful with the throttle and the gravity is low enough, i can boost it to orbit), or

2. The part will fall out of the sky and explode, terminating the contract with a failure.

Either option works for me.

[tater]

YADC (yet another dumb contract).

[Mat2ch]

Yeah, well, it's non-recoverable. As soon as I get too close to it, it falls through the ground. And every time I switch to it, it get's stuck just a bit under the surface and falls again. So I drove my rover, which was made to catch it, over it, edited the save file to have the engine above the rover (not as high as on the picture) and could catch it.

It's still in Mun orbit, because of another glitch which requires a restart of KSP. As soon as I dock the rover with the space tug, the whole ship gets uncontrollable. Not sure if this is a KSP bug or has something to do with MechJeb. Well, tomorrow I return it to Kerbin then.

[Zephram Kerman]

I had a similar issue where the contract was to recover a kerbal and his MPL stranded on the surface of Mun. The spot was on the side of a hill, so the MPL must have spawned with one corner slightly clipped underground. As soon as it came into physics range, it would sink all the way up to the top wall. I could dock the claw to that wall, but the MPL would explode as soon as anything moved it.

IMO, the correct action is to edit the .sfs file so that the module is sufficiently high up that it falls to the surface in a normal way. Then you can proceed with the mission.

After I did this, it was a simple matter of keeping it upright while the three occupants got their flag points.

[Xyphos]

Either you give up on the doomed contract or you edit the persistant.sfs file, either landed or in a stable orbit.

[Mat2ch]

IMO, the correct action is to edit the .sfs file so that the module is sufficiently high up that it falls to the surface in a normal way. Then you can proceed with the mission.

Either you give up on the doomed contract or you edit the persistant.sfs file, either landed or in a stable orbit.

That's what I did. Had to figure out the format first, it's the "height" parameter I had to edit, iirc.

Rover and the part are already back on Kerbin, so everything went well.