Challenge for Kerbal gurus

[kerbochuck]

So this is my first post, and of course, its a plea for help. I'm not a novice KSP player (have about 100 hours) but today, I made a few bad mistakes haha. I sent a tourist to the Mun and back , and now he is stranded in a highly elliptical orbit around Kerbin. Why? well I may have forgotten to put a parachute on the craft. I tried a rescue mission, but tourists cannot EVA. The ship he is on is just a probe and a lander can, so I cannot put Jeb inside to save the day. There are also no docking ports.

Is it possible to save the tourist?

Can a grabbing unit carry something through reentry?

[Gaarst]

First, welcome to the forums

You can actually use the Klaw to transfer resources (according to here); on the other hand, you could use a tug with a Klaw, fuel to deorbit and chutes, everything should be fine as stock reentry is not destructive enough to harm such a vessel.

What you can try to do is left click on the crew hatch and transfer the tourist to another pod, docked to your ship (with the Klaw). I'm really not sure about that one, but still give it a try.

[Pecan]

Yes.

Yes.

Welcome to the forums.

Challenges go in the challenges forum.

Gameplay Questions (and Tutorials) go in that forum.

100 hours and you've only just got here! I don't think I managed 2 hours before I was begging for help, let alone taking tourists to Mun!

Anyway ...

i. Claw calls the Kraken and is best avoided if you can

ii. (GOAP) Get Out And Push - a Kerbal that can EVA has unlimited suit-RCS fuel, as long as they keep re-boarding a command pod to refill it. Doesn't affect the pod's own supply so send a rescue mission to rendezvous then get the non-tourist to EVA and push the tourist vehicle retrograde (slow down) until it has a periapsis (Pe, low point of orbit) in Kerbin's atmosphere; approx 45km would be perfect. After that aerobraking (slowing down using the atmosphere's drag) will do the rest for you.

iii. Do the same thing but instead of making an EVA Kerbal do the work just - slowly! - push the tourist vehicle with the rescue one

[Asharad]

I'd use a claw.

[Vanamonde]

How-to question moved to the how-to section. (And good luck! )

[Superfluous J]

Yeah use the claw. It's not as terrible as everybody says. Hit F5 right before clawing and the Kraken can't touch you (because you can revert to the quicksave).

You can claw through re-entry. I personally would make a ship designed to enter in this orientation: Heat shield / probe body / claw / saved tourist. Once you're coming down, transfer all the fuel you've got into the fuel tank closest to the heat shield and you should then be front-heavy. This is good, as it'll keep the heat shield pointed into the airflow. Should be fine. Honestly the shield is probably overkill but hey, you're rescuing a person so why not do a bit of overkill?

[kerbochuck]

How-to question moved to the how-to section. (And good luck! )

Yes.

Challenges go in the challenges forum.

Gameplay Questions (and Tutorials) go in that forum.

Thanks. I saw that just after I posted.

Yes.

Anyway ...

i. Claw calls the Kraken and is best avoided if you can

ii. (GOAP) Get Out And Push - a Kerbal that can EVA has unlimited suit-RCS fuel, as long as they keep re-boarding a command pod to refill it. Doesn't affect the pod's own supply so send a rescue mission to rendezvous then get the non-tourist to EVA and push the tourist vehicle retrograde (slow down) until it has a periapsis (Pe, low point of orbit) in Kerbin's atmosphere; approx 45km would be perfect. After that aerobraking (slowing down using the atmosphere's drag) will do the rest for you.

iii. Do the same thing but instead of making an EVA Kerbal do the work just - slowly! - push the tourist vehicle with the rescue one

Thanks!! For 2 and 3, I still would crash as I dont have a chute. But I think I already fulfilled the contract, so maybe the tourist can just hang out up there or crash-land on Kerbin. I'll see.

Im studying engineering, aerodynamics, and physics right now in college, so KSP is right up my alley. Really love playing it.

[Nookos]

But I think I already fulfilled the contract, so maybe the tourist can just hang out up there or crash-land on Kerbin. I'll see.

...

I m pretty sure you need to bring back the tourist alive to complete the contract.

The claw solution is great and will work. Another alternative that I love but requires the mod KIS. It makes eva's really fun and useful. You can send a rescue mission with an engineer, parachute(s) and a screwdriver ( or wrench) to repair that tiny design flaw Really fun solution but not doable in stock game unfortunately.

[capi3101]

Nothing really new to add - use the Claw if you're going to stay stock, KIS and KAS if you're not adverse to mods. I myself stranded a quad of tourists on Minmus due to a badly timed suicide burn and unfortunate quick-save timing; I have the two mods I mentioned installed so I sent Bill out to Minmus, had him attach a connector port to the stranded vehicle, had him attach a winch to his own vehicle and plugged the winch cable into the connector port in docked mode - game counted the two craft as docked so I was able to "beam" the tourists out over the cable...

[kerbochuck]

Cool thanks! I'll look at KIS. I played vanilla KSP for a while, but now I have over 20 mods. I still hand-fly everything but Mechjeb and KER make it so much more fun for me.

[tater]

Since the claw can transfer fuel (for reasons) I bet it can transfer a tourist to a craft capable of reentry.

[GDJ]

[Sharpy]

Yes.

100 hours and you've only just got here! I don't think I managed 2 hours before I was begging for help, let alone taking tourists to Mun!

I had about 200 when I posted first.

But you can trace my earlier failures on gaming.stackexchange.com before I saw the light and registered here at last.

[Laie]

Since the claw can transfer fuel (for reasons) I bet it can transfer a tourist to a craft capable of reentry.

Indeed it can. Tourists can't EVA, but they can be transferred between modules.

[obsidian_x]

Scott Manley built a very simple claw (for an SSTO launch) on his career play through. I've used for numerous rescue/recover options - It's a claw, medium rcs tank and 4 rcs ports, probe core, 2 parachutes, and 4 solar panels and docking port (see here

). It can easily launch via rocket instead, use a stack separator (instead of the docking port) & fairing around it and send it up. It's got loads of rcs for minor orbital changes, docking and return. Unless you come in very aggressively you can get away without heat shields.

[GeneralVeers]

I found the following trick on YouTube somewhere--can't for the life of me find out who posted it, unfortunately. But somebody made a rescue claw out of LT-2 landing struts. What you do is you mount the struts to the BOTTOM of the rescue ship (not the sides, as you usually do with landing struts), and you mount the struts backwards by hitting A or D twice. They should be facing radially outwards.

When you approach the target craft and hit G to deploy the landing legs, the LT-2 struts will swing around and down--and inwards! They will close like a claw around the target craft. It was pure genius. And it was before the AGU was added to the game. Kudos to anybody who can find the guy who posted the video of this on YouTube.

[DancesWithSquirrels]

You can transfer a tourist to an empty seat in your rescue pod if you're attached with the klaw. You could use a ship with lots if chutes, klaw to your tourist ship, and have the entire joined ship return.

Or, my favorite (after forgetting several important items on a large Dres mission), send up a supply ship that has a klaw on a separator with radial chutes attached - klaw the tourist where you want the cute, blow the separator, and your tourist can resume reentry with it's newly equipped chutes.