Trying to recover a craft from surface on Minmus

[Xentax]

Hi everyone.

I've got a contract to rescue a Kerbal and his craft from the surface of Minmus. I've managed to get a lander in position but can't seem to get the Grabbing Unit to actually latch on. Here's a screenshot showing my setup - I know it won't grab in the current position but I've managed to pogo the ship directly onto the can a couple times and it still won't grab.

Is this fixable or do I need to try another approach? I couldn't figure out a good way (with stock parts) to adjust the height of the grabbing unit on the fly - should I be using some other approach (e.g. a cargo bay instead of the grabber)?

Edited August 1, 2015 by Xentax

[FancyMouse]

How fast are you approaching? Try again with a faster speed.

[MaverickSawyer]

How fast are you approaching? Try again with a faster speed.

NOOOO!

The AGU will NOT engage above 0.2m/s ...

If you're open to mods, I'd use Kerbal Attachment System to winch it into place, or Kerbal Inventory system to literally pack it into a cargo container and fly it home.

[Phil deCube]

I used a similar setup, but with a docking port on the bottom, then with KAS/KIS I had an engineer fit a docking port to the other craft, and dropped down onto that. Worked pretty well.

[Foxster]

You are using the landing legs to lower your rescue craft?

[Xentax]

You are using the landing legs to lower your rescue craft?

Well that was the plan! Turns out there's not quite enough clearance so I'm doing little thrust hops and coming back down on it (about one try in 5 - the RCS thrust over 1.0 TWR so I have to use the main engines some too - often to hilarious results). I may have to send another ship with the one-size-smaller legs (they seem to lower more smoothly) and adjust the clearance. Now that I know what's there I can practice on Kerbin - in theory.

I'd been avoiding KAS but maybe I should bite the bullet...

[SalehRam]

Minmus' gravity make it easy to use RCS to lift your vessel for a small distance off the surface, you could have added more RCS ports and used that as a method to lock and grab the vessel, since it is more accurate controls over landing legs...

[Mastikator]

Wouldn't it be easier to have wheels on the lander and just drive into it? Then just RCS to point up and fly away

[Sharpy]

I believe either it's the speed (in this case try landing veeeery slowly) or there *is* enough clearance and you still need to fold your legs for the claw to catch.

[Xentax]

Minmus' gravity make it easy to use RCS to lift your vessel for a small distance off the surface, you could have added more RCS ports and used that as a method to lock and grab the vessel, since it is more accurate controls over landing legs...

Yeah - I thought I had enough RCS thrust, I'll fix that for next time.

@Sharpy: I'm definitely 'just short' on clearance but now that I know what's there I can dial it in for the next flight.

[Xentax]

Thanks everyone for the help! I combined parts of several suggestions and built a lander with a rover section and enough d/v to return home. The design was a pain to drive - ended up using RCS as much as the rover wheels to steer. But trying to grab a lander can on the surface made me want to be able to 'drop the nose' and hence an unorthodox design.

The Minmus mission section

Touched down about 350m away - you can see the prior attempt's vehicle and just barely see the target itself.

Time to arm the claw and lower the nose...

Gotcha!

Homeward bound.

[Tazin]

You have to land there very slowly for the claw to activate. i think that is your most likely problem.

- - - Updated - - -

You have to land there very slowly for the claw to activate. i think that is your most likely problem.