I accepted a contract to retrieve an object from space around Kerbin. I have no idea how to do that.

[Spuddywuddy]

The contract says to retrieve and bring back safely to Kerbin an object called RD-6P. As i had no idea what RD-6P means i sent up a reconnaissance craft to check it out. It turns out to be a MK1 inline cockpit. Still, having never done such missions before i could use some help. I'm running vanilla KSP.

Thank you

Edited August 1, 2015 by Spuddywuddy

[FancyMouse]

You get this kind of contract because you unlocked the claw (Advanced Grab Unit to be more precise). This is the only stock part that can grab any part (including asteroids) to make it part of your ship, a single ship (like docking, but docking port needs to dock with a docking port where claw can grab anything). Once it's single ship you can do whatever a single ship can do, including return back to Kerbin. Care needs to be taken about aligning center of mass, right amount of chutes to land, etc.

RD-6P is randomly generated code name anyway. It doesn't mean anything so don't bother guessing what it means.

[Spuddywuddy]

You get this kind of contract because you unlocked the claw (Advanced Grab Unit to be more precise). This is the only stock part that can grab any part (including asteroids) to make it part of your ship, a single ship (like docking, but docking port needs to dock with a docking port where claw can grab anything). Once it's single ship you can do whatever a single ship can do, including return back to Kerbin. Care needs to be taken about aligning center of mass, right amount of chutes to land, etc.

RD-6P is randomly generated code name anyway. It doesn't mean anything so don't bother guessing what it means.

Thank you. So, attaching a grabbing unit to the nose of a craft would suffice?

[Gaarst]

What has been said above; and I'd add that, unless you already know what the object is, you should overbuild the grabbing/reentring ship. You don't want to try to bring down a full Kickback from LKO with a RCS powered tug and 2 Mk2-R Radial Chutes.

[Phil deCube]

The name of the object is pretty meaningless. The mass of it is the most important thing you want to know about it. You need to attach enough parachutes to it, so that you can land it safely. As FancyMouse says, you want to use the Claw part to attach your parachutes to the object. You also need a rocket to get it into space, but that should be straight forward for you by this stage. Here is a picture of my latest retrieval operation, just about to splashdown.

[FancyMouse]

What has been said above; and I'd add that, unless you already know what the object is, you should overbuild the grabbing/reentring ship. You don't want to try to bring down a full Kickback from LKO with a RCS powered tug and 2 Mk2-R Radial Chutes.

Not really. Contract fine prints has all the needed stats without telling you the exact part - mass and size. They're given to you for a reason.

[ajburges]

What has been said above; and I'd add that, unless you already know what the object is, you should overbuild the grabbing/reentring ship. You don't want to try to bring down a full Kickback from LKO with a RCS powered tug and 2 Mk2-R Radial Chutes.

I don't think any recovery contact parts have resources. This also caps object mass to 15 t.

[Spuddywuddy]

Thanks for all the advice guys. Worked on the first try.