How do stranded kerbals get stranded?

[peachoftree]

What is your cannon for how the kerbals from rescue contracts get stranded in orbit? personally I think it is some other space agency that is short on cash and can't afford a rescue.

[Dortmunder]

Probably came from here

[Alshain]

Or from

[carneyvich]

look at your own space center

[jwenting]

Given that they're clearly kerbonauts already because they can EVA, and when you rescue them they join your space program, I can only conclude there's another space agency on Kerbin that has far fewer qualms about losing people than mine does... A space program so secret and hidden we don't even know the location of its launch site, call it Karea 52.

[astropapi1]

This thread is starting to smell like Kommunism all of a sudden.

[Jett_Quasar]

Some noob testing out version 1.1 on an X-box keeps stranding them and we have to bring them back!

JR

[qromodynmc]

You think kerbals stay there and wait till you come and play? No. They always go to space even when you are sleeping. But mostly they fail and stranded there.

[Scotius]

Kerbals want to go to space so much, most strong-willed individuals spontaneously bend reality around themselves. One quantum tunneling later, they found themselves in orbit around the Mun. They cry for help, and exasperated real space agency sends rescue mission

[ComradeWolfe]

Kerbals want to go to space so much, most strong-willed individuals spontaneously bend reality around themselves. One quantum tunneling later, they found themselves in orbit around the Mun. They cry for help, and exasperated real space agency sends rescue mission

This is more or less what I was thinking too. Basically Kerbals all want to go to space, so they tend to wear spacesuits and pretend to be kerbonauts in their off time. Occasionally the kraken strikes when they do something mundane like moving a coffee cup or walking around, and they appear in space. If they're not wearing a suit, doom happens and no rescue is necessary.

[cantab]

I always used to imagine they got blasted into space by accidents at the rocket parts factories. But now they show up in their ships, I have to fall back on the "Other Space Agencies" hypothesis.

[Mister Dilsby]

What is your cannon for how the kerbals from rescue contracts get stranded in orbit? personally I think it is some other space agency that is short on cash and can't afford a rescue.

In my 'verse there are other space programs besides Kerbfleet. They're just all terrible and have never accomplished anything other than flinging Kerbals into random orbits with no hope of return. All the various programs hold discussions in an online forum called Kerbfleet Social Platform.

[Just Jim]

I like to think they're from one of the other two space centers, trying to follow in Jeb & Val's footsteps, and failing miserably....

[PB666]

What is your cannon for how the kerbals from rescue contracts get stranded in orbit? personally I think it is some other space agency that is short on cash and can't afford a rescue.

The stranding Kraken. hes the Kerbal Version of Santa Claus, except that instead of gifts he strands the misbehavors at random points in their lives. The parts they are found in come from the Kraken parts lair, the place where ships that suddenly blew up and disappearred after passing 6500 m alt (the ascent Kraken) and other unexpected explosions near Kerbin would end up.

[_stilgar_]

Those rescue contracts are sometimes very sad. I once got a rescue contract for a kerbal and his ship on Mun's orbit. Sure, no problem. Then, I found that it was a Mk3 Passenger module. With 1 kerbal in it. Where is the rest of the ship Where is the cockpit? WHAT HAPPENED HERE? HOW MANY OF THEM DIED?

Unless they just launched single Mk3 Passenger module, without anything else and just one kerbal on board... makes sense, right?

[Hagen von Tronje]

The parts come from manufacturers. They must have not only facilities, but customers. Given the part descriptions, it also appears there's little to stop private individuals from attempting to do typically kerbal things with them. Some are even found by the side of the road!

Presumably the guys I go up to get are the equivalent of the guy who put a bunch of balloons on his lawn chair, except they made it a little higher and brought an EVA suit.

[tater]

I like to think they're from one of the other two space centers, trying to follow in Jeb & Val's footsteps, and failing miserably....

[razark]

They don't exist.

[EdusacconBR]

they use Rhino clipping cannons

[MaxwellsDemon]

Presumably the guys I go up to get are the equivalent of the guy who put a bunch of balloons on his lawn chair, except they made it a little higher and brought an EVA suit.

LOL... Well, what would one expect from a race whose primary characteristics are "Courage" and "Stupidity"?

I'm in the middle of my first official rescue contract... sent Jeb up to retrieve someone who is apparently stranded in orbit in just a Mk1 Cockpit. It wasn't immediately apparent what to do once I'd rendezvoused, though the image of just a cockpit stranded in orbit was somehow so very Kerbal that I couldn't help but laugh. (I pictured a gigantic rubber-band slingshot...) Jeb EVA'd and did a couple of loops around the cockpit to let the rescuee know he's there, and they'll do their own transfer EVA today. (I had to look up on the boards to find out how to actually rescue them... it didn't occur to me that I'd suddenly have control over a "NPC" Kerbal... glad I did that before simply shoving the derelict into a reentry trajectory!)

[Brainlord Mesomorph]

Catapults!

[AndyMt]

I always thought of them as a glitch in the not-yet-active (but partially implemented) multiplayer mode of KSP. So they are from the space agency of other KSP players...

[tater]

The rescues are just bad on multiple levels:

1. They occur for any SoI you have been to, so send a probe, and competing programs (implicit in the fact of stranded kerbals) all send kerbals before you do.

2. It is easier/cheaper to rescue crew than hire them.

3. Suspension of disbelief killed. There is no competing program referenced anyplace, you never see successes, it just feels wrong. If you actually "raced" against some abstracted other program it would make some sense.

4. A pod makes more sense than a lone guy/gal, but the game should be changed to allow placement of whole craft files, instead. Part counts might have under 10-20 parts as a best practice, but having actual crafts would make rescues feel more realistic, and could open far better rescue mission profiles, for example:

Kerbal on EVA with zero, or near zero RCS left, but a working craft nearby. Rescue him (might require nearly or actually "docking" with him to the hatch), and return him to his craft.

Stranded craft is working, but out of fuel. Dock and resupply fuel.

Stranded craft is broken, stranded astronaut is science or pilot, send an engineer and repair (add more repair abilities to engineers).

[NFUN]

tater, I'd argue that the fact that it's cheaper to rescue crew than to hire them is a positive. The game gives you two choices which both have advantages which can change over the course of a game: recruit crew for a lot of money quickly, or spend more time and effort in rescuing somebody cheaply. The game lets one earn the first few crewmembers by rescuing them, and after one has proved their worth they'd generally have enough money to hire new ones. It makes more sense than the alternative of having rescuing crew members be more expensive than just hiring new crew, as then there'd be little incentive to actually do the contract. Your points make sense though.

[tater]

tater, I'd argue that the fact that it's cheaper to rescue crew than to hire them is a positive. The game gives you two choices which both have advantages which can change over the course of a game: recruit crew for a lot of money quickly, or spend more time and effort in rescuing somebody cheaply. The game lets one earn the first few crewmembers by rescuing them, and after one has proved their worth they'd generally have enough money to hire new ones. It makes more sense than the alternative of having rescuing crew members be more expensive than just hiring new crew, as then there'd be little incentive to actually do the contract. Your points make sense though.

My point wasn't that rescues should be more expensive, it's that hiring is too expensive.

The constantly increasing hire costs are a lousy work-around to the game have no time based mechanics for career whatsoever.

There should be a set of "contracts" (really "missions") that are not from third parties, but are suggestions from your own staff. For science! Such missions would have a budget associated with them, and could have multiple parts (like "Explore the Mun"). The funds could be dealt out in advance, but over time---X funds every Y days. You might also be given a general expenses budget per year based upon Rep, etc. Then each astronaut could cost some amount per year that is reasonable (or per day), with no up front cost for a hire.

Regardless, the rescues make no sense at all most of the time.