Mission to recover object 282m below surface of the Mun?

[Stealthie]

Just got around to installing KSP 1.0.4 - totally unmodded - and started a career game.

Did a few of the regular start-up missions, tested some parts, rescued a few kerbals, launched a couple of satellites, ferried some tourists around etc.

Saw a mission which required me to recover an object from the surface of the Mun.

Hadn't yet been to the Mun (in this game) and I've never recovered an object from a planet's surface before so I thought I'd kill 2 birds with 1 stone by doing my first Mun landing at the site where the object was supposed to be in order to see what it was so I could build something suitable to recover it.

The object was in a crater on the South of the Mun's surface. Landed nearby, in the crater, and EVA'd toward it.

It turns out, however that the closest I can get to the object is 282.8m away. At that point, whichever way I walk, I get further away from it again.

If I move the camera to an overhead view I can see the label for the object, apparently 282.8m directly below the crater floor.

So, should I be spending time trying to find the entrance to some kind of cave-system on the Mun's surface or is this just a bug and the object is positioned below the Mun's surface?

Apologies if this is a known bug. I tend to only play short bursts of KSP these days, when a new version becomes available.

[Stealthie]

Nobody?

Nobody else ever had this or know of a solution?

Tried another "recover from surface" mission and had the same problem.

This time I landed on the Mun surface, did a quicksave and then resorted to desperate measures by "ramming" the surface to see if I could get to the part I was supposed to be recovering.

Inevitably, my ship just got damaged when it hit the surface and I did a quickload.

Upon reloading, I saw the part I was supposed to be recovering, hovering around 10m above the Mun surface. After the load was complete it gently floated downward, straight through the Mun surface and came to rest around 300m below the surface.

If I switch vessels while the part is still above the surface I can follow it as it clips below the surface and then just "floats" there, 300m below the surface.

It occurs to me that, if I was really desperate, I could build a big, flat, ship and then land it on the surface directly above the object, do a quicksave and then quickload and then, when the object reloads it should be just above the ship and would settle ON the ship, thus allowing me to recover it - with a bit of trial & error.

Not something I'm going to bother with just to recover parts but I might give it a go if there is ever a Kerbal life at stake.

It certainly seems like there's a problem with how these parts, which you're supposed to recover, are positioned though.

FWIW, I've also tried deliberately dropping various parts of my own ships (fuel tanks, probes etc) from low Munar altitude and THEY always splat into the surface just as they should.

The problem seems only to occur with the parts the game generates for the player to recover.

[yorshee]

Could you post your save file here? I've never come across something like this, and it would be useful to test it on my install.

EDIT: In the meantime, you could open the debug menu by pressing alt + F12 and clicking 'hack gravity', and then reload, so when the object appears floating above the surfce, it'll just stay there, and won't fall back down, giving you time to grab the part/rescue the Kerbal inside.

Edited September 7, 2015 by yorshee

[jiminator]

some of those part missions are just bizarro. Two I have gotten had the item floating then when I get close they shoot into the air. After that they can be picked up. I guess you can do the gravity hack above, or edit your saved game file. Find the part and your ship and make the altitude/settings the same. save it first though

[Stealthie]

I'm afraid it won't be possible to provide a copy of my save file.

I've just had every @!*%ing ship and space-station I've built get "stuck" in orbit in the mother of all kraken attacks, the likes of which I haven't seen since before KSP 0.9.

Back then I was investing a lot of time in KSP but the bugs just made it a waste of effort so I ended up abandoning it.

Since it looks like the kraken is back with a vengeance, KSP has once again been deleted from my PC.

KSP could have been, IMO, THE best game & educational tool ever produced for the PC but it seems doomed to forever be a train-wreck.

See you all after the next update.