Recovering "hulks" from Mun

[Waxing_Kibbous]

I've taken up a contract without reading it thoroughly It involves not only picking up a kerbal from Mun, but the pod as well. I was thinking of using a sky crane with a claw and transferring to something better in orbit, but maybe there is a simpler solution? I do have KAS and KIS installed but never used them.

Edited October 26, 2015 by Waxing_Kibbous

[SmashingKirby148]

The pod awell!? Hmmm... well, maybe just make a normal lander (that can land on the Mun and back) but have one of those asteroid claws in place of an engine, and attach engines radially?

Another important question, do you know what the actual "hulk" looks like?

[Sheppard]

Put some wheels on the ship that's supposed to pick up the hulk. Have a claw at one end. Take off. Profit.

It's pretty hard to come from above with the claw and pick it up. I've once wasted half an hour trying to dock from above on the surface of the Mun; got there after many, many, many, failed attempts.

[JTpopcorn]

If you can figure out how to fly it, a symetrical spacecrane with a claw on the bottom(mounted on a long strut) will work wonders. I used this to refuel my minmus science craft from a science base.

Remeber, going slow is much easier than rushing it.

-JT

[Waxing_Kibbous]

You get the weight of the craft in the contract, in this case 2.5t, but that's it. I can probably figure out what it is in the VAB now that I think of it.. I am considering planning this out more, maybe this will be my first complex mission involving an orbiter and multiple craft- I did a space junk recovery and the reentry seems iffy, I think I'll try taking the Kerbal in a separate safer craft.

If you can figure out how to fly it, a symetrical spacecrane with a claw on the bottom(mounted on a long strut) will work wonders. I used this to refuel my minmus science craft from a science base.

Remeber, going slow is much easier than rushing it.

-JT

Yes, this is a game that will teach you patience that's for sure!

[SlithyTove]

I tried a skycrane on my first of these. Problem was, the thing I was asked to grab was too big for all my rockets to get around so I couldn't fly straight. I guess if you build a big enough skycrane that could do it, but you have to think large to manage all contingencies.

My much easier solution was to put some wheels on a rocket with an over-abundance of reaction wheels and a couple stragically placed vernors. Then I can just drive up to the debris, raise the front end as I latch to grab it in the center. Then unlock the claws movement, and lift the back end off the ground to get things centered vs the COM and re-lock the claw.

Then the excess of reaction wheels + strategic vernors kick in to flip vertical and voila.

[Mister Dilsby]

2.5t is just the right mass for a Hitchhiker Storage Container, so that's probably what you're dealing with. Several of the above solutions would work. I think SlithyTove's is particularly brillig, that's pretty close to what I'd try (though I would detach my rocket from the rover to get to munar orbit, rather that trying to gyre and gimble the whole thing all over the place).

[Waxing_Kibbous]

I think with my limited precision flying skills the rover/rocket hybrid may be a good place to start. It's going to be one ugly vehicle, some Road Warrior stuff happening there

[mabarry3]

What exactly is a skycrane? I can understand the concept (I think), but how does one go about building that? Does anyone have any pictures?

[TheXRuler]

First off, a real Skycrane look something like this. This is a slighly more insane version that I built some time ago

Now to the OP, remember that KAS/KIS has winches and connector plugs, so you don't need to neccessarily touch it, you could land a few meters away and then connect it via a cable. For landing near a surface target, try keeping the target retrograde marker glued to the retro target marker.

[Wanderfound]

As suggested, the easiest way is probably a rover with a Klaw on the nose (stick some extra landing gear under the nose to allow you to adjust connection height). Like a scaled-down version of this:

Give the rover plenty of torque/RCS/gimbal to allow it to control the unbalanced load.

Mk2 spaceplane parts make good rover bodies.

Edited October 26, 2015 by Wanderfound

[Racescort666]

I can't remember if surface kerbals are automatically on Eva for their recovery or not but you can look in the astronaut complex and it will tell you what module the Kerbal is in before attempting recovery. If they are just on EVA, this method won't work for obvious reasons.

That being said, I would recommend a "rover" that uses the aircraft retractable landing gear rather than the rover wheels and RCS for propulsion. I'm at work now but I can throw something together tonight if you'd like to see what I'm talking about. You have a rover with the klaw on the bottom and you can slowly roll over and align above the debris, then retract the landing gear to drop down on top of it.

[Acet]

If you're using KIS/KAS and are up to trying something slightly insane you can bring some solar panels, small probe core, small SAS, battery, mono prop tanks and mono prop engines and turn it into a ship capable of getting into orbit. Just place the parts around it and link to your own ship for refuelling.

Not necessarily the simplest way, but likely to be fun trying.

Edited October 26, 2015 by Acet
Removed double posting (duh!)

[Mister Dilsby]

Too bad it's not on Minmus, you could just fling it into orbit.

[fireblade274]

I laughed out loud

You must have a lot of spare time on your hands

[Waxing_Kibbous]

I'm getting some good ideas here, thanks team! Since I know it's most likely the 4 kerbal can I will do some tests on Kerbin like a proper scientist/engineer.

That flinger this is awesome

[Racescort666]

Ironically, I got pretty much the same contract so this is the working version of my lander/recovery rover. I'm not sure what I want to do with it exactly this is the idea behind what I was talking about.

[Waxing_Kibbous]

Here is my poor man's version- I have the big can there for dV purposes, unladen it has about 3,350m/s (I'm thinking 1500m/s is very comfortable to get back to Kerbin). Seems cheap and effective- only question is, with the can gone and the claw in it's place how the heck to I get it into space?

[Mister Dilsby]

You must have a lot of spare time on your hands

If by that you meant to compliment me for using my time to create something awesome for your enjoyment, thank you.

Here is my poor man's version- I have the big can there for dV purposes, unladen it has about 3,350m/s (I'm thinking 1500m/s is very comfortable to get back to Kerbin). Seems cheap and effective- only question is, with the can gone and the claw in it's place how the heck to I get it into space?

https://i.imgur.com/EF134O0.jpg

I'd put some radial decouplers on the fuel tank, attach some more fuel tanks to the decouplers, and build down from there. Then tie your boosters together with struts. This is my go-to configuration whenever I need to launch something that doesn't have an attachment node in the center, for example the Atmospherikdipperkraft with its aerospike engine:

[Waxing_Kibbous]

Wow, I just made a truly KSP rocket haha, if I decide to launch it I'll post the mission recap. At this point it's a matter of pride- currently my next Kerbal hire is 200,000, rescuing the Kerbal only gets me 33,000. My rescue unit is 10,900, the trainwreck that is supposed to get to to Mun is 76,000 in total. I'm still ahead if I just get the Kerbal then forfeit the contract. But really, what fun is that? Fun Fact: Jeb saw this and it wiped the smile off his face:

It looks like a wonderful sky castle

Edited October 27, 2015 by Waxing_Kibbous