Is there a way to blow up the ship?

[Grumman]

I launched a probe-controlled ship into orbit for a mission, then decided to deorbit it. Unfortunately, everything except the probe core exploded, and now the probe core is just rolling all over the place. I can't recover the core, because it's rolling. I can't stop it rolling, because it has no reaction wheels. I can't return to the KSC without reverting to before the launch.

Is there a solution?

[Starhawk]

You could try going in to the Tracking Station and deleting it.

Happy landings!

[Grumman]

1 minute ago, Starhawk said:

You could try going in to the Tracking Station and deleting it.

Happy landings!

I can't go to the Tracking Station, because that requires going to the KSC. I can't go to the KSC without reverting to before the mission was launched.

[Starhawk]

What happens if you hit Escape and try to go to KSC?

Happy landings!

[steuben]

Close KSP and reopen. Since it starts at the KSC you'll be able to recover the core there.

[Grumman]

34 minutes ago, Starhawk said:

What happens if you hit Escape and try to go to KSC?

I get a message saying that I cannot go to the KSC without reverting to the last autosave, which was before the launch.

Anyway, the question is now academic. I waited 30 minutes and it was still rolling, so I reverted and redid the mission.

[Plusck]

Academically speaking, couldn't you (a) make a quicksave then return to KSC then load the quicksave manually from the KSC view, or (b) pause the game, duplicate persistent.sfs and rename it something, then return to KSC and load that?

I can't remember whether (a) is impossible because of moving over the surface, however (b) should definitely be possible since the game autosaves at various points, such as reaching orbit or approaching the ground.

Edited April 6, 2016 by Plusck

[Aethon]

Whack a kerbal?  In the f12 menu...

[Ultimate Steve]

Yes. Whack-a-kerbal. Provided your mouse has a middle mouse button. (My first mouse didn't have that - or even a scroll wheel.) It isn't likely that, now, eight hours later you haven't somehow stopped the rolling, but for future reference, alt+f12 opens the debug/cheat menu, from which you can access Whack-a-kerbal.

[Grumman]

Thank you for the replies. That does sound like it would have worked.

The problem was caused by the Stayputnik and its unusual roll path. Instead of just rolling down hill, picking up speed until it hit something and broke, it rolled in a wide arc across the slope at about 2-3 m/s, then did a quick spin that burned off all its speed, then did another wide arc at 2-3 m/s, over and over again.

[Loren Pechtel]

On 4/7/2016 at 7:26 PM, Grumman said:

Thank you for the replies. That does sound like it would have worked.

The problem was caused by the Stayputnik and its unusual roll path. Instead of just rolling down hill, picking up speed until it hit something and broke, it rolled in a wide arc across the slope at about 2-3 m/s, then did a quick spin that burned off all its speed, then did another wide arc at 2-3 m/s, over and over again.

Congratulations, you have discovered perpetual motion!

Where's Stockholm on Kerbin?