Where is YOUR stranded kerbal

[DualDesertEagle]

I could say I never had a kerbal strand anywhere but that would be a lie. If I get a kerbal killed and can't revert, I delete the whole file and start over. If I get a kerbal stranded and can't revert the mission, I'll try to build a rescue ship. If I can't make one that's gonna be able to bring him back I also delete the whole file.

 

I hate failing and for me, deleting a file that I've put alot of effort into is the best way to become more careful and NOT start missions with ships that don't carry enough fuel. That often results in ridiculously overbuilt crafts especially when it comes to reaching the closer bodies.

 

On an early mission to minmus I landed with what was supposed to be the transfer stage still attached to the lander, shortly after ditching the take-off stage after I had achieved a landing trajectory. Looking back at that mission I think the take-off stage on its own would probably have had enough fuel to take off, go to Minmus, land and return if I had attached the pod directly to it and left out all the other stuff.

 

Yet on the way back I over-estimated the power of minmus' gravity and accelerated so much that I got to an escape trajectory out of kerbin, with enough speed to drain all of the lander's rocket fuel and still be stuck orbiting kerbin. I had to use my RCS to slow down enough to bring my peri down enough to land back at kerbin. And I made the mistake to ditch the lander when I was already in the atmosphere and pointing retrograde, resulting in the lader taking a leap at my pod.

Even got some of that mission on video (Note that I was fairly new to the game back then, watching this video even makes ME cringe now):

 

Edited June 27, 2016 by DualDesertEagle

[Brownhair2]

Valentina and either Bill or Bob (I don't remember which) are stranded at Duna. I've got a rescue mission planned, but I have to wait for the next window

Edited June 27, 2016 by Brownhair2

[wumpus]

On one of my first stabs at career mode (or perhaps long before career mode) I tried sending Jeb to Minmus (or maybe Duna.  It was long ago and I didn't know what I was doing) and put him in Kerbol orbit (long before I would have a prayer of docking, let alone be willing to wait the years for a good intercept).

Later (probably after .90, maybe after 1.0) I managed to strand Jeb (out of fuel) in an orbit returning from Minmus, but that kept being bounced around by the Mun.  I gave up hope in trying to plot an intercept for a spacecraft that didn't do the same orbit twice (I suppose I should have waited, but suspect there was an impact coming) and restarted that game as well.  I'm still not sure how this one happened.

[Artheus]

I lost Valentina in one of my first -very kerbal- mun attempts, as I just kept firing the engines even after I had an encounter and ended in an interplanetary orbit with no re-encounter for the next 100 years. Then I left the dead capsule, as I was trying to get a kerbin encounter with the eva fuel. Did not work, so I left her rot for 3 years until I could put together a pretty thoughtful rescue mission (I had no more EVA fuel) . Right now, she's about half a year away from getting back to kerbin, a lot has changed since she departed on the mighty 1MN of Erebos 1 because I finally became somewhat good at this game and science-harvested the Mün, Duna, Gilly, Ike and Moho. Anyways, she has to wait until Ven and co update the mods so my save file is no longer bugged.  

[septemberWaves]

In theory, I have "stranded" a semi-regularly increasing population of kerbals on the surface of Eve. However, I am trying to set up a colony there, and the only reason they're technically stranded is because my Hyperion transports can't SSTO from Eve (I have yet to create anything which can) and it's a pain to send enough HAAVs (Heavy Atmospheric Ascent Vehicles) for the entire colonial population. I am considering designing a new HAAV that may be modifiable (via use of SpaceY and some other mods) to serve as a fully reusable Eve SSTO. I don't yet have the time to do that properly however, but if I do end up doing it I'll post it in the forums because the design should be able to transport 18 kerbals from anywhere on Eve's surface and dock somewhere in orbit even if I can't get it to work as a single stage.

[Vysionone]

I have one stuck in an extremely fast orbit 1,500,000 meters above Kerbol.

No, not Kerbin, Kerbol.

Edited June 28, 2016 by Vysionone
whoops forgot some numbers

[DualDesertEagle]

2 hours ago, Vysionone said:

I have one stuck in an extremely fast orbit 1,500 meters above Kerbol.

No, not Kerbin, Kerbol.

 

Are u sure u really meant 1 500 meters? Or more like 1 500 KILOmeters? Tho I think even the latter one would be absolutely deadly.

[Vysionone]

33 minutes ago, DualDesertEagle said:

 

Are u sure u really meant 1 500 meters? Or more like 1 500 KILOmeters? Tho I think even the latter one would be absolutely deadly.

Haha, forgot 3 zeros. Imagine orbiting Kerbol at 1,500 meters. I have a lot of radiators on my rocket, so that helps, too.

Edited June 28, 2016 by Vysionone
forgot to check

[DualDesertEagle]

Just now, Vysionone said:

Haha, forgot 2 zeros. Imagine orbiting Kerbol at 1,500 meters. I have a lot of radiators on my rocket, so that helps, too.

Do u have a screenshot of that? I'm honestly not even buyin' 150 000 meters

[Vysionone]

22 minutes ago, DualDesertEagle said:

Do u have a screenshot of that? I'm honestly not even buyin' 150 000 meters

I'm a clumsy Kerbal; it was 1,500,000 meters. I was testing how close you could get to the sun without exploding, so I Hyperedited it about 155Km and burned until I reached a point that I would explode in which I got any closer. I accidentally went to the space center, though. RIP Billy-Bob-Something Kerman. Here's the picture, though: http://imgur.com/3xHzxXo

Edited June 28, 2016 by Vysionone

[DualDesertEagle]

Wouldn't wanna be on that ship tho, it's most likely an orbital sauna on steroids

[aaron75]

I landed Bill and Bob Kerman on Ike with two mission priorities:

1) Mine ore for fuel.

2) Fix a broken rover.

My best landing spot for ore was 200+km away from the rover.  So they landed and started to mine, with the idea that once they refueled, they could just take off and land by the rover.

Well, mining/refueling was taking forever.  So I got this idea that because Ike's gravity was so low, that I could just get a running start with Bill, have him jet-pack his way into a low orbit, and land at the rover site.  Sounds easy, right?

Well, I used up just about half of Bill's EVA propellant to get to a partial orbit (about 12km up), and realized that A) I needed the other half of the fuel to land, and B) he wasn't even going to be close to the rover.

I managed to land Bill without killing him.  Amazingly.  He was 83km from the rover, so I started walking him in the direction of the rover.  Well, I spent a long time just walking a single kilometer, so I resolved to leave Bill there and go pick him up when Bob's lander was refueled.

He was out there in the wastes of Ike for 1 year and 372 days...Mark Watney style.  But at least Watney had a HAB unit.  Anyway, I was able to rescue him, but he was out there for the better part of 2 years before I could get to him.

[Brownhair2]

50 minutes ago, aaron75 said:

I landed Bill and Bob Kerman on Ike with two mission priorities:

1) Mine ore for fuel.

2) Fix a broken rover.

My best landing spot for ore was 200+km away from the rover.  So they landed and started to mine, with the idea that once they refueled, they could just take off and land by the rover.

Well, mining/refueling was taking forever.  So I got this idea that because Ike's gravity was so low, that I could just get a running start with Bill, have him jet-pack his way into a low orbit, and land at the rover site.  Sounds easy, right?

Well, I used up just about half of Bill's EVA propellant to get to a partial orbit (about 12km up), and realized that A) I needed the other half of the fuel to land, and B) he wasn't even going to be close to the rover.

I managed to land Bill without killing him.  Amazingly.  He was 83km from the rover, so I started walking him in the direction of the rover.  Well, I spent a long time just walking a single kilometer, so I resolved to leave Bill there and go pick him up when Bob's lander was refueled.

He was out there in the wastes of Ike for 1 year and 372 days...Mark Watney style.  But at least Watney had a HAB unit.  Anyway, I was able to rescue him, but he was out there for the better part of 2 years before I could get to him.

Wait, so it took that long to refuel, or you forgot about him?

[Astrofox]

Over 150 Kerbs in the Astronaut complex: I really only use three at  time...

But maybe I'll build a massive Jet aircraft to haul them to a base that I may set up sometime...

Maybe. That'll give them a use (well, if 'use' means just sitting in Hitchhiker containers for the rest of life, then sure).

[RandomGuy1824]

I have one stuck in a very strange predicament.(BTW I use infinate fuel) He is in an eliptical orbit around the sun were the peraperis (sp) is 3000000K above the sun, while the apoasis (sp again) is WAY out of the solar system, I mean take the diameter of the solar system, double it, and thats about were I am. I am about to plan a burn to get back to kerbin (wish me luck!).

[vsully]

Well, in one old save, I tried to send a base to Laythe in one launch. I ran out of fuel in a Jool orbit. So I dumped the rover into Jool and now I have a new Jool station. With no docking ports except a mini one (that was totally not for a rover) and... landing legs... In case I ran into a random asteroid near Jool, of course! All as planned! My crew doesn't know yet... shhhh! 

When I launch stuff to other planets, I tend to just send a base. I was never that great at flying between planets and stuff like that, other than milk runs to Mun/Minmus, of course. I never was able to make one of those super-efficient TO DUNA/JOOL/EVE/EELOO/ETC AND BACK ships. Mine are enormous with ridiculous amounts of Kerbodyne engines in the first stage. So I would just launch a whole base, complete with rovers. A big base, with two labs and several Hitchhiker modules. They worked well, I had one on Duna and one on Eve. The only problem was on the Duna mission, where I parachuted down and landed on a slope. The extra stress snapped one of the legs, so I had a lopsided station and the rovers couldn't dock anymore. The Jool fiasco totally-planned-space-station-with-landing-legs thing doesn't count.

[qzgy]

Once got a kerbal stuck in a Jool orbit. It was in a sandbox, and I edit the persistence to resurrect kerbals anyway.... so I terminated the mission and resurrected her.

[NSEP]

In left Bill Kerman outside for 18 days while testing ExtraPlanetary Launchpads. Alone, in the rain.

[The Space Dino]

Back in the days of the demo I stranded Jeb in a solar orbit after realising that there was not enough fuel to get him back to Kerbin after escaping its SOI.

On another occasion I stranded Val in Mun orbit after a glitch threw her from her spacecraft. I left her in Mun orbit for 30+ days until I picked her up.

Worse than your Bill @NSEP

Same attitude as you @DualDesertEagle

Edited January 10, 2017 by The Space Dino

[Sharpy]

Depends how you define stranded.

Not having enough fuel for return? Not having a vehicle capable of return? Not being able to return without help from Kerbin?

If it's the last one, then none.

I have a bunch of kerbals all over the system, in various stages of deployment of self-sufficient bases capable of constructing return vehicles.

Well, let's recount.

Gilly is a huge base perfectly capable of deploying a return vehicle at a moment's notice.

Moho bootstrapping goes well despite skeletal, minimalist equipment.

Minmus has two dinghies capable of taking the 4 kerbals of its crew to Kerbin orbit, and boarding reentry/rescue pods.

Duna Station is on its way back. Meanwhile, Duna Base is going "there", carrying a bunch of stuff for starting a major base.

Dres is underway, minimalist very similar to Moho.

Eeloo is a big thing that has enough on board not to need construction of anything, just land, refuel, and return.

I think the nearest to stranded is the Jool forpost. It was originally meant to be an orbital station with a set of scansats. I added some base-building essentials, but neither is the vehicle designed for landing (likely on Bop) nor am I sure there's enough of everything to bootstrap self-sufficiency. It's originally meant to wait there for a year performing orbital surveys while the actual expedition is being prepared.

[TopHeavy11]

Some of my Kerbs are stuck in a tin-can of a Cupola on Minmus digging graves for their comrades for all eternity in 1.0.5.

[Ty Tan Tu]

I  have an unmanned rover floating in the seas of Laythe. I didn't even know rovers could float until I missed the island.

[ThaZeus]

In total:

1 in orbit around kerbin 

1 rescue mission in orbit around kerbin

3 different munar manned landing attempts crashed on munar surface

2 different munar rescue missions crashed on munar surface

1 munar mission orbiting  kerbol

1 dunatian mission orbiting kerbol

So yeah there's a reason I prefer planes.

 

Edited January 10, 2017 by ThaZeus

[Kerbal Fried Chicken]

What @Sharpy said: Depends on how you define stranded.

I define it as "Unmotivated to mount a rescue"   I mean if I got there once I could get there again with a rescue craft.

I did discover that as I plan carefully (so as not to strand or kill the little green dudes and dudettes) my skills at fixing situations that have gone pear-shaped was sorely lacking. So my most recent start I deliberately "stranded" a 3-member team each on the Mun, Minmus, and Duna.

Thus motivated; i'm working on the design of a series of small craft whose only function is "Oh crap... I forgot what now???" My first craft can get about anywhere in the system and recover one kerbal from space. For landed kerbals it can retrieve one from minmus or the mun. I'll have to make varients for getting back off the surface of other bodies.

Edited January 10, 2017 by Kerbal Fried Chicken
spelling

[MitchS]

Well... My two "stranded" Kerbals are just waiting for me to send a mining apparatus to the asteroid they used all their fuel parking into a stable orbit. In my space program, we don't use words like "stranded"--instead, we say "pre-placed."