Do you have any abandoned vehicles?

[nascarlaser1]

Hi guys!

My question is, do you have any abandoned vehicles Kerbal Space Program? If you do, tell us what they are, where they are, and what happened that caused them to be abandoned. They can be manned or unmanned as well. Pictures are preferred , but are not needed by any means, and posts without pictures will not be frowned at.

I currently have a small manned mun orbiter that I miss judged just how much fuel would be needed to get it back, currently stuck in low Munar orbit. I don't think Bob Kerman is coming home any time soon, at least not till I get my docking skills better :P.

Edited August 23, 2016 by nascarlaser1

[septemberWaves]

Various spent descent modules of landers will forever remain at the locations where they landed. Most of them are early-game because I prefer to make reusable SSTO landers when I can, but sometimes I still go for the descent/ascent module method in the late game for purposes of aesthetics (or for Tylo and some modded worlds, where making a nice-looking single stage lander is challenging without a refuelling base on the surface and in orbit).

Also I'd like to add that most of these descent modules aren't simply debris, because I often keep a probe core, antenna, and minimalistic power generation on them to fulfil "science data from the surface of ____" contracts for free.

Edited August 22, 2016 by eloquentJane

[Curveball Anders]

I don't leave any Kerbals behind (at least not for very long, like more than a year or five) while landed vehicles are left where they are (as largish flags). 

Unmanned debris in space is de-orbited if possible (and fun enough) or deleted.

[Ultimate Steve]

I've got a useless station in career mode somewhere that I abandoned for lack of available crew. In that same save I've got an asteroid station with a huge crew transfer ship attached to it. It's currently abandoned, I got disinterested in that save before I could use it more than once.

I've also got my Jool 5 Mothership orbiting Vall. The crew left for Kerbin in the more efficient Jool tug. Which ran out of fuel anyway.

So now I have an abandoned Vall Space Station. In a retrograde orbit. Super Useful.

[nascarlaser1]

4 minutes ago, Ultimate Steve said:

I've got a useless station in career mode somewhere that I abandoned for lack of available crew. In that same save I've got an asteroid station with a huge crew transfer ship attached to it. It's currently abandoned, I got disinterested in that save before I could use it more than once.

I've also got my Jool 5 Mothership orbiting Vall. The crew left for Kerbin in the more efficient Jool tug. Which ran out of fuel anyway.

So now I have an abandoned Vall Space Station. In a retrograde orbit. Super Useful.

Excuse my noobish question, but what does Jool 5 stand for?

[Ultimate Steve]

Just now, nascarlaser1 said:

but what does Jool 5 stand for?

A Jool 5 mission is a mission in which you attempt to visit all 5 moons of Jool. The term was first coined when somebody made the Ultimate Jool Five Challenge. I did not complete the challenge at all. If I recall correctly, all of the ships need to be attached to one ship. I used a flotilla. And my Vall lander was out of fuel, so no Vall landing. It is currently docked with the Vall abandoned mothership Space Station.

[magnemoe]

None crewed ones plenty of satellites many who are useless other has uses, one use is simply to get transfer windows from. 
Have more stuff on long term standby, two Eve landers, my Eve exploration program sent four landers, I estimated three for exploring and one backup / rescue, because the 50 km rover trip I managed with two, the other is to rescue stranded kerbals for contracts. 
Another way is to add old stuff to the expanded base I did this on Mun and Minmus.

[nascarlaser1]

Just now, Ultimate Steve said:

A Jool 5 mission is a mission in which you attempt to visit all 5 moons of Jool. The term was first coined when somebody made the Ultimate Jool Five Challenge. I did not complete the challenge at all. If I recall correctly, all of the ships need to be attached to one ship. I used a flotilla. And my Vall lander was out of fuel, so no Vall landing. It is currently docked with the Vall abandoned mothership Space Station.

ok thanks

[Corona688]

I've got a satellite which didn't have the right parts.  I'm sure we've all had a few of those.

I have a space grabber thingy which turned out to not have enough delta v to be useful in orbit.  I might turn it into a station transfer device if I can find the right orbit.

I've got a fuel tank which got away from Station C when I was doing adjustments.  Nearly full, too   Someday, somehow, I'll steal the fuel and deorbit that sucker.

I've got a mun lander which turned out to not have nearly enough delta-V, and now loiters at the bottom of station C.  I don't quite have the heart to de-orbit it.

I've got another space grabber which didn't quite have enough delta v to make it home from minmus.  The orbit to meet and get the part from it was probably my most difficult intercept.

I've got a wheel-less mun rover which can roll itself along end-over-end when it's sunny.

I've got a minmus descent vehicle which was just good enough to land its rover and now just loiters, 99% empty and probeless.

I've got a duna satellite which missed the intercept and became a solar satellite.

I've got a mini-miner enroute to an asteroid which, now that I know more about miners, *probably* isn't going to work terribly well.

Come to think of it, I'm accumulating a fair amount of orbiting junk now, most of it in Kerbin orbit naturally.  Now that my rescue missions are with-it enough to grab a pod, de-orbit it, push back up, grab something else, and pull it down again I might start cleaning up my mess.  The stuff in solar orbit can stay.

Edited August 22, 2016 by Corona688

[eddiew]

Maybe... I have a probe with an AP near Duna and PE near Eve. 880m/s remain. It cannot aerobrake. It's a puzzle to be sure!

[Ultimate Steve]

1 hour ago, eddiew said:

Maybe... I have a probe with an AP near Duna and PE near Eve. 880m/s remain. It cannot aerobrake. It's a puzzle to be sure!

Well, according to some Delta V maps you can theoretically get into a highly elliptical Kerbin Orbit with as little as 110m/s of Dv. Getting the encounter would be the difficult part.

[W. Kerman]

Almost every craft that goes into kerbol's SOI is not coming back for me.

[eddiew]

10 hours ago, Ultimate Steve said:

Well, according to some Delta V maps you can theoretically get into a highly elliptical Kerbin Orbit with as little as 110m/s of Dv. Getting the encounter would be the difficult part.

Unfortunately I had to give up on it. I've gravity-assisted myself to the inside of Eve and the outside of Duna, which means that I'm never skimming Kerbin's atmo at less than 4800m/s, meaning I have to shed 1500 for capture   After 6 hours of trying to find a better assist, and re-planning the route from the beginning, I threw in the towel, turned off aero heating and dumped the excess speed the old fashioned way. Now the probe is in a wide, retrograde Kerbin orbit, with no fuel. Which seems like a suitable punishment for my stupidity.

In future, I know that 3km/s is the bare minimum for returning from Jool.

[KerikBalm]

My Moho lander and Moho station (ie, a lab, maybe a hitchhiker, an almost completely emtpy set of fuel tanks, and some radiators and solar panels) - functional but I don't forsee sending a mission to moho anytime soon... maybe I'll give it another go to train kerbals to lvl 4 before sending them deep into space (Jool and beyond with OPM)... still no plans for now, abandoned

Eve ascent vehicle upper stage: didn't dock, kerbals EVA'd to the return vehicle. Also, debris on the surface, obviously (much of it actually fell through the surface and disappeared, but landing legs, chutes, science experiments, etc remain as litter marking the landing site.

Eve Rover: it crossed a biome boundary and the next boundary is too far away... its mission is ended...

Gilly station/ISRU... will be abandoned after the next transfer window... like moho, I'm not plannin any trips to the inner solar system again anytime soon

Mun: the early carreer station I constructed... its potentially useable as I refuel at Mun often... but not really, my ISRU craft has more fuel capacity than it, and launches on demand. Also an early small ISRU just sits there (no radiators) I have very rarely used it to make a temporary fuel source in a poalr orbit

Minmus: abandoned orbital station similar to the one on Mun, abandoned surface base and lander

Duna/Ike: abandoned surface base as soon as the next transfer window opens... the duna stuff will be briefly used by 4 tourists for a contract I wish I hadn't accepted after all

Dres: abandoned lander

Almost all bodies i've been to: abandoned probe in polar orbit

 

[Mastikator]

Yes, I am playing with Kerbalism on so old probes and satellites will eventually break apart. Once that happens I just reclassify them as debris. The odds of a collision with debris is astronomically low anyway.

[Leafbaron]

Thanks to KAS and KIS I don't leave any debris in orbit if I can help it. The KAS and KIS allows the use of programable c4 charges, I just EVA and attach one retreat to a safe distance and watch the pyrotechnics.

[Randazzo]

In my present save I have two unmanned science probes landed on the Mun, which a manned craft landed next to in order to retrieve the science. It was early in career mode and it was easier to just send a probe than to lug it all there on the lander.

I also have an unmanned rover on Duna that's just sitting there because it's sort of pointless to drive it around.

I don't abandon Kerbals.

[Andem]

A Duna circumnavigation rover, named Inquisitive, got a third of the way around the planet before, unfortunately, being struck down by Dangit. First, the SAS failed. Next, the main battery. After that, the backup battery shorted and the rover died. NEVER FORGET!!!

[Brainlord Mesomorph]

I have abandoned games, (my 0.25 game with a fleet of 12 ships arriving at Jool, I gave up when 1.05 was out)

In my current game? no, a couple of kerbals I haven't rescued, yet. but they are not abandoned!

[Terwin]

I suppose it depends on what you consider abandoned.

I have Scansats around Kerbin, Mun, and Minmus that have finished their planned mapping duties and are sitting in orbit waiting for 'gather science in space over' contracts(thermometer and Gravioli detector on each of them just for this purpose).

Similar satellites are currently around Moho, Gilly and heading to Duna(~ 10 days?), Jool(~200 days away), and Dres(~ 4 min from ejection burn)

(Eeloo scan-sat launch to commence after the Dres ejection)

 

In previous games I have more neglected abandonments:

Jeb along with 2 tourists in an orbital tourist ship that does not have enough fuel to avoid burning up during reentry, waiting on the development of the Klaw for a rescue(In a Caveman game which I will probably not return to now that it is complete)

An extensive scattering of 'Mun Bomb' probes landed on various mun biomes in a few Caveman games.

An eve probe with an electrically powered propeller for propulsion and several science instruments landed on Eve in a 0.90 game(abandoned after visiting several biomes)

'Automated fuel stations' on Ike, Gilly, Minmus, Moho and occasionally other bodies in various 1.0 games (the 'automated delivery' component was Deprecated before 1.1)

In previous games I have also abandoned a variety of surface probes(generally consisting of a service bay, solar panels, probe core, reaction wheel, antenna, and one or more science experiments, ejected from a manned lander for future 'science landed on' missions)

 

I don't consider spent stages to be abandoned, more fully utilized and discarded (unless they still have fuel for some reason).

 

[nascarlaser1]

6 minutes ago, Terwin said:

I suppose it depends on what you consider abandoned.

In previous games I have more neglected abandonments:

Jeb along with 2 tourists in an orbital tourist ship that does not have enough fuel to avoid burning up during reentry, waiting on the development of the Klaw for a rescue(In a Caveman game which I will probably not return to now that it is complete)

An extensive scattering of 'Mun Bomb' probes landed on various mun biomes in a few Caveman games.

An eve probe with an electrically powered propeller for propulsion and several science instruments landed on Eve in a 0.90 game(abandoned after visiting several biomes)

 

 

I considered abandoned to be things that have been forgotten about, like the things I made bold above or that cannot function any more, but you just left there.

Edited August 23, 2016 by nascarlaser1

[coredumpster]

None that are really abandoned, per-se.  I do go back from time to time to check on them.  Mostly they are one-way probes/landers to Eve and Duna ( plus Ike and Gilly ) at the earliest tech I could manage in a career save.  Though I don't visit my Eve lander because I'm liquided at it.  All of that effort ( and time in game! ) to get there, landed safely, collected a bunch of surface science, and then "Cannot transmit, no antenna".  Argh.

I have a couple rovers on Mun and Minmus that were part of a two craft lander pair.  Rover docked underneath the lander, released at a hover from about 10m, then the lander touches down nearby.  Rover has a probe-core, so once the kerbals have returned home, it becomes a probe and is still usable.  I've had fun seeing how fast I can drive them sometimes since I don't have to worry about losing any kerbals.  In theory, they were meant to be retrievable but landing the sky-crane lander back on the docking port was too much trouble so I just left them.

[Overland]

On a flash drive sits 4016.. Seen here in happier times

Wounded from an encounter with the rough sea of green and black at night

She remains short hood forward with trailing tanker cars supporting the long hood.. Driven on her last ounce of strenth and capability to bombo outpost

It was the last of my elcano challenge

She remains timeless on that flash drive because modern wheel physics cant handle 1.5 tonne locomotive wheels that served all the KTP so well..

Indeed they detonate on loading with so much force they hit escape velocity

 

I cant bring myself to simply delete her..

One day ill make new wheels and tow her back home..she deserves better

Edited August 23, 2016 by Overland

[nascarlaser1]

1 hour ago, Overland said:

On a flash drive sits 4016.. Seen here in happier times

-snip-

Wounded from an encounter with the rough sea of green and black at night

She remains short hood forward with trailing tanker cars supporting the long hood.. Driven on her last ounce of strenth and capability to bombo outpost

It was the last of my elcano challenge

-snip-

She remains timeless on that flash drive because modern wheel physics cant handle 1.5 tonne locomotive wheels that served all the KTP so well..

Indeed they detonate on loading with so much force they hit escape velocity

 

I cant bring myself to simply delete her..

One day ill make new wheels and tow her back home..she deserves better

would 1 of the stock wheels fit your needs? So long as you don't use 1.1.3 the stock wheels work great. I've got a giant science rover WIP. Will have a mk2 cockpit, science lab, cargo bay, and all other science equipment, including the 2 mining sensors. Its powered by RTG and the giant stock rover wheels.

Edited August 23, 2016 by nascarlaser1

[Sharpy]

"StupidStation" - a really dumb (but very well-paid) contract for a station in sun orbit. Something along the lines '19 kerbals, lab, cupola, three times more electricity than you'll ever need'. So I ejected it out of the system, didn't even enter any orbit, just burned straight up until I ran out of fuel.

Duna lander. Left in Duna orbit. The return was traumatic enough - broke undercarriage on landing, so to be able to lift the nose, and start vertically, all RCS was moved to the nose cone and everything I could do without detached. Including solar panels. The desolate wreck was left in orbit, and the crew migrated to the orbital lab. Jeb rides back to Kerbin in a command seat left after an Ike lander.

First unkerbed probes to Mun and Minmus. Later I landed some better science collectors which I use for the contracts.

BigMiner, a huge rig that looks awesome, but is too heavy to be practical. Maybe some day. Currently it's parked in LKO and doesn't go anywhere anytime soon.

At times, I leave boosters that achieved something "special", e.g. one Flea with Stayputnik that crosses Eve orbit...

Other than that, I have infrastructure, which is not abandoned, but "on standby". SavingKlaws (probes that land stranded kerbals, launched to orbit in bulk - two hubs, one with short-range for LKO, and one with long-range, for Mun and Minmus. A dropship carrier. Any kerbal that needs to return home can take a capsule and fly it back down. Sixteen capsules, currently fourteen remaining, but once Duna returns, that will change. Stuff like that.