Mission complete!

[JP76]

Hi folks, just thought i'd share my experiences from a contract last night.

So i'm a new player, about 30 hrs now in my career mode, and i made a huge noob mistake accepting a contract last night.....or so i thought.

A couple of days ago just for kicks, i put my first unmanned probe in a polar orbit of Kerbin, complete with science jr, transmitters, goo etc. Last night i accepted a contract to shift its orbit inclination slightly, wow cool i thought, I can easily do that, the game generates missions based on my actions! However, it soon dawned on me that this probe had no means of thrust, engine long since decoupled, and no RCS or docking port!!   

I searched the forums, and thanks to all the info here i learned i could use a Claw (grabbing arm). So i researched the part and built an unmanned rocket to intercept the probe to save my ass and contract!  With the help of the amazing Mechjeb 2 i was able to do a rendezvous launch, but i had never used the Claw before, and wasnt even sure if it was possible to adjust an orbit of a attached vehicle. It made sense to me that it should work as long as the attached object has means of thrust, however the contract stated that i must be in control of it also. 

I successfully got within 100m of the probe, where followed a few minutes of correcting my approach speed with short blips of the Terrier engine throttle, a few grab attempts, and then bingo! caught her! I was pleasantly surprised to see that the contract had then changed the name of the mission probe to that of the attached rescue vehicle! 

A short maneuver later and mission success, contract complete! I was so pleased that i managed to improvise a solution, but with huge thanks to all the help and info on here and wonderful mods. Seriously, hats off to you guys that make mods, and in particular MJ 2, without which i would have struggled. 

 

Here is a few screenshots   I use references from my favorite movies to name my vehicles/rockets etc, in this case Jaws! I had already name the polar orbit probe 'Amity 1 P' (1 because its my first probe and P for polar orbit ) and the rescue vehicle i named 'OAAV KINTNER' ( Orbit Adjustment Attachment Vehicle) 

 

 

a shot on the way up to rendezvous.

And mission success!

 

Thanks to all, fly safe o7.

J

Edit: Forgot to mention i detached and left OAAV KiNTNER a few hundred meters behind AMITY 1P just in case anything else needs moving, still has over 50% fuel too! 

 

 

Edited September 8, 2016 by JP76

[Jaeleth]

Nicely done.

Even after 2000hrs game play, or in real space travelling, you'll not stop improvising, that I can assure you ;).

Lesson 1. Always build your vessels (whatever size) with, at least, one available port.

 

[JP76]

Thanks Jaeleth ! Oh i will most certainly be adding DP's etc to everything i launch from now on! Lesson learnt!

J 

[pandaman]

That's the beauty of this game...  

Welcome to the addiction and the forums @JP76

[Snark]

Fun mission report moved to Mission Reports.
 

[Wallygator]

That's pretty cool. Well done!