How do I get my Kerbals back from Duna?

[axes]

Hi guys,

So, I got my Kerbals to Duna, landed on it but since I'm not a huge pro, I used up all my fuel getting there, and now I have no chance of getting back up into orbit around Duna. 

I am entertaining the idea of not giving up on them, and since their lander has a docking port on the top, I was entertaining the idea of picking the craft up with another craft (docking essentially) and pulling them out into orbit. Would this be realistic and doable?

Cheers

[Gargamel]

Docking, while in atmospheric flight, with a stationary vehicle, is not impossible, but very difficult.

I'd design the correct vessel for the mission, with enough fuel to get back, and then land it nearby.  Have the kerbals run over to the new lander, and fly home that way.    You can have a much smaller lander that way, rather than the giant sky crane you'd have to design to return the kerbals and their ship. 

If you do do the mid flight docking/landing and full recovery, post it up on Youtube, that would be a sight to see. 

[Foxster]

+1 for sending an unmanned rescue craft and abandoning the first craft. 

If you didn't manage to get the first craft back then building a craft capable of recovering it is likely beyond you. In fact, it would be pretty tough for experienced players. 

Or just call it Duna Base 1 and leave them to it. 

[Spricigo]

Welcome aboard.

As usual: more info can help us to help. What is your craft? How much fuel you have left? What Technology is available? Any game altering mod? Are you proficient at precision landing? /docking? BTW: images can tell more than a thousands words.

52 minutes ago, Gargamel said:

Docking, while in atmospheric flight, with a stationary vehicle, is not impossible, but very difficult.

I'm under the assumption that OP idea is a bit more prosaic: land, dock, go to orbit.

I'd suggest, land, dock, refuel, undock, go to orbit. Assuming the fully fuelled lander is capable of completing the Mission, no need to carry the deadweight of the rescue craft.In  that case you can also (if playing on computer) take advantage of one of the several mods that can make the whole refuelling process easier.

[Gargamel]

35 minutes ago, Spricigo said:

I'm under the assumption that OP idea is a bit more prosaic: land, dock, go to orbit.

Quite possibly, I was just thinking how I place ports on my landers, and it's usually on the top.  I had the image of a huge craft hovering over top a tiny lander, trying to dock, like a seagull trying to steal the food from your hand. 

[Kryxal]

For that matter, it might be worth landing a rover with a Klaw to just refuel in-place.  It lets you be less precise with your landing.

[Greenfire32]

52 minutes ago, Kryxal said:

For that matter, it might be worth landing a rover with a Klaw to just refuel in-place.  It lets you be less precise with your landing.

Seconded. As long as the original lander can make Dunar orbit, this would be the way to go.

[MaverickSawyer]

That may be the problem, though: If our intrepid explorers designed the craft in such a way that it's incapable of leaving the surface of Duna while fully fueled, or lacks the dV to make it to orbit... Refueling it won't solve the issue.

I'm in the "build a better lander" camp on this one. It's more reliable and will allow you to improve upon the design. Besides, you'll have plenty of time once it gets there to wait for the return transfer window, so send along another ship with a rover and go poke around on Duna and rack up some science while you're waiting for the transfer window to reopen.

[Warzouz]

If you ship can achieve orbit : go there and send a ship to rendez-vous

If it can't achieve orbit : send an empty ship and land near the first one.

If you can't land near, use the low fuelled one to shorten the distance to the rescue ship. Board the new ship and return.

If you can't : let the be. At least you'll be able to quick solve "plant flag on duna" missions

[radonek]

Any attempt at rescue will depend on docking. (Yes, direct-ascent mission from Duna is possible, but needlesly difficult even for experienced players). So my advice would be to learn and practice rendezvous and docking first. Once you can meet and connect ships easily in LKO and around Mun, you can test your rescue methods on Mun surface.  You will learn that your hover-docking idea is extremly difficult to pull off. I wont judge between "refueling" and "rescue lander", but both would benefit from having fuel tanker and commnet constelation in Duna orbit.

Rescue missions are challenging and fun, but without an infrastructure (fuel depot and well tested lander at minimum) it is more then likely that rescuers become stranded themselves.

[Waxing_Kibbous]

Docking to your stranded craft would be fun and really hard- but you'd be doing fist pumps if you pulled it off. I'd send a manned mission to pick them up, I'm not a fan of probe cores except for satellites and station keeping. PS don't forget the engineer to repack the chutes

[ZootinZack]

The safest way to do it would be to land a combined mining station and escape ship nearby. Land, fuel up, ditch the ore miner, get the f* out of dodge.

Pretty expensive though!

And yes docking using RCS on Duna is pretty much a pain. I prefer to use wheeled vehicles.