How To Do A Mun Rescue?

[littlebeagle]

Got a few kerbals stuck on the moon, including Jeb . I want to send up a rescue craft, how do I do it with stock parts as there are no spare spaces in my crew module?

[Rich]

Welcome to the forums!

Build a ship with the 3 man pod, then EVA two of your Kerbals onto the pad before you launch. This way you take-off with 2 spare seats.

[littlebeagle]

Cool thank you, one more question when I EVA a Kerbal how do I then retake control of the space craft? I haven't worked that out yet.

[Rich]

You can switch between nearby vessels and Kerbals using the "[" and "]" keys

Good luck with the rescue mission!

[littlebeagle]

Cheers, thank you for your help I'll post a screenshot of the succesful/disasterous rescue mission when I get chance to do it.

[Enture]

I know you asked how to do a stock-only rescue mission, but I couldn't stress enough the awesomeness of the Crew Tank mod: basically, it's a 400L fuel tank with enough room for 5 Kerbals to take place in! Give it a shot, installing it literally takes 2 clicks.

[rflrob]

It's risky, and I've only almost done it once, but you can have Kerbals hanging onto the ladders and try getting them back that way. I managed to take off with one kerbal hanging on (one fell off... sorry, Richfrey!), make it back to Kerbin through a series of "Release from ladder, time warp until they drift almost too far away, return to ship and refuel jetpacks", and reenter the atmosphere. The atmospheric flight was the hardest part, but at one point, he fell down onto an exterior fuel tank and was held in place through acceleration. If deploying the parachutes hadn't torn the ship apart (it was an experimental design), I think he would've made it safely to the ground.

[Enture]

If deploying the parachutes hadn't torn the ship apart, I think he would've made it safely to the ground.

Haha, that last part... sums up most of our KSP adventures quite nicely, doesn't it?

[TheDarkStar]

I've done a few stock rescue missions. The main things are:

1. Get a big lander up there. You need to have enough fuel for orbital corrections, plane change maneuvers, adjusting your landing, and return. Doing it in two or three stages works best for me.

2. Attempt to land near close to the stranded Kerbal (within a few km, you want to avoid long walks whenever possible)

3. Make your lander wide and short if you have to land somewhere with bumpy terrain.

4. QUICKSAVE before any attempts to do things you can't correct, like long jetpack trips. It's very easy to lose Kerbals if you don't.

5. Have ladders that go all the way down on your lander in case your stranded Kerbal runs out of jetpack fuel.

Also, don't forget to EVA some Kerbals before launch to have room for a rescue. I usually forget and have to EVA them in space on Kerbin-return trajectories, although it kind of defeats the purpose.

[Fendleton]

There was a design on the forums a while back for a stock "escape pod" system that let kerbals parachute down safely. Difficult to use (if they're on-rails, the parachutes won't work and the kerbals will be killed), but in theory you could use those to carry a whole bunch of survivors on the outside of a 3-man lander....I've done plain ladder-rescues, and they're unreliable enough that I switched back to using the 3-man lander and just throwing crew out on the pad (which has it's own glitchy-explosion problems).

[littlebeagle]

I tried last night but crashed into the moon killing 2........ ooops. Think I might need some rcs thrusters to make sideways movement towards the stranded Kerbals a bit easier.

[Headache]

Sorry for bumping an old thread but since it came up at the top in a google search, figured I'd just add on.

I had the unfortunate bad luck of getting one of my Kerbals stranded by his jet pack fuel running out during an EVA. Since failure was not an option, I came up with a successful plan to return him home.

It took a few iterations of the rescue ship and the stranded Kerbal letting go of the ladder during a trans-lunar burn sending him into an HKO (High Kerbin Orbit) of about 1.5 million miles away from Kerbin. The design I used was able to retrieve my stranded Kerbal (who could do nothing but grab something he drifted into) and return him safely to Kerbin.

The rescue craft was made using a Mk2 Lander Can with a PPD-10 Hitchhiker storage compartment on top of it separated with a decoupler. I used radial chutes on both the lander can and the compartment staged in such a way that the compartment would pop it's chutes when it was decoupled and the Lander Can would fall out from under it and pop it's chutes when clear. On top of the storage compartment I made a basket that would make it easier to catch a free-floating Kerbal and bristling with ladder bars to grab on to. Once you catch your Kerbal, guide him into the crew compartment and burn for home.

The ship:

I highly recommend equipping lights facing forward of the basket to make your target easier to see. Without the lights, it was near impossible when in darkness.

It's actually a really fun challenge getting a stranded Kerbal back home.

Edited April 26, 2013 by Headache

[joppiesaus]

Oh, I really can't land on my target. Last time I went to my base for deploying my moon bus(yes, a bus for driving!) I needed to drive 23 km to my base.

[capi3101]

Oh, I really can't land on my target. Last time I went to my base for deploying my moon bus(yes, a bus for driving!) I needed to drive 23 km to my base.

At least you had the foresight to put wheels on your lander so you could drive there. Me, I did it the hard way, wound up 20 km away and subsequently stranded yet another Kerbal when I botched the second landing attempt and blew the lander. Ain't worth doing that for another ten kilometers...

Fortunately, the next rescue attempt went more smoothly, got within easy jetpacking range.

[Rosco P. Coltrane]

Old thread, but just of the sake of posterity, here's a video with an idea a liked to rescue people or entire capsules.