Rescue mission on playstation

[MZ_per_X1]

Hi 

I am playing career mode on playstation and I have a rescue mission contract. I know it's not supposed to be easy but I am ready to throw the controller at the wall. 

Scenario: rescue kerbal orbiting the mun (reverse and inclined orbit). Main ship has a 2 star pilot (retro/prograde, anti/normal, radial in/out). 

 

Most videos and posts refer to pc version of the game and not the playstation one. So community to the rescue please!

 

This is as far as I got: successful rendezvous, matching orbits, markers show 1.9km closest intercept. Once I get close to the intercept, I bring the speed to close to 0m/s in target mode, burn towards target and then make sure the speed is below 10 m/s.

I switch to the shipwreck and watch as the main ship gets closer. I have no idea how close it is going to be after the previous maneuvers so at around 500m I EVA the stranded kerbal, activate the jetpack and try to close in... 

... except I don't seem to be knowing what the heck is happening. I don't see how I am moving compared to the main ship. Left, right, up, down. I see the rescue get close (2-300m) then the rescue ship just flies away. Possibly because I just messed things up with the jetpack maneuvers? Didn't make the kerbal face the main ship? Should have watched the navball? Should have set the main ship as target? 

So I have no idea how to get the kerbal jetpack to the rescue ship. Please help. 

[VoidSquid]

I suggest bring your rescue ship within a couple of hundred meters to the pod with Kerbal to rescue, then bring your relative velocity to zero. Switch to the other pod, EVA, enable RCS, set the rescue ship as target, this will switch the navball to target mode and display the target icon. Slowly fly there, board, viola  

Edited October 27, 2019 by VoidSquid

[Vanamonde]

Flying a kerbal is rather difficult. Maybe make a test save, send somebody up, and just practice flying him around his own ship. 

[VoidSquid]

7 minutes ago, Vanamonde said:

Flying a kerbal is rather difficult

A bit like riding a bicycle, I'd say: difficult at first, but once you get the hang of it, fun and easy  

So yes, make a save game, do some EVA, and practice. And one true advantage over learning how to ride a bicycle: you can't fall down in microgravity  

Edited October 27, 2019 by VoidSquid

[Zhetaan]

12 hours ago, MZ_per_X1 said:

Hi

Hello!  Welcome to the happy little group.

12 hours ago, MZ_per_X1 said:

This is as far as I got: successful rendezvous, matching orbits, markers show 1.9km closest intercept.

1.9 km isn't the absolute best closest approach for the final rendezvous.  This all depends on context, too; rendezvous with a vessel in orbit about another planet requires you to take the intercept you can get with the intent of fine-tuning it later.  For orbit of the Mun, it's possible to do much better.  If your vessel has RCS, then you can use that to fine-tune your approach.  If not, then you can work with it; just know that it leaves you a bit far away from your target when you do reach rendezvous.  I typically try for less than a kilometre--hopefully about 500 metres--for my rendezvous close encounters.

12 hours ago, MZ_per_X1 said:

I switch to the shipwreck and watch as the main ship gets closer. I have no idea how close it is going to be after the previous maneuvers

That would be the essence of your problem.  Everything prior to this is correct--though I would say that 10 m/s is a little slow for covering 1900 metres.  It's your three minutes, though, so if that's what's comfortable, then do it.  I suggest that it would be better to begin your approach, turn your vessel retrograde, and then simply wait until you are within thirty to fifty metres of the target.  Bring your velocity to zero relative again using the navball's target mode and then you don't have to worry about how close it's going to be.  Once you've matched orbits, your relative positions will change extremely slowly.  At thirty to fifty metres away, you won't need to look for the rescue vessel, either.  You may wish to include lights in case of night rendezvous, though.

13 hours ago, MZ_per_X1 said:

... except I don't seem to be knowing what the heck is happening. I don't see how I am moving compared to the main ship. Left, right, up, down. I see the rescue get close (2-300m) then the rescue ship just flies away. Possibly because I just messed things up with the jetpack maneuvers? Didn't make the kerbal face the main ship? Should have watched the navball? Should have set the main ship as target?

The rescue ship flies away because you left it with 10 m/s of relative velocity and couldn't get to it with your jetpack Kerbal in time.  Remember to bring your rescue ship to zero relative; otherwise, that will happen every time.  As for the rest of how to control the jetpack, @VoidSquid has the right of it.  For your information, though, when you send a Kerbal on EVA, that Kerbal begins with the same orbit and motion as the vessel he or she just exited.  The trick to rescue rendezvous (and crew transfer) is to ensure that the rescue vessel is moving at that same velocity, too.  Then it's rather straightforward to fly over.

Good luck, and do please let us know whether you need any additional help.

[VoidSquid]

If you can get within a few km of your target, you can get closer iteratively:

Point your vessel to your target, accelerate to say 10 m/s relative velocity. Point your vessel anti-target. At the closest point (i.e. when the distance is increasing again), carefully break to zero relative velocity. Rinse and repeat.

Within a very few iterations, you'll get very close to your target.  

Edited October 28, 2019 by VoidSquid

[MZ_per_X1]

Thanks guys. 

Putting all the wisdom together, I kinda know the issue now. 

The tutorials (in game, YouTube etc) are not explicit about the two stages of the process. I thought braking when the orange markers show close encounter brings the ships together. So then the only thing that happens is that you are traveling at the same speed. Then you should do fine tuning which is the part I need to master because I can't visualize what is happening and the navball is the only thing to rely on. (For me, the orange encounter marker part is easy because I can see what I am doing and the effect it has on my ships.) 

To fine tune, burn towards target bring prograde marker on to target marker. Ensure that you didn't gain speed. Retrograde marker onto anti target to slow down and get speed under 10 m/s (or to 0?) And how do I know when it's enough? 

I kinda understand it now (not necessarily the difference between target and prograde markers and what it means to burn away from them to have them actually line up) and will try to fiddle with it more.

 

Here's a video that was talking about similar things to what you were all saying :

 

 

 

[Linkageless]

I'll point out that it is feasible to EVA across to a rescue ship at 10m/s or higher. If you do attempt this, I've found targeting the rescue ship a big advantage, especially in a low orbit situation where angles will change rapidly.

Timing is everything in such a scenario, as your stranded kerbal can only coax so much acceleration from their little jet pack.  Quicksaves are your friend here!

[MZ_per_X1]

So I managed to get the rescue ship and the stranded kerbal to 8 meters and came to a stop. I went on EVA with the stranded kerbal and turned on the rcs. The kerbal was always going in other directions than the target rescue ship. I hate the EVA controls...

I can't figure out left /right, forward /backward motions. Only L2 /R2 for up and down. Any other button doesn't seem to start the jetpack.

And also I don't get the camera thing. Am I always traveling the direction the kerbal is looking? 

[Linkageless]

3 hours ago, MZ_per_X1 said:

I can't figure out left /right, forward /backward motions. Only L2 /R2 for up and down. Any other button doesn't seem to start the jetpack.

And also I don't get the camera thing. Am I always traveling the direction the kerbal is looking? 

I'm glad you achieved a rendezvous, that's essentially the hardest part done.

I can't speak for console but on Linux/windoze the default is to have forward thrust away from you no matter which way the camera is pointed, but only on the orbital plane, as displayed on the navball, as I recall. Up and down are effectively normal and antinormal.

I must say it is a little confusing compared to vessel manoeuvring, but I expect they wanted to somehow highlight the difference of context with a jetpack with this weirdness. I recall seeing an option to change this in the controls setup but haven't tried as I was already used to it.

If you are able, from the EVA kerbal, set the rescue ship as target, and use the 'target' speed display (rather than orbit speed). Point yourself at the rescue ship and thrust only a little. Try to trim your prograde indicator with left/right up/down so you're heading directly for it, and trim off any excess speed with a bit of reverse thrust. Less than 1m/s is probably adequate.

When you're a couple of meters away, try to bring yourself gently to a stop, then point at the appropriate ladder/hatch and thrust forward very slightly, with any up/down that might be needed. Be ready to grab, then board.

An advantage of external command chairs is you can board them from a little distance, while you have to be pretty much touching a pod hatch before you can board.

As for which controls for forward/back and sideways, I can't help you other than suggest looking for the controller setup in the main (initial startup) setup menu.

[MZ_per_X1]

And Sidkin has successfully joined my team of pilots. 

I took it very slowly during the approach so that I can make small adjustments as markers float apart on the navball. I went at 10 cm/s and the two ships were a mere 2 meters apart. I was afraid that when I do EVA the spinning shipwreck would bump into the rescue ship. 

The left joystick only needs small nudges during EVA. I basically touched the rescue ship with my helmet and hovered around the ship to find the hatch. As soon as the 'grab' option popped up I pressed so quick like never before. However the game wouldn't let me board. I thought I had deliberately left an empty seat in the mk1-3 pod so tried to transfer them to the crew cabin (pesky tourists wanting to go to the Mün all the time and maybe they wanted the seats in the pod after all). Crew cabin was full. I was starting to think the flight had been overbooked and was wondering which tourist to ditch to rescue the kerbal. (Don't worry, I saved everyone.) I was hoping that in the meantime I don't lose the kerbal stuck to the outside of the pod, banging on the door. Luckily I realised that poor Sidkin was not exactly at the hatch so I gently moved him up a bit and then I could board. 

Lessons to learn:

If the rescue vessel is in line with you and meters away, don't try to break. It's going to send the stranded ship away from you. You need small rcs puffs instead. 

Also at the end of the mission remember to switch to orbit mode else you won't be able to get back. Thank god for quicksaves! 

And thank you guys. 

 

[VoidSquid]

Those are good news, glad to hear, @MZ_per_X1  

[AHHans]

On 10/29/2019 at 10:30 PM, MZ_per_X1 said:

Also at the end of the mission remember to switch to orbit mode else you won't be able to get back. Thank god for quicksaves!

LOL!

Yes, been there...
(Although I don't think I ever killed a Kerbal because of that specific issue. But plenty of "OMG where the *bleep* am I going?" moments.)

[MZ_per_X1]

Hi everyone again. The saga continues. I have another rescue mission to do. This time it's in LKO. I have successfully matched orbits, inclination but I can't come to a full stop. When at the close encounter, I switch to target mode and turn retrograde. The speed difference is small, around 10 m/s. I start killing off the speed, the numbers are going down. When the numbers get to about 0.4m/s the markers jump around on the navball and the speed is increasing again. I also noticed that I could not lock the ship to either prograde or retrograde and the markers float around the navball. I need to nudge the navball to get those options back. 

I had many tries and once I got to 0m/s. A second later the speed between the two vessels increased. 

Why would a ship not come to a stop? And why is my navball acting weird?

 

It's so much easier when not in LKO. 

[AHHans]

There are two effects: one is that at small relative velocities even a small change in absolute velocity can result in a large change in the direction that the velocity points to. This is the reason why SAS will not to prograde-/retrograde-hold anymore if you get below 1 m/s. If it would try to do so and you keep pushing with your engines, then it would start wildly throwing the craft around every which way. The other one if that in LKO the orbit is quite curved and if you are not already at zero-zero with the target (i.e. directly next to it with 0 m/s relative speed), then your orbits curve differently and you'll start drifting away over time.

The practical solution is to either use very small thrust (e.g. - but not limited to - RCS), or to just not bother. For your average rescue mission in which you EVA the rescuee  over to you craft anyhow you don't need to get to a zero-zero intercept. Being 50 m away with 1 m/s relative velocity is already pretty good and allows you several minutes to gather the the rescuee. For my rescue missions I don't bother getting that close. My limits are: closer than 1 km and less than 100 m/s, but that requires quick reactions to get the rescuee out of their capsule and pointed towards the rescue craft. So I usually get onto a trajectory that brings me closer than 100 m, slow down to 10 - 20 m/s or so, and get the rescuee out of their capsule when I'm 1 km or so away.

You do need the zero-zero intercept for docking, but that is another kettle of fish.

[MZ_per_X1]

Thanks AHHans.

I tries lowering the thrust of the engine so that I can fine tune the process. It didn't help. Most likely there is a difference in the orbits. When I did it during rescue mission around Minmus or the Mun, I could come to a stop relative to the target and burning towards target and then slowing down from there and edging towards the target was easier. It always aligned orbits in the end. But such maneuvers don do that around Kerbin. 

I could edge as close as 100 m from the target by losts of small correction burns. Burning towards and away from target to make sure that the distance is less and less. After 2 hours of trying, I did a save here and will come back to the actual rescue later. 

[AHHans]

Sounds to me like you are having trouble with the "differently curved" issue in LKO. But without knowing where exactly your problems are it is quite hard to give you more specific help.

Two more things that might help you: when considering the speed (and thus the amount of thrust I use) with which I move around a target, then I think mostly in terms of "time to target" (and how long I need to slow down with my TWR while I'm still far and fast). E.g. when I'm 1 km away then at 100 m/s it will take me 10 s to get there, at 100 m I need to slow down to 10 m/s so that it will take me 10 s.

The other is the "Fine tuning the rendezvous" section in @Snark's: Illustrated guide to docking

 

 

Edited November 13, 2019 by AHHans
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