What do you do when your manned missions run out of fuel?

[έķ νίĻĻάίή]

Yes, I know you can turn on infinite fuel, but that kinda spoils the point of the game.

I usually send a rescue mission when I run out of fuel when landing, but I also always keep a ladder kraken drive under the capsule in the event that I’m stuck in space. It feels more legal then infinite fuel ok? 
So, what do you do?

[KerikBalm]

Send more fuel?

[Superfluous J]

I tend these days to know pretty far ahead of time if I don't have enough fuel to complete the mission, so if so I curtail the mission or cancel it entirely and get them home.

Or, I land where I can and consider it a colony ;D

[έķ νίĻĻάίή]

1 hour ago, 5thHorseman said:

I tend these days to know pretty far ahead of time if I don't have enough fuel to complete the mission, so if so I curtail the mission or cancel it entirely and get them home.

Or, I land where I can and consider it a colony ;D

"That's meant to be a colony? But it's just a command pod!"

"Well yes, but actually, no."

[AHHans]

1 hour ago, 5thHorseman said:

I tend these days to know pretty far ahead of time if I don't have enough fuel to complete the mission, so if so I curtail the mission or cancel it entirely and get them home.

That one.

When setting up a maneuver node I can see if I have enough fuel to go where I want to go. If it is unclear, then I can set up the full chain of maneuver nodes and sum up the needed dV to see if I have enough fuel. If I'm not sure that I'll get there, then I remove the nodes and think what I'm doing instead.

And if all else fails, then I send a rescue mission. (Last time that happened was when I saw that 15 km/s were not enough to rescue someone from low sun orbit...)

[έķ νίĻĻάίή]

Well, I have had several occasions when I find out that I totally don’t have the amount of delta v I need to gat to a place so I just screw that plan, leave jeb in space for another several years and go somewhere else.

Edited November 24, 2019 by έķ νίĻĻάίή

[Curveball Anders]

I like the EVE Transfer mod.

Allows me to add a fuel hose to any craft which the can refuel any other craft on the ground or in flight.
(The latter is a bit hair raising...)

 

[coyotesfrontier]

I treat getting out and pushing as cheating, since it gives you essentially infinite dV (though I'm fine with other people doing it). What I usually do is revert to a quicksave where I have a little bit of fuel left, and use KIS or USI to detach/destroy parts not absolutely neccisary. This greatly increases my dV, and has saved me on several occasions. If that fails, I'll send a rescue mission (no Kerbals left behind!).

[Nezclaw]

i send a rescue mission armed with drills, a converter, and Bill.

[KerbolExplorer]

Press a red button in the tracking station and act like nothing happened

[Mr. Peabody]

17 hours ago, έķ νίĻĻάίή said:

What do you do when your manned mission runs out of fuel?

Get out and push.

[έķ νίĻĻάίή]

1 hour ago, Mr. Peabody said:

Get out and push.

Yas, good ol jeb and his jet pack 

1 hour ago, KerbolExplorer said:

Press a red button in the tracking station and act like nothing happened

TRAITOR!

5 hours ago, coyotesfrontier said:

I treat getting out and pushing as cheating, since it gives you essentially infinite dV (though I'm fine with other people doing it). What I usually do is revert to a quicksave where I have a little bit of fuel left, and use KIS or USI to detach/destroy parts not absolutely neccisary. This greatly increases my dV, and has saved me on several occasions. If that fails, I'll send a rescue mission (no Kerbals left behind!).

So you’ll even detach the science? *fast breathing*

[Gargamel]

I can't recall the last time I ran out of fuel in a critical spot.    If I am low on Dv, Instead of burning it trying to accomplish the mission, I'll use it to put the vessel in a spot where it can be easily rescued or resupplied.    But usually I'll have the infrastructure setup so that most vessels will have backup options at hand relatively quickly, as I run LS and and in these situations, fuel isn't the issue, but food is. 

[septemberWaves]

I send probes first so that I never have to answer this question.

[Superfluous J]

7 hours ago, έķ νίĻĻάίή said:

So you’ll even detach the science? *fast breathing*

Science is weightless. So long as it's in the pod, why not ditch the instruments?

[έķ νίĻĻάίή]

2 hours ago, 5thHorseman said:

Science is weightless. So long as it's in the pod, why not ditch the instruments?

But how do you ditch the instruments? Installing a decoupler under the instruments only adds weight, unless you use waccakerbal, which is illegal

[Chryssalid 8492]

If not much delta V is required I'll get out and push. Though I do have a personal rule of each kerbal can only get out and push once. So if it takes more ∆v than that its rescue time.

[micha]

1 hour ago, έķ νίĻĻάίή said:

But how do you ditch the instruments? Installing a decoupler under the instruments only adds weight, unless you use waccakerbal, which is illegal

KIS allows an Engineer to detach (and reattach) pieces.  It's a most brilliant mod.
 

[έķ νίĻĻάίή]

Ohh

[Superfluous J]

2 hours ago, έķ νίĻĻάίή said:

But how do you ditch the instruments? Installing a decoupler under the instruments only adds weight, unless you use waccakerbal, which is illegal

Not sure why that'd be "illegal" but barring that, you replied to a post about using KIS to detach and throw away the parts.

And unless you have NO decouplers on your ship at all, you can put the science on a stage you're throwing away anyway, unless you come home with everything you took to wherever you were going in which case, no wonder you're running out of fuel

[RizzoTheRat]

11 hours ago, Gargamel said:

I can't recall the last time I ran out of fuel in a critical spot.    If I am low on Dv, Instead of burning it trying to accomplish the mission, I'll use it to put the vessel in a spot where it can be easily rescued or resupplied.    But usually I'll have the infrastructure setup so that most vessels will have backup options at hand relatively quickly, as I run LS and and in these situations, fuel isn't the issue, but food is. 

That's my approach too. I usually have some kind of orbital fuel dump in place either as part of the mission or left over from a previous one, although I do get the occasional issue where I realise I only have the medium clampotrons on the initial mission, but have since upgraded my ships to use the large ones so can't dock and I haven't got any KAS ports on board. 

I also revert and reload from saves A LOT as I'm using KOS so will often run a particular segment of a mission several times while I refine the code, and then go back and run the whole thing, by which time I've usually worked out if I haven't got enough fuel, forgot the antenna, etc. My crewed ships always have probe cores too as with USI-LS  the crew can become uncooperative if they're stranded somewhere for too long

[έķ νίĻĻάίή]

3 hours ago, 5thHorseman said:

And unless you have NO decouplers on your ship at all, you can put the science on a stage you're throwing away anyway, unless you come home with everything you took to wherever you were going in which case, no wonder you're running out of fuel

What I tend to like to do, is put the science on the return stage, as i’m in early science mode, meaning that I’ll use any opportunity possible to get moar science, by gravity assists and etc.

1 hour ago, RizzoTheRat said:

That's my approach too. I usually have some kind of orbital fuel dump in place either as part of the mission or left over from a previous one, although I do get the occasional issue where I realise I only have the medium clampotrons on the initial mission, but have since upgraded my ships to use the large ones so can't dock and I haven't got any KAS ports on board

This make me sound like a noob, as I suck at revendousing, let alone dock with space junk

Also, *cough cough* has thoust forgotten the almighty klaw?

[RizzoTheRat]

2 minutes ago, έķ νίĻĻάίή said:

This make me sound like a noob, as I suck at revendousing, let alone dock with space junk

It's one of those things we all suck at to begin with but once you get the hang of it it's as easy as falling off a bicycle

 

[έķ νίĻĻάίή]

Just now, RizzoTheRat said:

It's one of those things we all suck at to begin with but once you get the hang of it it's as easy as falling off a bicycle

 

Well there was like 20 attempts revendousing with the KSS, one which almost succeeded but ended up with the capsule slamming through the solar panels

 

2 minutes ago, RizzoTheRat said:

it's as easy as falling off a bicycle

 That sounds horrifyingly painful 

[Foxster]

I leave the ugly green gnomes to their fate. They knew what they were getting into when they took the job. 

I don't even delete the craft in the tracking station. If they wanted to get home they should have got gud at driving spaceships.