How to empty out a capsule?

[Commander Zoom]

My current interplanetary mission plan involves sending the crew up on one rocket, the lander on another, and having them rendezvous in orbit of the target. The lander will have a capsule, but I want to launch it with no crew, using MechJeb. Problem is, my usual designs put the capsule at the top of a very tall stack... and while it's certainly possible to have the crew of the second rocket leap out and go *splat* on the pad, one by one, I'd rather not kill any more kerbals than I absolutely have to. (Or unless it's really entertaining.) In real life I'd get them down by the gantry, or just not crew the rocket in the first place, but those aren't options here.

Can someone explain to me how to edit the persistence file of a rocket sitting on the pad, to either delete the crew entirely (which I assume is simplest) or place them someplace safely nearby?

[darkwolfpaw54]

if theres a lunach clamp you can use the MMU pack to go down (have been proven to work in the 25 things to do with your kerbals video).

[phoenix_ca]

Actually, the option to not crew the rocket in the first place is indeed there. Use MechJeb + Crewtank, and bam, a rocket that can launch, with no Kerbals, but can have Kerbals in it later.

Once you have those, you can mix and match with cfg settings to pretty much bend things to your will as much as you want.

[Nibb31]

You can't take off with an empty crewable pod. If you remove all the crew before launch, you get the message that your ship needs at least one crewmember.

The only way to do an unmanned launch is to use an unmanned pod that has a CrewCapacity of 0. But if you add a crewtank or an empty pod to the ship, you will get the same message.

My understanding is that KSP counts the total CrewCapacity of the ship by adding the CrewCapacity of all pods and crewtanks. If total CrewCapacity > 0 and no crew members are on board, you can't control the ship. The only way to launch an unmanned ship is if the total CrewCapacity = 0. This is true even if you have a MechJeb or a RemoteTech module.

What you need to do, is launch one craft with 1 crewmember on board, and the other crewmembers on the other craft. No other way around it, I'm afraid.

Other than that, the easiest way to remove crewmembers on the launchpad is to click EVA > End Mission > Tracking Station and return to your rocket. This doesn't kill the crewmembers and leaves them available for the next flight.

Edited September 29, 2012 by Nibb31

[Commander Zoom]

Thanks for the advice. Thanks to you, I just realized that I don't have to get them all the way down to the pad, just outside the capsule. Duh.

Annoying that I can't launch on pure autopilot, but considering that MechJeb is, for all its popularity, a kludge and workaround for how the game is supposed to work, I shouldn't be surprised.

Having some other issues with my (crewed) lander design this evening, so it looks like I have to go back to the drawing board anyway. First I need an ascent stage that can get three Kerbals into orbit from Kerbin, or Eve, or Laythe; then I can work on the descent stage; and only THEN can I see about putting it all on a booster and transfer stage. ;;