Ascent pusher

[nhnifong]

I've got one for all you master kerbonauts out there.

Today, I had a craft that did not have enough fuel to get out of Tylo's gravity well, but it could get itself to an altitude of about 70 km. I had several other maneuverable ships in orbit around the giant moon, and I tried to rendezvous and dock with with the doomed sub-orbital lander while it was at it's apoapsis, and boost it into orbit.

It did not go well, because the craft I was using as a pusher didn't have enough power. (it was a three engine ion ship) but under different conditions, I imagine it could work. You have to dock really fast and be pointed prograde already, because your double-vessel won't be maneuverable enough while docked. You have to slow the pusher down to the speed of the sub-orbital craft and then turn it around really fast. It's not easy to do and your racing against the clock.

These are the only rules I'm going to make:

You must do it on Tylo, Vall, or Mun, but Mun is less cool.

The sub-orbital craft must weight at least 20 tons.

The sub-orbital craft may not exceed an orbital speed of half the body's escape velocity under it's own power.

The pusher craft must begin in orbit.

You have to use one of the docking mods.

Sorry I'm not posting my persistence file. It depends on too many mods, and it'd be a pain to make it work. If anyone is intrested, I'll make a stock-based persistence file to setup this challenge.

Use whatever other mods you wan't as long as they seem fair.

I can't wait to see if anyone can do this

Note: if you just want to argue about the rules and you're not going to try it, just don't even post.

Edited October 2, 2012 by nhnifong