I want to weld a Dawn engine from orbit onto another vessel, but my engineer Bill is not able to select the part [Sandbox mode]

[xendelaar]

Sorry for the dark picture. Bill is standing on the ladder in construction mode and can manipulate all the parts highlighted in green. As you can see, there's a Dawn engine located 2.9 meters away from him, and it's also highlighted in green.

As far as I know, a 250 kg part shouldn't be a problem for a Kerbal in orbit. So why can't I select this part, even though it's clearly highlighted?

I'm currently orbiting Eve at 250 km altitude—not sure if that matters.

Does anyone know if this is a bug or an intended feature?

 

[Martian Emigrant]

Hi @xendelaar

 

I don't know about the maximum mass a lone Kerbal can move in zero-G.

But When I can't move something it is usually because of parts attachment.

 

Is there something attached to the engine? If so you need to move that part first.

On planets-moons having more Kerbals will allow moving heavier parts.

I don't know if that applies to zero-G.

 

Is the part clipped? I don't know if that would make a difference but is worth checking.

 

ME

 

 

[xendelaar]

thanks for the reply. I did not get a message that the part was connected to another part, so that's clearly not it. The part was just bugged. I cheated a new Dawn engine next to my craft which I was able to construct properly. I deleted the bugged part. Somebody on reddit mentioned that parts start to bug sometimes when they were previously connected to a docking port? perhaps that was the problem? I haven't double checked.

 

[Duke MelTdoWn]

I think what sometimes happens is that when you undock, a new root part for the undocked vessel is chosen. If that happens to be the Dawn engine, you can not detach it.