What can be done with the EVA pack?

[Lumaro]

Recently I have found out that you can rotate the kerbals on eva, I also found out that you can choose what direction a kerbal can jump off of a ladder. My question is that, if you turn your kerbal so that they can use burn their packs retrograde would you be able to land on the moon? If so how would you go about doing that?

[Scotius]

It is doable, but only on very small moons. Like Gilly, maybe Bop. I never tried this, but i think there are videos on YT.

[Lumaro]

It is doable, but only on very small moons. Like Gilly, maybe Bop. I never tried this, but i think there are videos on YT.

No, I mean the mun, I have done this on the lower gravity moons. What i was thinking is that I get into a low suicide burn around the mun, Then Tilt the kerbal so he can trust retrograde.

[Brofessional]

I'm pretty sure it can't be done on the Mun, the gravity is just too strong.

You could do a partial burn with a spacecraft to slow down, then jump out and finish the landing in EVA though.

[Horn Brain]

You can launch to orbit OR land using only a kerbal's EVA pack on Ike and Dres.

You can land AND return to orbit using only the EVA pack on Gilly, Minmus, Bop, and Pol.

So it's a handy way to rescue your mission if you crash your lander on any of these worlds. On the Mun, Eeloo, and maaaaaybe Val and Moho, there's a good chance you can bail out of your ascent stage and finish getting to orbit with the EVA pack if you just get a bit of velocity from your under-fueled lander, as well, so keep that in mind.

I remember when I was trying to perfect flying my stock Eve lander back to orbit, I once ran out of fuel with just 200 m/s to go to orbit so I bailed out and finished with the EVA pack to save the mission. That's kerbal space program for ya.

[Horn Brain]

If you want to land on the Mun using only a kerbal, you can lower your velocity with your spacecraft to below about 500 m/s, then bail out, and you may just barely be able to land if you do everything perfectly. You'll also have to correct the velocity of the spacecraft too or it will crash.

You need just a tiny bit more fuel than you carry in the pack to get to orbit on the Mun, and landing usually takes more fuel.

[Temstar]

Not enough delta-V, the packs have about 520m/s delta-V and you need around 640m/s to land on the Mun.

[Tw1]

I've managed to save a kerbal whose rocket partially blew up, and wasn't going to make orbit, by landing him with his jetpack.

It's handy when you have a bit of a distance to cover, as it's faster than walking. Some of my taller things on the Mun don't have ladders all the way to the ground, as it would be to complex to design. The jet pack is used to get them up to the ladder.

It also lets you fly up high to get a good look at your surrounds.

You can use them to change the orbit of a kerbal, I didn't want to try and dock with the extremely laggy station, so I EVA'd Bob to a different orbit, and rendezvoused with him there.

The trick is using the planet bellow you to aim yourself. Look for the terminator, or distinctive shapes like continents, and compare on the map view.

With the EVA parachutes mod, you can return kerbals on a station to the ground without using any capsule.

Now I need to build something massive that will fire them almost to orbit, so they can use that 520m/s to achieve orbit and get back up to the station again.

Edited May 16, 2013 by Tw1

[Temstar]

Those packs are pretty boss, in real life the Manned Manoeuvring Unit had a total delta-V of 24.4m/s. The smaller SAFER that they use on the ISS has only a measly 3m/s in the tank.

A cannon / mass relay would definitely give a Kerbal enough of a kick for them to then use their pack to achieve Munar orbit from the surface. That 520m/s is also very useful if you consider that as the last stage of an Eve surface-to-orbit return craft.

Edited May 16, 2013 by Temstar

[Tw1]

A cannon / mass relay would definitely give a Kerbal enough of a kick for them to then use their pack to achieve Munar orbit from the surface.

I know, but I want do it from Kerbin. The furthest I've seen done is a couple of Km. This is going to be quite a challenge should I actually attempt it. I'm thinking a couple of mainsails, pointing together from different angles...

[Temstar]

I know, but I want do it from Kerbin. The furthest I've seen done is a couple of Km. This is going to be quite a challenge should I actually attempt it. I'm thinking a couple of mainsails, pointing together from different angles...

No no, if you're going to do this you need to think bigger. You can't just aim a few mainsails together to a point. For some real muzzle velocity you need to build a multi-chamber cannon like the V-3:

[Tw1]

For some real muzzle velocity you need to build a multi-chamber cannon like the V-3:

This is an awesome concept! I wonder if it would work using KSP parts. Don't see why not.

(If I didn't have stuff to do once I get home, I'd get straight on to that.)

[DaRocketCat]

Remember that you can ALWAYS survive by landing on your head .

[haltux]

Hello guys,

You seem to be experts in EVA extreme manoeuvres. I have a problem when I tried to use EVA on MinMus, I was wondering if you had the same problem, and wether you had solutions.

When I do a big jump, my kerbal start to slowly spin forward, he does not stay vertical. The problem is that I have no way to rotate him, to put him back in the right direction, except by pressing the space bar to reorient my kerbal. However, once I do that, I have to keep pressing it otherwise the kerbal starts spinning, and it consumes a lot of fuel.

Any hints?

[DeeZee]

Yeah, Don't Jump! Just thrust forward and up with the EVA. I've never had problems doing it like that.

[zzz]

Not related too much, but - Why we need command modules after rover seats will be added? It's can hold kerbals, much more lightweight, and you can place any amount of it

[Rage097]

Not related too much, but - Why we need command modules after rover seats will be added? It's can hold kerbals, much more lightweight, and you can place any amount of it

True. I'm sure that there will be some point at which a Kerbal can and will fall out of the seat, however. Back On-topic: If a Kerbal is plummeting torwards the ground you can deploy your EVA pack just before you hit and somehow survive the fall.

[Tw1]

Not related too much, but - Why we need command modules after rover seats will be added? It's can hold kerbals, much more lightweight, and you can place any amount of it

I can think of a few reasons

1. Life support. If they add it to the game, putting your kerbal in a command pod will let him access the ship's life support things, like air and water recyclers, and will keep him (or maybe her) alive for a lot longer.

2. Radiation. You can have thicker shielding on a spaceship than you can on a spacesuit. Having the kerbal inside is going to be safer for long periods, even if they have great anti-radiation meds.

3. Reentry. As much as I love this pic, and the set it's from

They would probably die once realistic heating is added.

Plus there's other things, like the instrumentation that can be added to a ship, protection from micro-meteors, less chance of falling of...

This has me wondering if they will give as a navball when controlling things from a set.

[zzz]

2Tw1:

There no any life support in near future, radiation never was mentioned and devs not sure about reentry heat, your picture only exampe of there no any harm from it for them. I'm not about "how to make them viable", I'm about how it will be.

[LaydeeDem]

2Tw1:

There no any life support in near future, radiation never was mentioned and devs not sure about reentry heat, your picture only exampe of there no any harm from it for them. I'm not about "how to make them viable", I'm about how it will be.

Radiation: http://www.reddit.com/r/KerbalSpaceProgram/comments/1aqwqw/artwork_if_you_havent_seen_the_postcards_from/c9042mb

Life support is mentioned on this chart: http://i.imgur.com/lGlWdyn.png

[DaRocketCat]

You shouldn't have a navball when you're in a rover seat so as to prevent people from using them as a command pod.

[lazarus1024]

I know, but I want do it from Kerbin. The furthest I've seen done is a couple of Km. This is going to be quite a challenge should I actually attempt it. I'm thinking a couple of mainsails, pointing together from different angles...

Yeah, I've traveled about 19km on Duna with the EVA pack. Rescue on a downed mission. My rescue lander didn't have enough dV to get a good landing as I overshoot by 19.6km. The crashed ship (actually just the capsule survived) was up on the crater wall and I landed down in the crater. I was able to jet the two Kerbals to within a KM of the landed rescue ship. Only way it worked is because they started probably 150-200m above the crater floor. They still landed rag doll and it took 2 attempts with one and 5 with the other (thank you quick save) as they died a few times in the attempt (too much speed landing).

Most of my other attemps have been much more pedestrian, only covering 1-5km at a time in hops on the Mun, Minimum and Ike (I haven't done anything more than a couple of hundred meters on Duna. Duna just has too much gravity to easily be able to use the EVA packs for much other than grabbing a high ladder). I have orbited minimus from the ground once for the heck of it.

[llamatoes]

I do believe Scott managed to return for gilly on an EVA pack.

[haltux]

Yeah, Don't Jump! Just thrust forward and up with the EVA. I've never had problems doing it like that.

Thanks for the tip. I'll try that. But did you try to turn while flying?

[andysim212]

Scott Manly from Gilly to Kerban in EVA