Think again about leaving kerbals stranded

[Moustachauve]

I used to be so proud of what I've done, that I could just not get them back without no trace of what I had done :/

[aven17]

Well, I tried. I threw together a quick rocket to retrieve my stranded, upside-down crew out of their rover on the Mun. The first attempt I landed at the wrong location, accidentally choosing the wreckage site of the previous rover that did not survive landing on the moon. I decided to leave escape ship there, no reason to waste a free escape from the moon. My second attempt was going very well, however I burned more fuel then I realized attempting to land within close proximity to the live crew, and when they boarded the escape shuttle and fired the engines, there was only enough fuel to launch them straight up into the sky to a height of 100k meters. The good news is I have one less ship on the Mun to worry about and two less Kerbals.

[dharak1]

I always leave them behind. Because when the next mission come to that planet it will land beside them and start a colony!

[Decho]

Since in KSP 0.20 you will be able to change root part and change pod/payload in vanilla game.

This will allow to refine rocket design using probe body and mass simulator (stack of fuel tanks with similar mass) first and attach later new pod/payload without rebuilding the craft .

This is what I'm looking forward to most about the update I plan on starting a fresh save and not losing a single Kerbal this time. On my current save none have been stranded, but many, many have died in catastrophic failures, mostly in spaceplanes.

[KerbActual]

I tried stranding Jeb on Minmus, but he EVA'd and intercepted the orbital station with just his backpack. I can't seem to get rid of the guy.

[CalculusWarrior]

I would like to say I rescue all my stranded kerbals, but I left one on Duna with only a rover for company.

To be fair, I did leave him there out of spite; he was screaming the whole way there and being quite the buzzkill.

[CaptinKornflake]

Two words : Mars One

[FallingIntoBlack]

Two words : Mars One

NASA has found other planets capable of sustaining life.

[Brotoro]

I still have one kerbal on Eve, but I've been planning on waiting until we get resources so he can come back with a load of blutonium and be a rich kerbal.

[viktorserecros]

I've got so many stranded kerbals, it is now a running joke. I've got one in orbit around Kerbin, two on Eve, three on Duna, and four on Mun.

My goal is to have made by December a KSP parody of 12 days of Christmas.

[M5000]

99% of my missions are unmanned.

I won't set up a mission where it's not entirely possible to eventually get the Kerbals back.

If I'm building a base, I'll build it unmanned first, then send crew.

I believe I have lost one Kerbal off-world (I've killed countless in vehicular tests on Kerbin..Ugh..)

It was on a largely untested and mostly unsafe Mun mission.

I tried making a small, efficient 1-man lander. The design didn't work so well.. Things were in the wrong place, forgot parts here and there, all kinds of mess...

The transit stage released the landing module and became a piece of debris.. As the single Kerbal descended, I quickly looked at how fast my fuel was draining and realized I'd have nowhere near enough fuel to land.

Poor guy slammed into the Mun at 600m/s...

Worst part? I don't even remember his name...

[Kerbol Prime]

I just watched that vsauce vid today. But I still leave my kerbals behind because I am a heartless maniac and have the power of "end flight".

[AmpsterMan]

I've never abandoned Kerbals and only ever had any of them die when I was still newby. Now they all have comfortable quarters for long journeys, plenty of food and drink, and other such amenities.

[Bigulp]

Unless something goes really wrong and the kerbal ends up floating through space I will make a serious effort to rescue them.

[oggylt]

Two words : Mars One

just another way of stranding people

well in ksp it could be Eve one because we got resources to send a rescue mission to mars about year latter.... apollo did not do only 1 landing so after a some time apollo x could pickup their corpses.. Oh... but if the first mission would be a failure then others would be cancelled afterwards too, I think..

[Nuke]

just remember when you launch a rescue mission, do not land directly on the kerbal you are rescuing. that would be very bad.

[Akalaël]

I never left a crew behind... My Kerbals dies or get home !

Is ending flight counts as a abandonment ? If so... oups...

[MockKnizzle]

In my universe, Kerbals have a somewhat different attitude towards manned flight and safety... Dying in space is widely regarded as the highest honor a Kerbal can achieve, and any Kerbonaut would gladly sacrifice his/her life in service of the noble goal of expanding the frontier.

With that said, the issue of stranded Kerbals is a more minor concern since the little green dudes are photosynthetic. With a supply of air and water, a Kerbal can survive almost indefinitely with no real problems, as evidenced by the three-man crew currently relaxing on Laythe.

[soranno]

What kind of sick person leaves Kerbals stranded?! Just because they're green! Racist.

not because they`re green.. because they have an ineffective union and we can get away with it.

[Hyomoto]

I have left countless Kerbals behind, botched plenty of rescue missions and wasted countless kerbal dollars on inefficient and stupid rocket designs. I am still the director. You aren't better than me, just better liked by your workers.

[Stelith61]

No kerbals have been lost since the early days, for me.

Except for on the gilly mission. The ships seconf-in-command got a little jetpack-happy and slammed into gilly with enough force to die.

[joppiesaus]

Jebediah has a family, you know.

[katateochi]

I read this thread before going to sleep last night; very strange and fraught dreams!

I have got a couple kerbals left behind on Duna, but they are very comfy; some are in large base (that has been there since stock docking came out) and another is in a rover. I go to the rover guy occasionally and drive him a bit further, bit worried about that guy, all on his own, going a little crazy. I picked up another long term rover driver during my Grand Tour mission and he hasn't stopped gibbering yet.

If things go wrong, then I take that as a wonderful excuse to do a protracted rescue mission. And if its Jeb that is in need of rescue no expense is spared.

This vid has one of my Jeb rescue missions. He was testing some new kit when 0.17.1 came out and things went kerbal.

(a lament for the days when ion engines where actually useful)

Jump to 1:30 for where it all goes wrong, and 4:50 for the start of the rescue (when a heavy dose of cheese in the sound track)

[HTMU Guern211]

If you didn't leave em behind you couldn't make random videos with them

and yes its not great as its only the fourth ever video I've made with fraps (last the third one when my computer crashed). Oh and yes I do need to get a better laptop the lag is horrible.

[swifthands]

*seeing kerbals stranded in jool and barely making it to jool with 2 kerbal command module*

*knowing i need to build a better more complex rocket to rescue the stranded kerbals*

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It just occurred to me how much i love giving a good speech!