A mission to save Jeb!

[Blake Gates]

Hey everyone, so I've been playing KSP for a bit over a week now and I am absolutely loving it. And learning an absolute truck load of information!

But I must say, as with most everyone, I've made my share of dumb mistakes through my journey of trial-and-error lol....

Anyway, I came into this game during .20 and now have obviously updated to .21.1. Since permanent death to Kerbal's is now a reality, I must seek the help of the community at large to save our greatest pal, Jebediah!

My very first space craft I personally built (tried a few of the pre-installed builds first) I was very proud of and had big ambitions for. I was going to the moon! Once I got into orbit and plotted my path to the moon, I soon realized that I should have enough Delta-V to make it into Minmus orbit. Very, very exciting. Well, long story short: I was just shy of Dv to completely intercept and make orbit with Minmus. I thought to myself, that's okay I've decoupled my final liquid fuel stage and have this very lightweight pod and my ion engine to get me around. Well, I'll let the picture below do the talking and let you notice my fatal flaw in this design....

Yep. I installed my ion motor upside down. I always wondered why that decoupler stayed there, but for the first couple days, just chocked it up to not knowing much yet and maybe I just screwed something up or whatever. Which, boy oh boy did I ever!!

So, by the time I realized my ion motor was upside down and I had the time to actually play some, .21 had come out and introduced perma-death to Kerbals. NOOOOOO! Lol I must save Jeb!

Below is the ridiculous orbit my craft ended up in with absolutely no way of propelling myself what-so-ever (highlighted in yellow):

This thing obviously doesn't have a docking ring or anything of the like because I built this thing like my second day of owning KSP.

My question is this: What in the world is the best way of accomplishing a rescue mission for Jebediah? I could care less about the craft itself, I just want to get Jeb back so I can put him somewhere safe and keep him alive lol... I've thought up a few different ideas craft-wise, but I guess I'm not too sure of myself yet. I don't want to risk blowing either craft up in the process. I also don't want to end up in a ridiculous orbit with the rescue craft either. Also, I suppose maneuvering nodes would be my best bet? How do I work out when to exit Kerbin orbit headed towards Jeb?

I need to save good ol' Jebediah and I need your help

Edited July 27, 2013 by Blake Gates
Changed to 'Answered'

[Pinkieseb]

One idea is you could build a rocket with enough DeltaV to get to Minmus and back, dont bother with a lander because all you'll do is open parachutes for reentry for Kerbin. Get as close as you can to the same orbit as Jeb, then once your within 1-10km of Jeb fire your engines Directly at the pink dot that should appear on your NavBall... Once close enough try to fly alongside and open up a ladder which will end up near the hatch of Jebs pod. Ten EVA jeb and hopefully he will float close enough to your ladder to grab. If not timewarp so his further away from his ship then swoop in and get the ladder super close. Then he can climb into a lander can!

Goodluck! However you do it!

[Affan]

Pinkieseb Is right. Get as close an orbit to the craft as possible (make it slightly less to catchup, slightly more to slow down so he can catch up) and make sure you have the craft set as target. Using first Thusters then RCS get as close to it as possible when the intersect is 30km or less on the orbit map and then make your relative velocity to the jeb craft 0.0m/s using RCS Simply EVA jeb from the craft and use the EVA jetpack to get him to the other craft.

Make sure the other craft has a 2 kerbal pod with only 1 kerbal actually in it though (crew selection).

If you can't save jeb then don't worry though. If you terminate the flight in space centre and kill him, he respawns in the astrokerbals list because the 3 original kerbonauts (jeb, bill and bob (with the orange uniform)) are immune to permadeath. They respawn a while after their death.

[Blake Gates]

Pinkieseb Is right. Get as close an orbit to the craft as possible (make it slightly less to catchup, slightly more to slow down so he can catch up) and make sure you have the craft set as target. Using first Thusters then RCS get as close to it as possible when the intersect is 30km or less on the orbit map and then make your relative velocity to the jeb craft 0.0m/s using RCS Simply EVA jeb from the craft and use the EVA jetpack to get him to the other craft.

Make sure the other craft has a 2 kerbal pod with only 1 kerbal actually in it though (crew selection).

If you can't save jeb then don't worry though. If you terminate the flight in space centre and kill him, he respawns in the astrokerbals list because the 3 original kerbonauts (jeb, bill and bob (with the orange uniform)) are immune to permadeath. They respawn a while after their death.

LOL! I didn't know that! Well, damn haha.... Oh well, I'm still going to try this little mission as I think the experience of doing so will be beneficial. Also, thank you both very much for the information! Pretty much what I was thinking to myself, but reassuring to have the confirmation from you guys. Thanks!