PLEASE HELP!!! I got 3 + pods in different orbits how to bring them home

[Jayzen Freeze]

I have 3+ pods in different orbits around different planets, they have no fuel or propulsion how do I bring them home they don't need to float endlessly in space. thank you in advance for your help.

[Tripzter]

Easy way is by going to the tracking station and clicking terminate flight. The harder way is to send ships to pick up each kerbal and bring them home.

[UbioZur]

Moved to the gameplay question forum as it's not a tutorial.

For your question, what Tripzter said.

You can:

Go to the tracking station and terminate the flight. It will destroy the ship and kerbal inside them will be dead too.

Or:

Send rescue Missions:

Get a ship that have sufficient fuel to rendez vous with all 3 pods, and enough crew capacity to carry all the kerbals (look at the hitchhiker container in the utility tab), rendez with each ship, EVA the kerbal and get it to te new one. then deorbit the ship and terminate the empty pods. Don't forget the parachutes for the landing.

Another rescue mission possibility:

Get a ship that can grab and deorbit the pods rendez vous and deorbit them.

[Jenteb07]

Or push the pods out of orbit using the Kerbal jet pack fuel (refuel by going back into the pod whenever their fuel has ran out).

Ofcourse this will only be a succes when the pods also have a parachute to land with.

[Spyritdragon]

For Kerbin orbiting ships:

Do any of your ships have RCS on them? If so, try using that to dip your periapsis just inside the atmosphere where you can aerobrake down to the surface. I saved a Kerbal coming back from the Mun that way once ^-^.

If you just want to save the Kerbals inside, get a rendezvous craft to meet up with the three pods in orbit (Scott Manley makes great tutorials), then EVA the kerbals and use their thruster packs to get them inside an empty pod (hitchhiker cabins work well for this) on the other craft, then use that crafts propulsion to deorbit itself after operation. Afterwards you can terminate the empty pods from the menu.

If you want to go the realistic way of getting rid of the pods, you'll have to make either a craft that can dock with them after a rendezvous, if your stranded craft has a docking port on it, or a craft to pull your stranded craft out of orbit. If you dock with it, you can refuel the stranded ship or just pull it back like that. If you don't have docking ports, you can either make a frame of girders and struts which can catch the ships and deorbit them like that, or get the KAS mod to pull them out of orbit.

Oh and don't forget to check any craft returning with Kerbals in it for parachutes. You don't want to land without parachutes, if you're deorbiting something like a station module.

For crafts around other bodies, you're going to have to make another craft that can go to that world, but also has returning capabilites. Make sure there's enough space in them to hold the stranded Kerbal. Either go there, rendezvous and pick up the Kerbal, then leave back for Kerbin, go there and refuel the stranded ship (make sure both are left with enough for the return if your second ship is also manned, or enough fuel to deorbit themselves if the ships are unmanned), or bring some other way of deorbiting the leftover stranded craft.

Edited August 18, 2013 by Spyritdragon