Do you use abort systems to save your Kerbals?

[karolus10]

I found building escape towers unnecessary, especially with actual atmosphere and drag model, after separation pod had much less drag than rocket underneath, making escape easy (not with solids).

[JakeGrey]

You'll find that method less effective if you have a structural failure somewhere and lose throttle control.

[karolus10]

You'll find that method less effective if you have a structural failure somewhere and lose throttle control.

In this case You always get Lithobraking

EDIT_1:

In KSP You need around 8g of acceleration for Your LES, if You want to escape from spaceship at full acceleration (highest atmosphere drag).

Edited August 21, 2013 by karolus10

[Brofessional]

I imagine escape towers will become much more important when we can actually train Kerbals with meaningful stats. You won't be so careless when you've got time and resources invested in them.

[Tiron]

there's an abort button? What is it?

I always wanted to be able to press eject and have my Kerbonaut pop out of the command pod and float down on a tiny parachute.

Yes, there is, and by default, it's nothing. It activates the Abort Action Group, which by default has nothing in it. Its default hotkey is backspace, but there's also a button on the left side of the altitude indicator (which you have to hover over the edge of to get it to pop out before you can click it.)

Technically you could use any action group for it, but backspace is a lot easier to hit in a hurry if something goes wrong.

So for an 'escape tower' type setup, you'd set it to decouple the pod and activate the sepatrons on the tower. Press backspace and BWOOSH, the pod is gone.

You'll find that method less effective if you have a structural failure somewhere and lose throttle control.

It still KINDA works, because the parachutes will help pull the pod off with some rocking. Or violently rip it off if you hit 500m AGL (Or were already below that): as long as you're not going too fast the pod will probably survive.

But as he kinda points out with his '(Not with Solids)', escape towers or similar are really only necessary if you're trying to get away from rogue solid boosters, but are also good for any failure below 500m (including pad failures, which was why Apollo's LES was so massive.)

Edited August 21, 2013 by Tiron