Poll: Did your first Mun landing need a rescue ship to come rescue the Kerbals?

[Spyritdragon]

I was wondering this, since i very regularly hear stories about rescues for Munar missions on the forum.

The very first time you landed on the Mun or got into Munar orbit, did you need a rescue ship to rescue your brave Kerbalnauts? If so, did you rescue and return them successfully?

For me, personally, Bob was the first to land on the Mun, in the demo. He took off, but didn't have enough fuel to finish his maneuver to Munar orbit. Halfway, i tried to stop, but i'd already used too much fuel. I didn't think of his pack at the moment, so i told him to bail out. Accidentally made him get back in rather than let go off the ladder. I managed to get him out of the pod again, but i couldn't make him let go and reduce his downward momentum. As if in a miracle, just as he had let go, the craft exploded, sending him flying off into a parabolic trajectory. I.e, suborbital. Sadly, his thruster pack malfunctioned here and from what i could see, he couldn't fly anymore (now i realise he might've recovered given enough time, but then i didn't know that, sadly. I'd just spent a few minutes waiting for him to skid to a halt after accidentally hitting the ground while travelling by jetpack on the Mun). I quickly tried to design a rescue ship, but constrained to the demo parts i had to use a turned-around tricoupler to get two command pods along. My launch failed, and by the time i would have launched the second one, Bob was already a while on his way on the trajectory. I timeaccellerated, and he disappeared in a puff of dust :-/.

Tell me your stories :-)

Edit: Oopsie. I didn't know the forum would automatically add Poll: to my title.

Edited August 26, 2013 by Spyritdragon

[Matt56]

Where's the option for yes, but I heroically turned my failed munar mission into a glorious Mun base?

[astropapi1]

Well, the very first time I did it was in .13.3. I crashed my engine because the ailerons were too small. The pilots survived, but there was no persistence yet, so I couldn't rescue them. The next time, I came prepared with ze mods, and landed on my huge landing gear (from the old NP IIRC).

KSP has evolved so much since then, eh?

[SuperWeegee4000]

Why is there no option for "I didn't bother and just ended the flight?"

[Spyritdragon]

Okay maybe i forgot a few options.

But most people here tend to try rescuing stranded Kerbals the legit way, as do i. From what i see, at least.

Well, the very first time I did it was in .13.3. I crashed my engine because the ailerons were too small. The pilots survived, but there was no persistence yet, so I couldn't rescue them. The next time, I came prepared with ze mods, and landed on my huge landing gear (from the old NP IIRC).

KSP has evolved so much since then, eh?

You mean, like, no save files? Only one flight and once you leave its gone?

That sounds... incredibly weird .

[Van Disaster]

My first manned ( kerballed? ) mission there was a base anyway; in that particular dimension ( of whatever version the game was ) they're still heroically studying Mun out the window, waving to the guys in the station who never got round to doing anything at all.

[Jestem]

Well the closest I have got to the Mun is Minmus, and yes, the first ship did horribly, landing far too hard, destroying everything but the capsule. The second ship executed a textbook landing, picked the stranded guy up and came back home with him. All in all he was stranded about 2 days maybe.

[HeadHunter67]

I didn't have quite enough fuel left in my tank to make it back to Kerbin atmo. But I didn't send a rescue mission - nobody tells stories of that time when someone else had to come save your bacon. No, here at KRASH, you try to save your own bacon first!

Samhat Kerman did what any brave Kerbal should do to remedy the solution - he got out and pushed. After several EVAs, he managed to lower the Periapsis of his craft to enter Kerbin's atmosphere (though aerobraking was long and at a terrifyingly low altitude due to the orbit). I was still glowing hot at 14km, well below when most re-entry has cooled off. But I made it back safely!

[Skorpychan]

Yes. I heroically sent a rescue craft. After six years, when I finally got around to it.

It was fairly simple to find them from orbit; I aimed for the pile of dead rovers I'd crashed trying to get them to the kerbals, and refined it from there.

[LameLefty]

Yes, they needed rescue. They made it to a highly inclined elliptical LKO but with no way home. So I sent a rescue with a hitchhiker can underneath the capsule (mistake #1). The rescue ship's RCS fuel supply was underneath the hitchhiker can (mistake #3). I only used a single standard parachute for this heavy, fragile rescue ship (mistake #3). The mission proceeded as you might imagine. My brave Munar crew were rescued from their derelict orbiting lander and transferred into the hitchhiker can for the ride home. The return flight and reentry were uneventful. Parachute deployment went fine but I realized soon enough that the final velocity was a bit much. The craft hit the ground on Kerbin and BOOM! goes the RCS fuel supply. The hitchhiker can was destroyed and my rescued crew killed, the rescue ship itself blew off into the air and tumbled across the ground but of course, that crew survived with big goofy grins.

[UmbralRaptor]

None of the above -- typically failures resulted in 0 survivors, and there was no persistence at the time.

[Geschosskopf]

My initial Mun lander had just enough fuel to back off the ground into a fairly eccentric, rather inclined, retrograde orbit. I then got KAS, learned how to rendezvous, learned how to EVA, and worked out a technique to refuel the stranded ship while in orbit. It all worked in practice around Kerbin but when it came to doing it for real, operator error made the KAS system useless, so Jeb had to abandon ship and ride home in the Plan B empty seat in the tanker capsule.

[Legendary Emu]

My first Mun landing (as I recall) was in the 13.3 demo version. With White Monkey kitchen supplies mod I landed. But somehow I messed up and never returned...

My second Mun landing was in the v18 demo and I landed but something strange happened (I don't remember what) and I couldn't return. I went to work designing a transport craft with as much space as needed and tried landing. It tipped over, so I sent another which blew up because of a silly Kerbal not slowing down enough in EVA.

[Geschosskopf]

Samhat Kerman did what any brave Kerbal should do to remedy the solution - he got out and pushed. After several EVAs, he managed to lower the Periapsis of his craft to enter Kerbin's atmosphere (though aerobraking was long and at a terrifyingly low altitude due to the orbit). I was still glowing hot at 14km, well below when most re-entry has cooled off. But I made it back safely!

Bravo! I'd have never thought of that .

[Alexander_Kerbing]

Yep, my first Mun landing broke the legs and engines off my lander. Unfortunately, I placed fuel tanks in such a way to block the Kerbals from escaping so I just left them there. This was in the 0.13 demo.

I completed my first successful Mun rescue yesterday. I mean successful in that not only did I rescue the Kerbals, but I brought their lander back to Kerbin as well. This mission also doubled as a mission to start a Mun base.

The hitchiker module is the new "habitation module" of my Mun Base. I landed, decoupled it, and took my lander off the top of it. I was about 250m from Jeb, Bob, and Bill who "walked" their capsule over using the reaction wheel as it was out of fuel. I used the miniscule amount of fuel left to hop up and make a connection at the docking port. My rescue vehicle was dangerously low on fuel so to make it home, I had to just barely leave the Mun's SOI and intercept it again which caused me to slingshot around the Mun at an altitude of 90km and fly out past the orbit of Minmus. From there, I just thrust retrograde at Apoapsis and that brought me home.

[swiftgates24]

Back in my day, there was no way of rescuing. Heck, we didn't even landing legs, we used wings to land. None of this newfangled docking and refueling hubbabazoo!

But it went fine.

Yep, my first Mun landing broke the legs and engines off my lander. Unfortunately, I placed fuel tanks in such a way to block the Kerbals from escaping so I just left them there. This was in the 0.13 demo.

Uh, excuse me, but there was no EVA in .13

[Torminator]

My first Mun landing went off without a hitch. The second, third, fourth, fifth, and sixth attempts resulted in sudden unanticipated lithobraking. Seventh Attempt resulted in a breakdancing Kupola.

Eighth attempt used an 80 ton tracked fortress of a lander. It landed perfectly, rolled to a stop, and then the game crashed and I could never get that save running again.

[blackfire83]

My first Munar landing was successful, and then blasted off successfully into Munar orbit. Where it ran out of fuel. So then I sent a rescue ship, which also happened to be my first rendezvous and docking. Used up so much fuel getting that correct and launching back to Kerbin that I ran out of fuel THERE, too. So I had to send a rescue ship to rescue the rescue ship. Eventually, all Kerbals returned safely to Kerbin, and I was able to use my newly acquired skill at rendezvous and docking to rescue two other Kerbals who previously were stuck in doomed orbits around Kerbin.

[mellojoe]

My FIRST Mun landing was a huge success. Cheers all around. My wife came running to find out what all the yelling was about. That kind of a day.

My SECOND Mun landing, the one where my buddies got on Skype after I convinced them to get KSP and we did a Mun Race ... that one .... not so much. Required sending help. Then a 3rd ship was sent with even more empty seats. But it landed way too far away. So .... I gave up and did something else.

My THIRD Mun landing was a success again. I did an Apollo style tribute for the anniversary, and it was mostly a success. Was hoping to land at the memorial site, but that had to be abandoned. Still landed and returned home just fine, tho.

((edit))

Don't ask me how my first Duna landing went. Lets just say I haven't sent a manned mission to Duna since then.

((another edit))

I found this image. I was so new to the game at the time that I didn't know how to Screenshot, so I grabbed my cellphone.

Edited August 26, 2013 by mellojoe

[Tokay Gris]

Hm.... the first attempt did a lithobrake maneuver... There wasn't much left to merrit rescue.

Good thing it was unmanned. Unkerbaled.

The second attempt did work and didn't need rescue...

[DChurchill]

There's no option for yes, but we didn't bother and just hit end flight and forgot about it.

The first time I made it alive, I hit the spacebar and popped the pod off the stack and hadn't hit f5. I could barely get a one man pod there with enough dV to get home, let alone anything with enough space for a rescue mission.

Edited August 26, 2013 by DChurchill

[Whackjob]

I could lie, but my starting legacy is firmly described in the coffee thread. So I won't lie to you. My first munar landing was a brief series of disasters. I thought my kerbals had died, but I instead hit end mission.

[Bobnova]

None of the above, heh.

My first lander was mostly out of fuel when it touched down, so it certainly wasn't going anywhere.

I landed a rescue mission (eventually), only to find that the Kerbal who had been stranded had disappeared. I guess leaving him standing outside the lander was a bad idea, or maybe I hit end mission instead of space center.

In any event, he had issues!

[The Destroyer]

Well, I was using the demo. The OLD Demo, 0.13.3. So there is no persistant, so it's impossible.

And there was no crew transfer.

And no docking.

And no KAS

[Cartz]

My first Munar landing was actually intended to be an Apollo 8 style orbit, but using free return trajectory.

With no RCS on board, and barely enough fuel to get there and back on a free return, I set out. Unfortunately at burn's end, I had a Munar periapsis jiggling wildly in the 200-500m territory, and my encounter was to result in a gravity assist instead of free return. I didn't know enough about the game to get out and push. The rocket skipped like a stone off the surface of the Mun, killing all aboard yet launching some debris back into space.

In retrospect it was pretty epic.