The Rescue Mission That Should Never Have Worked

[MauveGnome]

It all started during a mission to fly past the Mun on my 4th mission in the shiny new career mode. I was already over-excited about what I'd achieved already. My first rocket was simply at attempt to see how high I could go. As it turned out I could go pretty high so after a few mods to the craft I hit the launchpad again with the aim of achieving a stable orbit. Turns out a had loads of fuel left so I burned hard and almost managed to reach the Mun. Back home, couple of mods, 3rd mission, close Mun flypast.

Back to the VAB to plan the 4th mission. This time I'm going to land on the Mun. Easy. I've done this a dozen times in Sandbox albeit with a bigger box of parts but the principle's the same right? So I slam more fuel in, chuck on a set of legs and add some batteries. Launch is perfect, transfer is perfect, landing is my best ever. No even a wobble even though the lander's a touch top-heavy. My little Kerbal pops out, does some science, flies about a bit and plants a flag.

Now it's time to go home and here's where it all goes wrong. In my hubris I just point my little lander at Kerbin and burn hard. Before I know it I'm in a huge elliptical orbit over Kerbin with zero fuel. Not good. Not only is the first Kerbal on the Mun trapped up in the void forever but there's a good 250 hard earned science points up there with him. This will not do.

We need a plan. Taking stock of the available parts tells me one thing. There's no sensible, realistic craft that could possibly rescue my stranded lander. Of course that doesn't rule out the ludicrous, insane lifeboats that would never ever work. I hit the VAB and making use of plenty of fuel and a few sections of girder create Orbital Rescue Mk1. What I had was one bat-**** crazy Kerbal set above several tonnes of fuel and underneath what amounted to a rigid claw made of girders. The idea: rendezvous with the stricken craft, gently place it into the claw on the nose of the lifeboat then slowly accelerate back down to Kerbin. Once the boats are both back course for a splashdown I would decouple the claw and land both vessels safely. Easy right?

Well it definitely never work. Either one or both boats would explode on contact. Or the girders wouldn't be strong enough and snap off. Or I wouldn't have the piloting skills to get the crafts within 100km of each other. This was a fool's mission that should never have left the ground. Yet leave the ground it did. Then, realizing it would require more fuel hit the ground again. added more tanks and more boosters and left the ground again.

What followed was over two hours of piloting, three cups of coffee, a heart that very nearly stopped at least 3 times, a lot of swearing and ultimately, two spaceships on the surface of Kerbin complete with over 200 science for the next lunatic endeavor.

[Scotius]

Hahaha. Perspective of MOAR SCIENCE makes people do insane things Invest your hard earned points into researching docking ports - it will make life much easier.

[spiritplumber]

This is awesome. You can also use landing legs as claws, to some extent.