Controlling a lander

[technion]

Hey guys,

I've had my first successful mission to get a rocket with a lander into a low orbit of Duna.

As you can see, I've transferred a crew into the lander, it's got power, fuel, an engine, landing struts and parachutes.

Only when I decouple from the craft, it becomes debri and is unselectable for use. Using "control from here" on the lander prior to decouple doesn't change anything - I end up controlling the transfer ship.

Any advice appreciated. This rocket needs an overall redesign (the launcher is a disaster) but I've like to make one successful mission before I start that.

[Alistone]

It used to be possible that as long as the debris persists (doesn't pass to close to a planet or doesn't exceed your debris field limit) that you can redock to it even though it is debris. I haven't done this since 0.19 when I left an orange fuel can in orbit while I took the command module/lander down to the surface, but I assume it is still possible.

The way to prevent it this is to put some sort of command module on it. Usually a probe core (and power supply) but even a command seat should work.

*final note; it was pretty hard to redock and I was forced repeatedly to use time warp to stabilize the rotation of the debris...

[technion]

Thanks, but I guess my confusion is that I thought the "lander can" was a control module - it seemed to be what did the job in the Apollo mission.

[StarManta]

Have you tried [ ] to switch the view to nearby stuff? In my experience you can still view debris that way.

However, you still won't be able to control it unless it has a drone core on it.

[Genius Evil]

You can select craft in the map screen. Click on the lander in the map screen and a little button will pop up that says "Switch to". That lets you change to the selected craft.

[technion]

You can select craft in the map screen. Click on the lander in the map screen and a little button will pop up that says "Switch to". That lets you change to the selected craft.

That's exactly the problem - something about this build doesn't let that be available. You can't see it in the map screen at all, and if I mouse over it with it right in front of me, I get that greyed out text you see for debri.

[LeFudge]

Thanks, but I guess my confusion is that I thought the "lander can" was a control module - it seemed to be what did the job in the Apollo mission.

It is a control pod. Even with your Kerbals in there you can't switch to it? Strange

[technion]

It is a control pod. Even with your Kerbals in there you can't switch to it? Strange

Yep that's correct. I've just quit and relaunched the same rocket - I'll try and see if something just bugged out. Getting this back into orbit will take a few tries though

[technion]

OK, I loaded my saved craft and relaunched it. Maybe I sucked more than the craft because I took about 15 tries to get in the air last time but I pulled it off second round. Had no problems with control this time. Thanks for the help guys.

PS How do I mark as answered?

[Sirrobert]

That's exactly the problem - something about this build doesn't let that be available. You can't see it in the map screen at all, and if I mouse over it with it right in front of me, I get that greyed out text you see for debri.

Yes you can, but debris isn't showing by default.

When in the map screen, put your mouse in the center top of the screen. A little window will pop down listing all the different types of craft. The left one (the icon for debris) is gray. Right click on it, will cause all debris to show up on the map screen. Right clicking on any of the other icons will also toggle them between showing and not showing

[ScottyDoesKnow]

PS How do I mark as answered?

Edit your post and click the Go Advanced button.

[Dunbaratu]

*final note; it was pretty hard to redock and I was forced repeatedly to use time warp to stabilize the rotation of the debris...

There's a really annoying bug in KSP that causes vessels to receive bogus rotational forces from nowhere if there's even the slightest amount of overlap between parts. I consider this a bug due to the fact that the "overlap" is often the result of KSP itself rather than an intentional part of the design. If you try making a strut reinforcement along the outer edge of two parts, the strut becomes a "clipped" object inside the part rather than running along the outer edge. If you attach a fuel cylinder radially to the outside of another it's often slightly clipped into the first part and you can't do anything to change this.

On the one hand, using time warp to stop rotation is a cheat, but on the other hand when the game applies phantom bogus forces to the vessel that aren't really there and can't be stopped, the game is sort of cheating against you in the first place.

It's not cheating if the game cheated first and your "cheat" is just a case of trying to find a workaround to get around the game's cheating. I feel the same way about using the debug console to escape from stuck situations in Bethesda games which are notorious for having bugs that prevent finishing the game.