So.. I guess there's no chance of rescue

[technion]

Picture says it all.

[EliteShadowLeo]

Nope, there really is no chance of rescue. It would even be very difficult to do a rescue with cheats. You may want to communicate with the astronauts on board and tell them that they are never coming home and that they died heroes.

[I_Killed_Jeb]

LOL! It'd be one heck of a mission report if you pull it off! Orbital assembly with a big TWR and burn for intercept?

[boomerdog2000]

Slow down with infinite RCS fuel and a rock on the keyboard maybe?

[Tydeth]

My guess is you can:

1. Retrograde RCS translate, by either pointing retrograde and using the H key, or by pointing pro-grade and hitting N,

2. Have the Kerbals get out and push the ship retrograde*, or

3. Cheat (Alt+F12) and infinite fuel just enough to restore an actual orbit around the sun so you can then turn it off and figure out a rescue operation.

The actual rescue mission will likely require multiple launches to set up in LKO an interplanetary ship capable of reaching, refueling, and returning... assuming you have a docking port on the vessel. Otherwise, the rescue ship need only retrieve the Kerbal crew and return itself.

* Kerbals have effectively infinite jet pack fuel currently, so long as you have them re-board the craft when they run low. This way, they can push the ship back to high solar orbit, but it will take a lot of perseverance and patience if you want to get them closer to make rescue easier. This is probably better attempted after #1.

[Supernovy]

It's possible that if you have enough fuel to get a solar orbit, you'll also have enough fuel to make an intercept with a planet and gravity/aero brake into a lower solar orbit.

From there you might be able to get an intercept with Kerbin or at least it'll be easier to perform a rendezvous.

[I_Killed_Jeb]

It's possible that if you have enough fuel to get a solar orbit, you'll also have enough fuel to make an intercept with a planet and gravity/aero brake into a lower solar orbit.

From there you might be able to get an intercept with Kerbin or at least it'll be easier to perform a rendezvous.

d00d has no fuel, just rcs

[Kasuha]

Possible? Definitely yes. You don't even need to cheat, just build strong enough rocket, catch up, dock or transfer crew and return home.

Practical? No. Lots of work to build/lift the behemoth you'll need fot it, lots of time spent even at highest time warp.

[stupid_chris]

Well, if you timewarp a lot, you will eventually reach apoapsis. From there just reduce your speed with RCS, that will make your orbit cross more planets, and hopefully Jool. If you get there with enough luck you could either aerobrake around it and wait for rescue there or you could use it's gravity well to lower your apoapsis dramatically and go for a sun orbit rescue. With a little RCS that's doable if you know how to manage it well.

[Sirrobert]

I have a question: HOW?

[Kasuha]

I have a question: HOW?

Use faster ship.

[boomerdog2000]

Use faster ship.

I think he was more referring to how he got on that trajectory in the first place.

[Jason Patterson]

Well, if you timewarp a lot, you will eventually reach apoapsis. From there just reduce your speed with RCS, that will make your orbit cross more planets, and hopefully Jool. If you get there with enough luck you could either aerobrake around it and wait for rescue there or you could use it's gravity well to lower your apoapsis dramatically and go for a sun orbit rescue. With a little RCS that's doable if you know how to manage it well.

But that's just it, this vessel will never reach apoapsis; it's on an escape trajectory from the solar system.

It's entirely possible to go get it, of course. You'd need to get enough delta-v into orbit to catch up with it and then return home. It's quite an undertaking, but again, there's nothing particularly challenging about it in terms of the mechanics of the situation, only in the amount of delta-v required. Get an orange tank's worth of fuel (preferably in smaller containers you can jettison as you go) and an LV-N into orbit and you've probably got the delta-v you need. From there it's just a matter of timing and patience.

[numerobis]

If you have multiple RCS tanks, and plenty of electricity, you can move all the monopropellent into one tank, rotate so that that tank is prograde of the other tanks, then transfer its monopropellant to the tanks behind it. Your center of mass will creep back as you do this, which means your speed is reduced. Then rotate, and repeat. Momentum isn't properly maintained in KSP when you do that, so the net effect will be that your orbital velocity falls.

Very, very slowly.

[Smidge204]

Use your RCS to burn retrograde and pray you slow down enough to stay within Kerbol's SOI before you run out. That's your only hope without cheating. As long as you don't leave the Kerbol system entirely, rescue is possible. Getting out and pushing is also an option if you run out of RCS and don't think you need much more dV to prevent escape.

If you're going to cheat, may as well give yourself more fuel. Or install HyperEdit and warp yourself back home...

=Smidge=

[stupid_chris]

But that's just it, this vessel will never reach apoapsis; it's on an escape trajectory from the solar system.

It's entirely possible to go get it, of course. You'd need to get enough delta-v into orbit to catch up with it and then return home. It's quite an undertaking, but again, there's nothing particularly challenging about it in terms of the mechanics of the situation, only in the amount of delta-v required. Get an orange tank's worth of fuel (preferably in smaller containers you can jettison as you go) and an LV-N into orbit and you've probably got the delta-v you need. From there it's just a matter of timing and patience.

You can't escape the sun in KSP right now. It's SOI is infinite. So if it goes too far, the map doesn't modelize the full orbital course, but it does have an apoapsis.

[Kasuha]

You can't escape the sun in KSP right now. It's SOI is infinite. So if it goes too far, the map doesn't modelize the full orbital course, but it does have an apoapsis.

Nope. At certain speed you enter parabolic trajectory and at higher speed you're on hyperbolic trajectory. Neither has an apoapsis, you keep escaping to infinity even though the SOI is infinite.

Edited November 10, 2013 by Kasuha

[Vanamonde]

What happens if your altitude reaches that 64 bit floating integer limit number thingy?

[Smidge204]

What happens if your altitude reaches that 64 bit floating integer limit number thingy?

Space Kraken. Probably long before you get to the 64-bit limit, too.

=Smidge=

[Kasuha]

What happens if your altitude reaches that 64 bit floating integer limit number thingy?

There's no way you can get there without cheating. Double precision floating point number goes up to 2^1023. That is ... as the altitude scale changes from m to k, then to M, then to G, then to T .... you'd need to get about 97 more of such changes.

[Mesons]

Well, if you timewarp a lot, you will eventually reach apoapsis.

Not on an escape trajectory...

You can't escape the sun in KSP right now. It's SOI is infinite. So if it goes too far, the map doesn't modelize the full orbital course, but it does have an apoapsis.

Infinite SOI just means that you don't enter a different SOI at some distance away. On an escape trajectory (for which all you need is enough speed) eventually you will be so far away the sun's pull will be no stronger than the pull of Gilly on Kerbin when Eve is opposite the sun. It will stop slowing you down and you will maintain your trajectory without change.

Edited November 11, 2013 by stupid_chris
don't double post