Catastrophe: 18 Kerbals killed in one "rescue" mission

[jamis]

(Alternate title: "Discovered: Greasing your ship with kerbals vastly reduces atmospheric drag")

This story begins with a massively (for my hardware) overbuilt space station, which I called the "Hotel Galactica". By the time I gave up on it (because it was more slide-show than game, at that point) there were 18 kerbals living in it (with room for up to 64). (Sadly, I can't seem to find any of the pictures I took of this station in its hey-day...)

And there it sat, in a 250km Kerbin orbit, for the next 12 game-years. I considered just terminating it, but the thought of those 18 kerbals dying for nothing didn't sit well with me.

Finally, I decided it was time. I bit the bullet, reduced the physics delta to 0.03, and began a rescue. I wanted to minimize visits to the station (understandably), so I build this simple solution for returning 18 kerbals in a single flight:

I then spent a bit of time tidying up the station--transferring kerbals to shared spaces and discarding unused sections of the craft, to bring the part count down to a more manageable number.

Then, it was show time.

The rescue ship flew great, and made orbit without difficulty.

Even docking with the station went off without a hitch.

(The base, as you can see, is in a sad state of disassembly, only a shadow of its former glory.)

Then the fun began: 18 EVA's, moving each Kerbal out of his apartment and into one of the seats.

At last, it was time to bring these kerbonauts home.

All went as planned--the retro burn, the descent, reentry:

But, wow, we really seem to be burning brighter than expected:

And look, here we are at about 11km, having JUST STOPPED BURNING RED. (Do notice the atmospheric shock-wave around the ship--it was still moving at over 800m/s.)

The kerbonauts were getting nervous at this point. Terrain detail was visible, and we were STILL descending at over 300 m/s.

I burned the last of my fuel in an attempt to kill velocity, bringing our speed to under 100 m/s. Surely that would be slow enough for the parachutes to take over, right?

Wrong. Observe the last known shot of this brave crew, 400m above the surface, as they watch their docking port, power generator, RCS fuel, and--yes--parachutes, fly rapidly away from their ship.

The inevitable result:

Let us pause and honor this brave crew of 18 kerbals with a moment of silence...

...

But, hey, did you notice how aerodynamic those kerbals made the ship? I wonder if that would work to optimize an ascent...

[Scotius]

Oh my... You won't get an invitation for a party in Kerbonauts Klub anytime soon.

[Geschosskopf]

Oh man, that's hilarious .

I'm guessing that Kerbal helmets act as ball bearings in the airstream, greatly reducing drag

[Tw1]

Oh no! And after all that time..

I like the idea of Kerbal greasing though.

[ShooManFu]

Prepare the 378 gun salute....or rocket salute. Not sure Kerbals have guns.

[Sirine]

Seat for 20...and success landed!. 1 of them drop from the chair...after landed. However he stand up and walkway.

The key factor: you need some break....rocket break.

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