How to rescue a trapped orbiting Kerbal.

[Sesiom]

I've being playing for few days in carrer mode. So i had a orbiting kerbal lost in the moon and builded an unmaned rescue ship with the kerbal container.

I thought would be a good idea to put laders arround the container to be easier to grab on EVA. I was aware the laders will obstruct the hatch so I made a test.

Before lift of I tried to enter with a kerbal inside and it worked so I went back to construction to finish the rocket.

Good news I made it to the moon orbit rendevouz and barely got him in the canister. Bad news I was short on fuel to reentry the planet without crashing the container to the ground. So i left the rescue ship in orbit to kerbal.

Worst news when I sended a second ship to kerbal orbit I was unable to get him out of the container becouse the laders are obstructing the hatchet... so can get in never get out xD.

TLDR:

Question will be if there is anyhow to take that Kervin back home now, with the building elements I have now I cant figure it out.

There is a way to refuel a ship? Or some sort of magnetic device to drag it to land?

Thanks in advance, I dont like to leave no Kerbal behind .... Except for that one who landed on Minmus and crashed becouse he was too stupid to understand relative velocity using a jet pack while exploring the rock

Edited January 23, 2014 by Sesiom

[Richy teh space man]

Have you tried spamming the button to exit the hatch? That sometimes works.

Also you can transfer fuel if you dock, you need docking parts though.

Failing that, try getting your Kerbal out and pushing the ship at apoapsis (seriously!) so that the periapsis drops inside the atmosphere.

[Commander Jebidiah]

You may consider this cheating but use ALT+F12 to activate the debug menu and select infinite fuel I've only did this once with career mode only because I was fed up of running out of fuel and not being able to het my hard earned science so I used infinite fuel when it comes to 690 science I ain't losing it.

[Superfluous J]

What's your apoapsis and periapsis? Your best bet is to send up a ship to push your ship into a lower orbit. Make a ship with structural panels and/or girders in a bit of a bowl shape on the front, big enough to hold your other ship (Just 4-8 of them should be enough. All you want to do is keep it from falling off while you're pushing it) and then get on the prograde side of the ship at apoapsis, and then burn retrograde (using Orbit mode, not Target mode!)

Once your ship is on the ground you can recover it.

[jmiki8]

I had more kerbals trapped in orbit, and I used the "push the ship" method mentioned above, or attempted a desperate EVA jetpack-burn to get into the atmosphere. After I succeeded, I tried landing on head, which sometimes could save my kerbal. Too bad, that recent patches almost completely nullified the chances of successful head-landings (well, they weren't that realistic after all ), but rarely this method can still save lives today. Also, it's better to die on the surface of Kerbin (or burning up in the atmosphere), than keeping orbiting forever...

Edited January 17, 2014 by jmiki8

[Sesiom]

Have you tried spamming the button to exit the hatch? That sometimes works.

Also you can transfer fuel if you dock, you need docking parts though.

Failing that, try getting your Kerbal out and pushing the ship at apoapsis (seriously!) so that the periapsis drops inside the atmosphere.

No he is trapd inside for good, only solution is bring the container intact to home

The ship lacks of docking ring. I just recently unlocked them and havent build any ship using them.

You may consider this cheating but use ALT+F12 to activate the debug menu and select infinite fuel I've only did this once with career mode only because I was fed up of running out of fuel and not being able to het my hard earned science so I used infinite fuel when it comes to 690 science I ain't losing it.

The fun is to get it using the game mechanics, but thanks for the info.

What's your apoapsis and periapsis? Your best bet is to send up a ship to push your ship into a lower orbit. Make a ship with structural panels and/or girders in a bit of a bowl shape on the front, big enough to hold your other ship (Just 4-8 of them should be enough. All you want to do is keep it from falling off while you're pushing it) and then get on the prograde side of the ship at apoapsis, and then burn retrograde (using Orbit mode, not Target mode!)

Once your ship is on the ground you can recover it.

Hmm that sounds promising!

Cant go to the game now but should be like 400 / 800 aprox

I think I get the main idea... but that sounds very unestable and give lot of wind resistance to be able to reach orbit?

I'll make some test with that when I have some time thanks.

[Mast]

I've had this problem once, I try to equip every ship with at least one docking port ever since.

Why?

In vacuum, you can pull enormous loads with small vehicles. Got RCS tugs on my stations around Kerbin and the moon (borrowed the idea from Scott Manley, works like a charm).

If you don't have tugs in orbit, just launch a new vehicle equipped for the job.

If your current stray vehicle has no ports whatsoever, you'll have to grab it between pylons or something. Try to build a rocket with a head which is big enough to hold a part of your rocket. You can either launch with a removable top to avoid surface trouble (use seperators to launch the top away when above atmosphere), or just try with enough boosters and hope it doesn't collapse. I usually try the latter first

[theend3r]

Build a ramming ship and crash it into the other ship so that whatever's obstructing the hatch is destoryed. That's the kerbal way.

[Sesiom]

I made a quick try. Builded 2 Paralel arms and put landing struts to operate as doors. Looks promising. Its geting hard to take it offplanet becouse of balance and aerodinamic. As soon have more time will try to improve the prototype

[Superfluous J]

I think I get the main idea... but that sounds very unestable and give lot of wind resistance to be able to reach orbit?

I'll make some test with that when I have some time thanks.

It's not so bad if you don't have FAR installed. You could make a mesh of girders too which will "feel" more aerodynamic

[Kasuha]

Capsule crash tolerance is 14 m/s.

Ladder segment crash tolerance is 8 m/s.

Maybe you could try crashing to the capsule at the right speed and direction and destroy the ladder without destroying the capsule? I'm not sure if it works, though.

Note that you need to use something that will withstand the crash, too. Girder segment or structural panel might be a good choice.

Edit: scratch that, it doesn't look like it's possible.

Edited January 17, 2014 by Kasuha

[Sesiom]

Raming doesnt sounds bad either... Its just a Pegasus I Mobility Enhancer (simple ladder) the obstructing object. I culd just hit it with the top of the Pod and could work just fine. I'm still pretty bad at docking maneovuers and rendevouz so it might get some practice time before I nail it. And allways keep forgeting some important parts when I build a ship and I dont realize it until I'm too far and get out of electricity couse I forget the solar panels and such

I waste lots of fuel during aproachs to rendevouz, I'll watch some tutorial to be more efficient and will update when I have some progress.

Thanks for all the suggestions

[TheDarkStar]

One thing you could do is overheat the blocking part with seperatrons. As long as you have pairs of them opposing each other (like a two-fingered claw shape around what you want to explode), no net thrust will be created. Even if you hit the pod a bit, the ladder will explode first.

Quicksave first though.

[Sesiom]

I builded a rescue ship with 2 arms and a pair of landing struts to lock on the ship with the intention o bringint it back home, then on same arms 1 parachute on top of them so on reentry both ships will land on their back slowly.

1st problem miscalculated the separation of the arms, made it too narrow still could somehow attach it somehow with the landing struts making some presure but it will decouple after 2 seconds of very slow thrust.

Second I tried to ram it at increasing speeds, each time blowing a diferent part of the ship. At the end there was only left the can with the Kerbal inside but no damage to the ladders . Even went EVA to jetpacket to the other ship to use it still working RTS to give it good angle, then back to rescue ship. Last hit blowed up the entire thing. I didnt look but I suspect the ladders were part of the remaining debriss xD

I'm getting skilled in Elliptical orbital rendezvous and RTS movement mechanics and having fun with the challenge though

One thing you could do is overheat the blocking part with seperatrons. As long as you have pairs of them opposing each other (like a two-fingered claw shape around what you want to explode), no net thrust will be created. Even if you hit the pod a bit, the ladder will explode first.

Quicksave first though.

Hmm... so the separatrons wont detach the part they are in contact with? I havent used them yet I thought they would detach anything the are attached to. I guess they are to help move away the allready detached parts then.

Next ship I'll redo my initial prototype and include the separatron claw in the other side so I can try both

Protoype 1:

Terrible arm size calculation:

Undestructible $%&$· (just before the final hit then just blew up entirely):

Work in progress:

Please let me know if you see major flaws in design or have suggestions

Edited January 19, 2014 by Sesiom

[Sesiom]

After tweaking a little I was able to grab the ship and bring it back to Kerbin.

I Grab the ship using the landing struts and burn extremely slow so it wont detach. Send 1 crew to the other ship pod that was empty so I can use the propane left to help manouvering.

The lost ship didnt have detach rings to separate from the main body, so I ram the fuel containers and just destroyed them when i had a trajectory close enough to Kerbin.

My idea was to fall on the rescue ship back using the 2 parachutes instaled on each arm, then detach the other ship pod and use its own... but it wont allow me to change ships on atmosphere flight

So I had to launch the ship in collision trajectory and burn prograde the rescue ship to stay in orbit, change to the other ship (had to reload several times to make sure I land on sea) wait for atmospheric decelaration release parachute and burn all the propane left to slow down the impact to the water (The canister is really heavy it was destroyed several times until I managed to get a slow enough landing)

Recovered the ship with the ocupant still alive and take back the rescue ship was easy pie.

Tried the separatrons thing too, but thouse ladders are just undestructible. I could hit the can up to 20.1 m/s with 0 damage to the ladders. Hitting it faster than 20.2 m/s just blew the hole thing.

Thanks for all the advice. Will keep to conquer the space hopefully in a safer way from now on

Actually I was able to send not tripulated satelite to Duna made high and low altitude experiments then to Ike moon laso high and low and "landed" it on Ike to make some more experiments and got crapload of science

[MarvinKitFox]

One thing you could do is overheat the blocking part with seperatrons. As long as you have pairs of them opposing each other (like a two-fingered claw shape around what you want to explode), no net thrust will be created. Even if you hit the pod a bit, the ladder will explode first.

Quicksave first though.

BOGGLE!!

Interplanetary cutting torch!?

[Superfluous J]

One thing you could do is overheat the blocking part with seperatrons. As long as you have pairs of them opposing each other (like a two-fingered claw shape around what you want to explode), no net thrust will be created. Even if you hit the pod a bit, the ladder will explode first.

I can hear the conversation now (translated from Kerbal):

MISSION CONTROL Was the sepratron-blowtorch successful?

JEBEDIAH KERMAN Uh... Kind of.

MISSION CONTROL Kind of?

JEBEDIAH KERMAN Well, the ladder did explode first...

[XOIIO]

I can hear the conversation now (translated from Kerbal):

MISSION CONTROL Was the sepratron-blowtorch successful?

JEBEDIAH KERMAN Uh... Kind of.

MISSION CONTROL Kind of?

JEBEDIAH KERMAN Well, the ladder did explode first...

LOL, made my morning.