Oops, using ladder to reenter.

[SSSPutnik]

Due to mission control oversight I am looking at landing 7 Kerbals on Kerbin, using a one man lander, reentering at about 8000ms.

Can I fit 6 on the ladder and will they survive?

(Please do not tell occupational health and safety dept).

[Liowen]

Well I know if you EVA out during launch your Kerbal will fall off, so I am going to go with no they will not survive just based on that.

[A Fat Pokemon]

Well if you have enough explosive-ness maybe..

[Stargate525]

Short answer, no.

Kerbals tend to slide on ladders, and when in the atmosphere, that's even worse. If you have the time, your best bet is to get a lander can up there with dull capacity, rendezvous with your errant ship, and evacuate em.

[r4pt0r]

@8000m/s you aren't docking with anything lol

[SSSPutnik]

I can probably aero brake into a decent orbit... But the ladder sliding is a show stopper probably.

Problem is the main ship can't land.

Slight oversight on my part Forgot about getting them back down.

Its part of a challenge, if I send another ship to rendezvous its breaking the rules.

[ComradeGoat]

Why can't the main ship aerocapture?

[Tw1]

If there's something to stop them sliding, you may have a chance. It's unlikely, but you can always quicksave experiment, and try reentering with your ship pointed a few different ways, unless the challenge forbids this.

[Starwhip]

Me is assuming u no put 'chutes? That happens sometimes. Just aerobrake and send up a rescue ship. Or, EVA all the Kerbals and turn on "no crash damage". Or just let them die.

[Crown]

In case you have something that stops the Kerbals from sliding, but could have some troubles with them sliding onto each other. And I'm not sure if they can hold on to the ladder on parachute deployment.

[SSSPutnik]

Main ship CAN aerobrake, but not allowed rescue ship.

Will try and see tomorrow and report back

And sorry this was supposed to be in the questions area.

Edited January 27, 2014 by SSSPutnik

[I_Killed_Jeb]

You can probably aerocapture then rescue, even if the kerbals fall off they should be aerocaptured as well as they'd be treated like spaceships. You can use the EVA jetpack to raise periapsis

[numerobis]

Aim for land near sea level; use whatever you have to slow down. Your crew containers may survive if you can use other bits for crumple zones. Maybe.

[Randox]

I've landed with a Kerbal on the ladder once before. Messed up a rendezvous (read: accidentally ejected an engine) and ended up with an extra passenger on another craft. It depends on how well your craft can autoland (will it spiral out of control with the engines running and no input) and how comfortable you are switching to the Kerbal a lot during landing. You'll have to constantly control the EVA and move the Kerbal back up the ladder or they're gonna fall off, which means your lander is going to be descending, engines on, and you aren't going to be controlling it a lot of the time. You're also going to need a lot of fuel to keep it to a safe speed (you need to slow down before you deploy chutes).

I doubt you could do it with more than one, maybe two per ladder though. They slide pretty fast once the engines are running, and you will need to be able to control the lander for at least a two or three seconds at a time to make adjustments and switch back without them falling off. If you have six, you'd be better off trying to establish a circular orbit and sending another ship to rescue them.