Really Big Rescue Mission

[The Jedi Master]

I'm planning to do a rescue mission the size of which has never been before seen. You see, I have a kerbal stranded in orbit and two kerbals stranded in different places on the Mun. Of course, I could just launch seperate three rescue missions, but I decided, that's the way Bob does it! I'm going to launch three vessels into orbit at once, and have them run simultaneously complete their missions. Not because it is easy, but because it is hard!

Of course, I need advice on this huge endeavor, so I appeal to the great hive mind that is the KSP community. Just give all the advice you can. You'll see the results--trust me!

Edited May 1, 2014 by The Jedi Master

[Taki117]

is a good place to start. Also, why not build a mother ship with a single lander. You can use a hitchhiker for crew storage, and just use the lander for quick hops. I would use This dV map to help with planning your mission. Also, even though you are going to the Mun I would use Nuclear Engines so that you have enough dV for the lander.

[KingMatthew]

I would try to have the mun landing craft to be light enough to use nuclear engines. That should give you a lot of deltaV so you can do a big hop to get both kerbals with one craft

[The Jedi Master]

is a good place to start. Also, why not build a mother ship with a single lander. You can use a hitchhiker for crew storage, and just use the lander for quick hops. I would use This dV map to help with planning your mission. Also, even though you are going to the Mun I would use Nuclear Engines so that you have enough dV for the lander.

Can you embed that video? Full YouTube is blocked on my computer.

[Tw1]

I wonder if you could to it with one launch.

Perhaps build a big, fuel filled nuclear engined command module, with a tiny little one man/probe core based, single stage Mun lander. This must have a docking port- probably not RCS, as the CM has that. Maybe use EVA seats to minimise weight. The minimalist lander can be refueled from the CM, so it can land twice.

Oh, ninja'd look "great minds think alike" or whatever.

The Starfighters link in my sig is about a multi kerbal rescue, (and at the end of the thread is a link to another), but those kerbals were not that far apart, so the situation may not be comparable. Edit: Re-reading that myself, looks like you already did read that.

Edited April 29, 2014 by Tw1

[Taki117]

Can you embed that video? Full YouTube is blocked on my computer.

I sure can.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=38IYZUizX3Eî¼Âî¼Â

[Champ]

Can you embed that video? Full YouTube is blocked on my computer.

Watching KSP forum at work is no good for your productivity !

Who said i'm jealous because KSP forum is blocked at my work ?

[The Jedi Master]

Watching KSP forum at work is no good for your productivity !

Who said i'm jealous because KSP forum is blocked at my work ?

Not work, parents. Long, gossipy story.

[vger]

You can use a hitchhiker for crew storage

Heh, I just don't trust how fragile they are though. If you want to get someone back to Kerbin in one, you've got to make it a lander. Chutes won't keep it from blowing up.

[Amaroq]

Heheh -- yeah, my first rescue ever had a hitchhiker underneath a Mk 1-2 pod, sent up with 1 crew thanks to the Crew Manifest mod (at the time). Everything went swimmingly, got everybody hooked up, brought them all back to LKO, descended ...

.. and when the chutes unfurled, the hitchhiker fell off the bottom of the Mk 1-2 to a big ker-splat.

(Luckily, I'd moved Jeb to from the hitchhiker to the Mk1-2, so he survived, but still.)

[Taki117]

Why not put parachutes on the hitchhiker? Assuming you are not using DRE a set of 4 radials should do quite nicely.

[The Jedi Master]

All right, here is why I asked: Framerate Games is doing a livestream on Twitch tonight at 6:00! We are saving Jeb, Bob and Hans! Keep those tips coming!

[Sirrobert]

Well, if I was in your position, I'd launch 1 big mothership with a few tiny landers on it.

1 person landercan, minimal amount of fuel, and smallest legs. Than just get the mothership in orbit and land the tiny landers next to the stranded kerbals.

So make sure the landercan is empty. So you'll need to put on a probe body. Make sure you have a few solar pannels on the thing (and/or batterys, in case your kerbal is on the night side)

Depending on how far the grounded kerbals are, you can land one, than switch back to the motheship and land the othe one. Than load up the first kerbal and take off again before the mothership has done a full orbit.

For the kerbal in orbit, you could either randevous with him with the mothership itself, or build a small probe with a seat on it to fetch him (like an RCS bike)

[EdFred]

I would do it thusly:

3 man Command module ship (manned with a single Kerbal) w/chutes and

1 Two man lander can (with chutes)

Go rescue the orbiting Kerbal as you would do any other standard rescue mission.

Go to Mun, send down 2 man LC piloted by 1 Kerbal, leaving the other in the CM.

Rescue Kerbal #2

Rendezvous with CM.

Refuel LC.

Rescue Kerbal #3.

Return to LKO.

Undock LC from CM.

Deorbit CM and recover.

Deorbit LC and recover.

Of course the question is what if you can't leave Kerbal #2 alone with Kerbal #1 or #2 will eat #1, and you can't leave #1 alone with #3 or #1 will eat #3. THen how do you plan the rescue....

(fox, chicken, bird seed, river crossing problem)

Edited April 30, 2014 by EdFred

[The Jedi Master]

Of course the question is what if you can't leave Kerbal #2 alone with Kerbal #1 or #2 will eat #1, and you can't leave #1 alone with #3 or #1 will eat #3. THen how do you plan the rescue....

(fox, chicken, bird seed, river crossing problem)

Don't worry, we make sure that our kerbals have good chemistry. Then again, Hans might be a bit mad that we left him stuck for so long...

[sauliukas]

Sirrobert plan is good one.

For me rescue missions are easy, because then I plan a trip to new celestial I build infrastructure first, then try landing on it.

My infrastructure is:

Space station in LKO which acts as crew quarters and fuel depot.

SSTO for crew transfers between Kerbit and Station in LKO.

Rocket for Space Station refueling.

Fuel tanker in LKO, docked to space station.

Spacecraft for crew transfer in space.

Mothership which acts as forward operation base. Has 2 landers and 1 support craft. I have a set of landers which are customized for each celestial body, so then I know where I will send the mothership I just equip it with proper landers.

Then I decide to explore new celestial I just send my Mothership there and it acts as orbital base.

After I have a mothership in orbit of celestial I want to explore. I send my rovers/landers or base and if there is some problems and I need to rescue the crew which were stranded there I just use my motherships landers to pick them up. Wait till taxi comes from Kerbin and ship them back to space station in LKO. Once they are there I just use my SSTO to pick them up and return to Kerbin.

I will release all my basic infrastructure ships later, but some of them are still prototypes and I need to put them in 1 package. So need more testing and etc. Currently I am not focused in that.

Edited April 30, 2014 by sauliukas