My great failure... and great triumph

[RocketBlam]

One of the worst missions I have flown yet... and also one of the best.

I Redesigned my lander upon researching RCS rockets. I added some RCS fuel and thrusters, and jetted off to Minmus.

Upon landing, a horrifying reality: My final stage rockets did not work. At all. I was falling toward Minmus at about 10 m/s with no ability to slow down and no ability to return to orbit.

I sometimes cheat, I admit this, but in this save, I had decided I would never cheat, not even a little. So I first started to think about ways to recover my Kerbonaut -- the famous Jebediah Kerman - because there was no way to land like this. Once I discarded my transfer stage, I would have no rocket power. There was no option to land - or was there?

"So don't discard your transfer stage," some idiotic voice in my head said. "Land on it."

Land on it! Land a top-heavy vehicle on uneven terrain, with nothing to support it but the thrust chamber from your transfer stage?

I gave it a try. And it worked.

So from the sheer stupidity of designing a lander that could not possibly return to orbit, to landing on a little rocket thruster, with my landing gear 30 feet off the ground, here is how it went down.

I somehow managed to land on my transfer engine.

Upon returning to orbit, I transferred the fuel out of the lander into the transfer stage.

Finally, I landed back at Kerbin, chastised, yes. Embarrassed, yes. But so glad that Jebediah was alive. And having earned some science too, which was nice.

Edited May 4, 2014 by RocketBlam

[Tank Buddy]

Very Nice! Why wasn't your lander's engines working?

I also believe this should be posted in Mission Reports under Fan Works.

[Wampa842]

Lithobraking is a completely valid landing method, as long as it doesn't turn into lithobreaking.

[RocketBlam]

It couldn't land because I foolishly put the RCS monopropellant tanks between the rockets and the rocket fuel. At least I assume that is the reason.

You can see it clearly in screen #1.

Edited May 4, 2014 by RocketBlam

[Rus-Evo]

Was it a rescue mission or did you transfer fuel down to the bottom?

Also did it keep tipped up just with gyros?

[SkyRender]

I suggest, if you want to get the fullest thrill possible from a vanilla save, you also try playing sans MechJeb and with no quicksaves. Missions get a lot more interesting when you have no autopilot to fall back on and no way to save a pilot if you botch your landing maneuvers.

Anyway, well done on having an unexpected contingency in place. It's a good thing you packed extra fuel for the mission! One relevant tip for future missions: always test your landers on the launchpad to make sure they operate as intended! It can save a lot of embarrassment and avert catastrophes.

[NecroBones]

It couldn't land because I foolishly put the RCS monopropellant tanks between the rockets and the rocket fuel. At least I assume that is the reason.

You can see it clearly in screen #1.

That shouldn't break it, I don't think. RCS tanks are meant to be stacked inline with fuel tanks. It's worth double-checking I guess. If it says "no fuel crossfeed" in the item description, then you have your answer.

Thinking back on my designs, I don't think I've ever put that particular tank at the bottom of a stack before.

[KerbMav]

The two engines are in the stage with the parachutes. If you stage once, you will decouple your transfer stage but not activate the two engines.