What was your closest call in terms of delta-V?

[pauldbk99]

Just what the title says. I'm looking forward to your responses.

[Othuyeg]

An EVA from Minmus surface to LKO. I was not even well aware of efficient transfers, but managed it.

[YukiCruentus]

A shuttle not built to break orbit, made it. Not built to orbit the Mun, made it. Not built to land on the Mun, made it. Not built to return from the Mun, made it. Returning to an orbit that can drop low enough to EVENTUALLY fall out of orbit, used all my RCS to pull it off but MADE IT! -Jeb put on sunglasses and smoked a cigar-

[TheDataMiner]

On my first mun missions in career, jeb often has to get out and push

[Superfluous J]

Coming back from Ike, before I started a 62m/s burn to achieve an encounter with Kerbin's atmosphere, KER told me I had 84m/s left in the tank.

After that burn, KER read "--" for the m/s.

[4nxs]

A Cassini replica that had just enough delta-v to encounter Vall and complete a go around of the three largest Joolian moons. It is now left on a high inclination, eccentric Jool orbit with 0.something fuel left. I dug up a screenshot of the last two burns, first a Tylo gravity assist and then a near apoapsis burn for a Vall encounter.

Also, note the Huygens lander on Laythe.

[TheSaint]

Tylo return mission. After circularizing the orbit, the lander had 15 m/s left. Jeb and Bill had to sit tight while Bob brought the mothership around to pick them up.

[Guest]

One time I made a spaceplane... I docked with a defunct probe in order to reboot It... Then I thought I had enough Delta-V to get to my Space Station... then... I ran out of fuel and RCS.... So, I EVA'd then I MMU'd my way to the station... I ran out of MMU fuel, Then I was going in the right direction, So Jeb got in the station safely... and that was the only rendezvous I ever did... and now Jeb is whating for a ship to come and rescue him.

[Red Iron Crown]

I've gotten out to push on occasion, so I've definitely exceeded the margin at times.

[Pixel of Life]

I actually had my closest call just a few days ago. I landed on the Mun with 25 m/s remaining. That was about 9 units, or 5 seconds of fuel.

It was intense.

[sal_vager]

On more than a few occasions I've had landers that didn't have enough fuel left to make orbit, leaving me with no choice but to EVA and get to orbit via jetpack for later rescue.

With one Kerbal it's fun, with two or more it's hair raising!

[The Destroyer]

Apollo mission. Had to get out and push.

[SargeRho]

Ran out of fuel on the way back from Duna...the force of the capsule's decoupler combined with some centrifugal force was enough to drop if into the atmosphere of Kerbin.

[Mitchz95]

My first Dres mission had 4 m/s left when I got my final Kerbin encounter.

[KvickFlygarn87]

Well, Mun landing with the Kerbal X. I had less than 10 units of fuel left!

[NecroBones]

My closest call was my first trip to Moho, and it's subsequent rescue mission. After the lander returned to the orbiter, it was clear there wasn't enough fuel for the orbiter to return home. A rescue ship was sent. It docked to the lander/orbiter combo, and took all remaining fuel, transferred the crew, and then waited for the return window. Upon returning to the Kerbin SOI, I was able to come in with a landing trajectory with about 1% fuel remaining. Considering the rescue ship had taken everything from the mission vehicles prior to that, any additional fuel usage anywhere along the mission would have probably meant that the rescue would have failed.

[Kerba Fett]

My closest call was a few days ago. Ran out of fuel 25m above the surface of the Mun and the lander survived the fall intact. (mostly)

I blew 2 of the landing legs but was able to repair them on EVA and the lander didn't fall over when they extended.

Then I brought a methane miner down from orbit to refuel it. Had 25m/s of dV left after landing. I guess that would be my second closest call.

[Duke23]

First manned trip to Duna that actually returned was running on fumes when I guesstimated an aerocapture altitude at Kerbin and got it almost perfect. I had enough fuel to bring the PE back outside the atmo and fix the inclination a little. If it wasn't for the nice aerocapture I'd have floated right back out into Kerbol orbit and run out of fuel. That was my second ever successful aerocapture if I remember correctly...

[Pecan]

First interplanetary - to Moho! Well, there's a transfer window so often and I thought I'd better get on with it instead of waiting for somewhere easier.

Transfer vehicle sort-of made it in that it captured to orbit but the Ap was still high and it was also 'meant' to place its payload of 3 SCANSat satellites into their respective mission orbits. Thankfully the satellites themselves had sufficient deltaV for all the adjustments they needed so they all ended-up where they needed to be and the mission was a success ... With a footnote to be more careful with the intercept/orbit in future.

Second time I tried it - with the same transfer vehicle and payload (original save game got trashed) - the transfer vehicle even had enough fuel left-over at the end to de-orbit itself. I was relieved to find out it was by driving, not design, that was the problem.

[Alshain]

I just did yesterday, I had just enough fuel to get into a ~7600m orbit over the Mun before running out and had to send a fuel ship out to retrieve the lander.

Edited June 10, 2014 by Alshain

[Franklin]

5m/s left in the tank upon return descent but the game's far too forgiving with atmosphere approach/speed, so I should've been a goner. Being able to just slam back into Kerbin's atmosphere saves us a lot of return trip dV.

[James_Eh]

Returning from Duna in a large vehicle not meant to land on Kerbin. I had inadvertently put the MJ controller onto a part that I ditched early in the mission so I was guessing at the proper aerobrake peri as I only had the one chance given the low fuel levels. Emerged from aerobrake with 120 km apo and proceeded to try to circularize to avoid the second, ultimately orbit-killing drag in the atmosphere. Got the peri up about 500m above the top of the atmosphere before running dry. I suppose I could have gotten out and pushed, but it was a big big vehicle.

[TechnicalK3rbal]

Tried landing on the Mun with only SRB's. Overestimated by 15 DV

[Epthelyn]

Ran out of fuel in my science probe ~30m above the surface of Tylo.

Crash landed and somehow survived with some of the science equipment remaining and enough solar panels left to transmit it home

[J4CKAL2014]

Running out of fuel as I was trying to correct an orbital error, not having enough delta V to correct it and ending up on a sub-orbital trajectnirory with no heat shield on the craft and Deadly Reentry Continued installed. Parachutes overheated and exploded on the descent through the atmosphere.

Amazingly, the pod (this pod was the Taurus 3.75m pod, can hold 7 Kerbals, can highly recommend the mod) survived the descent. Its fitted with powerful booster rockets that give you about 3 seconds of power (presumably designed for ensuring a powered decoupling from a spacecraft when preparing for reentry), but I hadn't used them, so I waited until I was about to hit the water, fired the rockets and slowed my descent to about 10m/s, then fell into the ocean, hitting the water at about 20m/s. Crew survived

Edited June 10, 2014 by J4CKAL2014