Multiple pods on one launch

[mdkendall]

I built a thing with three pod-based satellites on the top, each connected to the main rocket below by a decoupler. It looked pretty snazzy. I intended to launch it, separate the three satellites then fly them around individually.

But when I got to orbit and decoupled everything, only one of the satellites appeared to be operable, and the other two just floated away like debris. I was expecting to be able to right-click them and choose "Control from Here" or something, but right-clicking them had no effect. What am I doing wrong?

I don't seem to be able to add images to my post, so here are images of the craft.

Edited July 13, 2014 by mdkendall
Answered

[Pecan]

My first guess is that they don't have batteries or solar panels so ran out of power and died. The Stayputnik on its own won't last long and without electricity you can't operate anything unmanned.

Just in case though ... you switch between ships either using '[' and ']' or by clicking and 'switch to' in map mode, not in the flight screen.

[SRV Ron]

No solar panels or batteries. They will all quickly die from no power in several minutes.

Now, if they had solar panels and an extra battery, they would remain independently controllable. But, you can only control one of them at a time.

An extreme example;

Probe ship under control while the mothership that launched it is in the background.

However, if they are entering the atmosphere for landing, all ships that get more then 2.5k away from the one you are controlling will vanish.

When close together, just use [ or ] to switch between ships. you will have control of the one in focus. If more then 2.5 meters away, you will have to manually select the ship or probe to control from Map Mode.

Edited July 12, 2014 by SRV Ron

[Claw]

In addition to what Pecan said (make sure they have power!), you might also be running into a rather obscure bug.

I recommend decoupling them one at a time instead of all at the same time. You can either set up the staging to activate a single decoupler per stage, or right-click and decouple.

(You can confirm if this is the problem by bring up the debug log with ALT+F12. Stage them all off together. If red error messages pop up then you'll have to decouple one at a time.)

[mdkendall]

Ah yes, no power; what an elementary mistake . You would have thought that with all those Kerbals running around inside the VAB, one of them would have noticed the omission. I will have to have a word with my chief rocket-ship designer. I believe he has made that mistake before; it's why I have a ship in orbit around the Mun that is completely full of fuel and also completely dead.

[cantab]

But when I got to orbit and decoupled everything, only one of the satellites appeared to be operable, and the other two just floated away like debris. I was expecting to be able to right-click them and choose "Control from Here" or something, but right-clicking them had no effect. What am I doing wrong?

Right-clicking a pod and choosing "Control from Here" sets the control location on the same ship. To switch control between different ships you need to use the [ and ] keys (only for nearby ships), or select the ship in map view or the tracking station and switch to it.

As mentioned, you also have limited power on those things, but the right-click menu still shows up on a powerless probe.

And a trick you can try for your probes: you can enable and disable batteries, including the Stayputnik's inbuilt batteries, by right-clicking them even when the craft is otherwise uncontrollable. Use this to "hibernate" probes then wake them up again when you need them. You can do stuff like Mun missions with just the Stayputnik, no battery or solar panel, this way.

[Pecan]

Ah yes, no power; what an elementary mistake.

It's one we've all made, and probably will again.

If you do make a habit of it you might like the pre-flight checklist mod, which is specifically designed to remind you of the little things we overlook.

[AlamoVampire]

Pretty ships on you guys.