Recovering...? And the Jebediah maneuver!!!

[Makolic]

Has anyone else recovered a space ship, when it ran out of fuel..? By pushing it back, using the kerbal EVA jetpack?

I have some pictures. Where my space ship was at the Mun, during my rescue operation. What had happen was rather embarrassing. I made the corrections need to get back to kermin. However, I did not account for the Mun to pull me back. So I ran out of fuel. Had a kerbal inside and some scientific data I wanted. So my bright Ideal was to spend nearly 2 1/2 hour. Pushing the space ship back. What gave me this idea? I started to think about what you would do. If your car ran out of gas not far from your home. In my case I would just push it back.

So by channeling Jebediah, I manage to push the rocket all the way home. (Succesfully)

The second question is simple. Should this technique be called the Jebediah maneuver?

Stranded in space, no fuel, and carrying very important scientific data. The kerbal scientist scramble to find away to recover the rocket and Kerbal. However, Jebediah Kermin was tired of listening to the science geeks. So took matters into his own hand. When he started to push his rocket back home. Scientist tried yelling at Jeb, only to find he had cut communication. After several hours of watching the trail and clock. All the scientist were struck dumb when it worked. Several scientist retired that day, while others still deny it being possible.

Jeb only had this to say. "Eh?"

Jeb had gone home with his beautiful wife. Who only commented on her hero receiving the best care and rest.

[ScopusAurelius]

I have used this Jebediah Maneuver. I suspect that most players have. Push, go in and get fresh RCS, go out and push...

[randomness5555]

You aren't the first to do this-even i've tried it (but ran out of mono-prop and resorted to the debug menu)-but you are the first one to give it a name. And yes, the Jebadiah manouver is a cool name for it.

[boa3532]

You're not the first, but you did join an elite group! All hail the Jebediah Maneuver.

[EdFred]

I'd just build another ship, have Jeb collect all the data, rescue Jeb with the second ship just like the rescue contracts, and bring all the science home that way until I unlock the claw. Then go dock, transfer fuel and recover. I did the second part this weekend. My Munar command ship didn't have enough (any) fuel left to return to Kerbin. I have never done a get out and push maneuver.

I've never pushed my car when it's run out of gas (and it has happened to me once).

[SlyReaper]

Surely it's the Princess Leia manoeuvre? For being the first to say "would it help if I got out and pushed?".

[Makolic]

Now only if we could get more people to use the name. There should even be a tutorial, where Jebediah himself walks you through it. XD

- - - Updated - - -

I don't know, I mean yeah she said it. But they had futuristic stuff, and quick rescue options. XD

[firestorm126]

Yeah the Jebediah manoeuvre is a great way to do things ... it's helped me with few tests where i messed up my orbit because i wasn't paying attention and ended up with an apaposis of like 500km but a periapsis of like 65km... then you just push through the periapsis get to the apaposis and do the jebediah movement that last 5km

[Skorpychan]

Surely it's the Princess Leia manoeuvre? For being the first to say "would it help if I got out and pushed?".

This. I feel the Jebediah Maneuver would be what I did to save my first Mun landing after the lander tipped over. I had to roll the craft around on reaction wheels until it was pointed uphill, retract the gear, shove it upright with the reaction wheels, then extend the gear before the engine hit the ground and snapped off.

I have since learned from this, and made wider landers.

[katateochi]

Surely it's the Princess Leia manoeuvre? For being the first to say "would it help if I got out and pushed?".

While I like "Jebediah Manoeuvre" as its name, the Princess Leia Manoeuvre might be even better.

I've done this several times as a desperate last resort in the past and while its worked (with the exception of that one doomed mission that got stuck in a solar orbit) it is rather tedious. So now all comand pods are fitted with at least one inline RCS port (and before pods had RCS they all got a small RCS tank). Still have to turn the pod around to fire in the right direction but its still a lot faster than pushing.

If you do have to get out and push, I've found that at the end of each push the Kerbal can spin out of control and waste a load of EVA pack fuel, and if you're running close to the line you could find yourself floating adrift. The trick I've found to stop the wierd spin out when you stop pushing is to switch off the EVA thrusters before you let go of the W key.

[Pecan]

What's wrong with GOAP, we need abbreviations and jargon to distinguish us from 'ordinary' people ^^.

"One, very Kerbal, solution is to 'get out and push' - you have infinite EVA fuel so get the Kerbal to push the pod retrograde using the suit RCS, re-board the pod to refuel the suit, repeat as required until the periapsis is in the atmosphere and aerobraking will do the rest for you." (http://forum.kerbalspaceprogram.com/threads/79658-Exploring-The-System-A-design-tutorial-campaign?p=1167684&viewfull=1#post1167684)