Anyone tried Rescue Lodorf Kerman?

[Gurthang99]

Has anyone tried to rescue Lodorf Kerman? It's one of the contracts available. I am going to give it a go, but first I have to find him in orbit. Any ideas?

Thanks for the help.

[Moss]

It's a procedurally generated "Rescue Kerbal" contract. I've done a few. You can view where they are in the tracking station. Launch west to east while he's about 45 degrees behind (west of the space centre) you, then launch orbits. Alternatively you can launch into a massive orbit and then wait for a good transfer angle to happen.

[Tex_NL]

Rescue missions can be fun. And profitable. Just make sure your rescue vehicle has at least one empty seat!

Finding a stranded Kerbals is exactly the same as orbital redezvous.

Just ignore the docking part in the video. Instead once you're within 2.5km (closer is better) and relative velocity is zero switch to your stranded Kerbal with [ or ]. Activate his jetpack with R and gently guide him towards your rescue craft.

Once aboard de-orbit, land and recover ans usual.

Edited October 19, 2014 by Tex_NL

[bartekkru99]

And don't forget to have spare seat in your craft! I had to rescue him when he was on sub orbital trajectory, sounds easy? With deadly re-entry?

[Godot]

And best you wait for the start of your rescue rocket, till the Kerbal is in its orbit short before reaching the region directly above the Kerbal Space Center.

This saves you dV, as you will only have to equalize a short distance between your rockets location in orbit and that of the Kerbal

[S1gmoid]

One of my favorite mission types.

[Jeff Bird]

The two seat Radish in Orionkermin's mod. HGR Command Pods and 1.875m parts. Works really well for these rescue missions.

[AcidSludge]

Have you clicked on the "show EVAs"-Option in Map mode? At the top edge of the screen?

[worir4]

I hate those rescue missions. For some reason the pilot always complains of a loud thud and that his windows have been obstructed by a strange green goo. We never find the stranded kerbals....

[Njål Nilssen]

The two seat Radish in Orionkermin's mod. HGR Command Pods and 1.875m parts. Works really well for these rescue missions.

Works in early career too (with not too many parts unlocked), just by using two basic command pod's I like to have the top one the right direction, and the one under it up-side down.

[JtPB]

key rules:

1. if you want to go backwards to the target, make your orbit slightly higher than its.

2. if you want to go forwards to the target, make your orbit slightly lower than its.

3. if you accidently keep the crew module manned, you can EVA the kerbal out and tell him to jump of the ship. he will survive this.

[Srpadget]

As others have said, rescue missions are essentially exactly like rendezvous/dock except the last step is "kerbal jetpacks to pod hatch" rather than "ram the docking port at low speed".

There are two important differences, though, which cannot be stressed too much:

1) Do not thrust with your main engines while they are pointed directly at the kerbal you are trying to rescue. The rocket exhaust is capable of flinging the poor guy away from your rescue vehicle at high velocity. RCS maneuvering thrusters are much safer.

2) Someone else already said to shift focus/control to the recued kerbal for the final approach/grab/board using [ or ]. But I must stress that it MUST be done using those keys. The usual obvious methods used bymost beginning players (clicking in map view or select in tarcking station) will not work. [ and ] at short range is the ONLY way to gain control of the stranded kerbal.

[Godot]

One should add that [ and ] only is valid for QWERTY Keyboards.

If you use QWERTZ, the correct keys for switching between vessels are ß and ´

[DrMonte]

This is my favorite mission too. Just launch a mini shuttle. Grab unlucky one from space. Land at KSC.

Sometimes I merge this mission with some other by leaving an empty seat in some Moon lander.

[Gurthang99]

Wow, lots of great advice. Thanks for the help, everyone

[JtPB]

As others have said, rescue missions are essentially exactly like rendezvous/dock except the last step is "kerbal jetpacks to pod hatch" rather than "ram the docking port at low speed".

There are two important differences, though, which cannot be stressed too much:

1) Do not thrust with your main engines while they are pointed directly at the kerbal you are trying to rescue. The rocket exhaust is capable of flinging the poor guy away from your rescue vehicle at high velocity. RCS maneuvering thrusters are much safer.

2) Someone else already said to shift focus/control to the recued kerbal for the final approach/grab/board using [ or ]. But I must stress that it MUST be done using those keys. The usual obvious methods used bymost beginning players (clicking in map view or select in tarcking station) will not work. [ and ] at short range is the ONLY way to gain control of the stranded kerbal.

1) this situation almost never occurs anyway. at rendezvous, you almost always have to close the target by zeroing the relative velocity & then when you thrust the direction of the target you cannot impact it from this distance...

also, until you're in the range of 2.5 Km any physics doesnt being calculated, so your thrust will not meet the kerbal at any time...