Does anybody MANUALLY recover their crew pods?

[TeeGee]

Wacko question but just for fun I was wondering if anybody recovers their crew pods after splashdown or landing MANUALLY. What do I mean?

1) You land after reentry sequence safely on Kerbin.

2) As opposed to pressing "recover pod" or whatever, you send out your OWN recovery vehicle to grab the pod yourself and bring it back to the KSC.

3) When the pod is brought back to the KSC, THEN you can recover it for refurbishment.

I'm thinking about playing the game this way and to be honest, it sounds like a fantastic idea if I do say so myself. It makes the whole rocket launch much more involved than by just pressing a button to recover the mission.

[Randox]

I think I land too frequently in locations that are not at all close to the KSC to be doing this (as in, I like to land in oceans on the other side of the planet because I have terrible aim when it comes to atmo landings).

I have however built a craft that is capable of completing this tast in any location, though I think it's fuel capacity was limited to probably 20 minutes carrying a heavy payload, perhaps 40 unloaded. Now that I have a joystick instead of just a controller, it might be worth checking to see if I can still get the mod and rebuild this craft. Or I can boot up version 19 and fly it there I guess.

The prop engines can rotate. Unloaded, typically fly as a plane with the engines at 30 degrees. Can take off and land as a plane perfectly well. At high speeds with cargo, typically 70 degree rotation on the engines was possible, often flew them at 90 anyway. 90 degrees for all VTOL operations obviously. Maximum lift capacity was probably 110%-120% of the craft weight. More if the fuel tanks were running low. However, past about 80% it would take long enough to get cargo airborne that you really had to fight the craft tendency to slam into the ground instead.

At 10 degree engine rotation, it makes a decent rover too (in 0.19, the engines at 0 degrees would pull the rear end up before the brakes became unstuck. Would probably be fine in 0.25).

Lift is achieved by magnetic grapple. I think some modifications would be needed for indefinite carry. The batteries this version carries, along with the solar panels are good for 7 minutes. It is often much easier to land and attach the grapple manually then it is to land the grapple on target from the air. Used the magnetic version that requires power so that cargo could be jettisoned without the need to land, which saved a few crashes.

Was a very fun craft to fly, of very limited use. It was less fun to build. Very touchy on the engine placement, and I never got it quite perfect because of the way the engines rotate (they are weight forward when in the down position, which makes them hard to balance for VTOL use).

Edited October 29, 2014 by Randox

[pauldbk99]

I just pretend they are picked up when I press recover.

[Pecan]

I land at KSC.

Or crash with only debris to recover.

[Claw]

Some people do (not many).

The awesome thing about KSP is that if you want to manually bring back your stuff, you can!

If you are running pure stock though, it can be a challenge. That's because "realistic" stuff like recovering with boats or trucks/rovers takes a really long time. Using something flight worthy is certainly faster, but also likely requries as much finess as attempting to land near KSC to begin with.

Either way, good luck and have fun!

-Claw

[Hodo]

I used to when I launched rockets with capsules. But now I only send out recovery craft when one of my SSTOs crash and has a crew pod ejection and rescue operation.

[Wanderfound]

I'm usually coming down on landing gear rather than parachutes, so the only time I'm not landing at KSC is when I have an out-of-fuel whoopsie. Those I usually recover, although I have occasionally considered using KAS and sending out a refuelling tanker.

Overshooting the runway (stock landing gear brakes are lousy) and taxiing back home from somewhere in the west KSC paddock happens fairly regularly, though.

[magico13]

I think I may do this with crew, sending out planes/cars/boats to pick them up and letting the outsourced recovery crew handle recovery of the debris craft. Except if it's close to KSC, then I could probably send out my own recovery crane/vtol.

[AbortButton]

I built a boat that recovered two pods and pushed them on the shores near KSC, but it broke when I did a sharp turn while attempting to recover the third.

[TeeGee]

Yeah but if you think about it, in reality the mission doesn't end until the crew is recovered and brought back home; getting through reentry isn't the end of a mission, putting 2 feet safely back on the porch of your home is.

Maybe I should start a spacecraft exchange thread that allows people to outsource their recovering vehicles to others in this forum (like me for example). I would definitely like to dload what others have designed and used to recover their crew pods.

Edited October 29, 2014 by TeeGee

[DeathSabre]

That seems a bit tedious to me.

I just try and land close as i can to the KSC

[The_Rocketeer]

I like your style. Do you work in customer service?

However, having tried this once or twice (built an excellent Chinook chopper using KAX and KAS mods for this very purpose) I have to agree with DeathSabre. It goes wrong too often to be fun, and the long-haul flights out get really, really boring.

[Alshain]

I'm usually coming down on landing gear rather than parachutes, so the only time I'm not landing at KSC is when I have an out-of-fuel whoopsie. Those I usually recover, although I have occasionally considered using KAS and sending out a refuelling tanker.

Overshooting the runway (stock landing gear brakes are lousy) and taxiing back home from somewhere in the west KSC paddock happens fairly regularly, though.

This exactly.

[Mystique]

Never even had such idea, generally because real time lost for doing so is not worth the fun for me. Second thing is aerodynamics and plane/rover controls, which I don't like too much, especially taking into account huge danger of going FUBAR when on physical time warp. Anyway, I usually land either at KSC or near its shores or on grasslands just near KSC, so I can just consider that Jeb can make it on foot from there when I press "recover" button

[sal_vager]

Before we got the recovery button I tried this a few times, not so much on Kerbin though as on the Mun and Minmus.

This was also before physwarp, docking and the claw...

Back then we'd have to try to gather up the pod using landing legs and return home at normal speed, unless we wanted the pod to float through the rescue craft, or drop it deliberately and try to pick it up again later before reaching the atmosphere (much fun).

Descents were also difficult, when that parachute opened the mass of the pod would push it through the rescue craft...

[MasseFlieger]

I'm starting to now in my new career save, mostly with KerbinSide additional sites, I am building an infrastructure of naval and air vehicles stationed where they can be quickly recovered or refueled with trucks, etc. Makes for an awesome (for me) time in transporting materials/supplies to keep up with all the stationed assets since Kerbal Construction Time denies the quick launch of something I might need that minute (I also have random failures - DangIt which mandates training of the kerbals for maintenance, etc.)

That and a remote tech ground infrastructure rather than several satellites in orbit is keeping me busy (I have more fun at Kerbin rather in space anyway).

[eddiew]

Think I'm far too lazy for this... although it does provide something else to build, if I ever run out of other stuff that needs doing xD Until then I shall continue to fly my jets half way around the globe for a Fine Print mission, then parachute them to ground and recover them quickly

[Kerba Fett]

It might be fun the first time or 2 you did it, but after that you'd just have an exercise in tedium. Just because somebody needs to pick up the capsule doesn't mean I need to control that character.

I'm sure somewhere in the Kerbal Space Center is a janitor mopping floors and scrubbing toilets, but I don't need to supervise what he's doing either.