Not enough fuel for return trip

[Meta Jonez]

On the Mun. Spent too much fuel on landing, now do not have enough to get back to Kerbin. Actually, I don't even have enough to get into orbit around Mun again, but it's very close. I'm about 300 d/V short.

So I know I could send up a rescue mission. I have KAS an could land a fuel trucker near the lander and refuel him.

The lander has a lot of stuff on it - bunch of science experiments from DMOrbital, eight Materials Labs (I shrunk them to half size using Tweakscale) . . . I was thinking if there was a way to remove some of this stuff I could reduce my overall mass to a point where the fuel I do have would get me home.

Alas, the only way I know of to do so would be to edit the .craft file, which I am not inclined to do. So I am looking for a mod that would allow removing parts in-game but out-of-VAB. Does such a thing exist?

As for this particular mission, I will probably go with the rescue mission - it will be a good challenge to try to land another a ship within 20m of the lander. But I thought I'd ask the question - is there such a mod? and are there other solutions to this problem I haven't thought of?

Edited November 12, 2014 by Meta Jonez

[RizzoTheRat]

Not enough to get in to orbit is a pain, I've had to send a tanker out to Mun orbit to refuel but never tried it on the ground, I'm guessing you'll need a rover a Klaw on it? Might be easiest to only get enough fuel onboard to get it to orbit and then get more fuel from the rovers transfer stage. Best to think of these kind of issues as a opportunity to plan am exciting new mission

[Deddly]

How about using the Whack-a-kerbal feature in the debug menu to chip off the parts you want to remove?

[Tex_NL]

You already have a mod that could be used to remove some parts of your lander: KAS. All you'll need to do is edit some of the part .cfg files to allow your Kerbal to grab them.

[Cerberus738]

You could load all the science onto your pilot and have him EVA the last 300m/s to orbit. Then a rescue mission is much simpler. Pretty sure Kerbals have 500m/s in their jet packs.

[LethalDose]

You could load all the science onto your pilot and have him EVA the last 300m/s to orbit. Then a rescue mission is much simpler. Pretty sure Kerbals have 500m/s in their jet packs.

This is an excellent idea. You can also collect all the science from the parts and take it with you when you EVA, so you don't need to take all the science parts back with you.

[Meta Jonez]

You already have a mod that could be used to remove some parts of your lander: KAS. All you'll need to do is edit some of the part .cfg files to allow your Kerbal to grab them.

While I am trying to do this in-game, I understand what you are getting at. another question this brings up, though: Can I use the KAS claw to rip these parts off?

You could load all the science onto your pilot and have him EVA the last 300m/s to orbit. Then a rescue mission is much simpler. Pretty sure Kerbals have 500m/s in their jet packs.

This is an excellent idea. You can also collect all the science from the parts and take it with you when you EVA, so you don't need to take all the science parts back with you.

This is excellent. Had not occurred to me. Only caveat being that I am using TAC Life Support, I would have to have the rescue ship in place prior to the attempt. But he's got plenty of LS in his lander now, so it would not be a problem to wait.

Thank you for your replies.

[Kerba Fett]

It won't help you this time, but if you get Universal storage you can remove storage wedges by grabbing them.(if you also have KAS)

You'll also want to get Dmagic Orbital Science which has Universal Storage science instruments including the goo canister and material bay.

[SRV Ron]

Redesign the ship so you can stage away the material labs after taking the data to you return pod. That will help you when you fly the same mission in the future. Meanwhile, you can try the suggested method of getting your Kerbal to orbit and rescue or send a rescue ship to pick him up with the experiments.

[LethalDose]

Only caveat being that I am using TAC Life Support, I would have to have the rescue ship in place prior to the attempt. But he's got plenty of LS in his lander now, so it would not be a problem to wait.

Yeah, just launch your lander when the rescue vessel is right overhead and target it. Launch into orbit, and ditch, and just head right at your rescue vessel.