Rescue a stranded kerbin

[Firefitter]

Can anyone help me better understand how to rescue the stranded kerbin in orbit without maneuver nodes?

So far what I plan to do is get into orbit and create an orbit close to the stranded kerbin's. I plan to make my apoaxis slightly higher than the stranded kerbins then wait. I should at some point align with him.

My question is how do I get on the same plane as the stranded kerbin without maneuver nodes? I need to complete this mission to get the money to upgrade mission control to get them.

Thanks guys,

Fitter

[*Aqua*]

1) Move your camera to view your orbit from the side. It should appear (almost) as a single line.

2) Now rotate the view until the Kerbal's orbit until it looks like a line, too.

3) When your rocket is at the cross point of the two orbits, burn to align the plane.

4) Now look from above to match apoapsis and periapsis.

Does that help you?

[sal_vager]

Here is a thread with help on rendezvous, basically get into an identical orbit that is either higher or lower, then burn pro/retrograde at the appropriate time.

The rest is really down to feel, you know a higher orbit will take more time and hence be slower, so to catch up to a craft or Kerbal you need to go lower.

[Pulstar]

Can you set the Kerbal as a target? I assume you can since you only need mission control upgraded, not the tracking station which allows that IIRC. Also that should show you your intersection and AN/DN nodes.

The hard part is getting close to the target. If you see intersections and target position at intersection this one is easy. Put the intersection at your apoapsis or periapsis. Burn retrograde (if the target will be in front of you at the intersection) or prograde (if it will be behind you) at that point until closest approach at intersection is close enough for final approach. This is fast orbital rendezvous for the impatient 101.

If you do not have intersection indicators it gets hard, you need enough delta-v and thrust, the solution is to get as close as you can (can be even 50km). I recommend going from a lower orbit and "catching up" to the Kerbal. See the pink marker showing the target's prograde vector? Burn so that your prograde and the kerbals overlap, not too much. When it does it means you will intersect the kerbal's orbit eventually, oat a point which should be closer to the target than your current distance. Depending on the distance/impatience burn prograde some more if you are far away to catch up a bit faster. Just don't burn too much or you'll find yourself needing to seriously decelerate or on a suborbital trajectory.

You wait until you get closest again and repeat. I recommend using KAC's "closest approach/rendezvous" alarm feature unless you are playing all stock.

Eventually by repeating that you should get close enough that all you need to do is match orbits by killing all velocity relative to the target and going on final approach.

If you can't set the kerbal as a target though, I have no clue.

[Whirligig Girl]

Rescue a stranded planet? Planets like Kerbin are waaaay too big to move, sorry.

Okay, fine, I'll be more specific. Here's the translation:

Kerbin=Earth

Kerbal=Human (Kerbal can also be an adjective which means "Similar to a Kerbal.")

Kerman=Williams (A very very common surname)

Kerbal Space Center=Kennedy Space Center

Kerbal Space Program=NASA, ESA, or some other space agency.

Kerbol=A Fan name for The Sun.

Kermin=No such thing. Some people like to use this to refer to female Kerbals, though.

Kermit=A Frog from The Muppets.

Mun=The Moon

Minmus=A second moon of kerbin

Duna=Mars

Eve=Venus

Moho=Mercury

Dres=Ceres

Jool=Jupiter

Eeloo=Pluto

Edited December 21, 2014 by GregroxMun

[carlpilot]

My way of doing it is to get close (>5 km) to the stranded Kerbal, then use their EVAPack to get to your ship.

-Carlpilot

[Anquietas314]

Kerbal=Human (Kerbal can also be an adjective which means "Similar to a Kerbal.")

<snip>

Jool=Jupiter

Eeloo=Pluto

Kerbal can also mean "like a Kerbal might do" ("That's a very Kerbal design right there", etc)

I'm not sure I agree that Eeloo is supposed to be Pluto though; its orbit would suggest Jool is actually Neptune if that were the case...

[StormKat]

I just got finished doing this kind of a mission. It was a real pain.

Watch the stranded Kerbal on the map view before you launch.

Wait or timewarp until Mr. Stranded is over the continent to the west of the KSC that looks like India and then launch.

Get into orbit. If you end up in front of Mr. Stranded, raise your orbit a few kilometers. If you end up behind him, lower your orbit a few kilometers.

Once you get under 8 kilometers away from him, you should see a marker on your main view with a distance value. Double-click on that marker and it should set Mr. Stranded as your target.

Try to keep your prograde marker over the top of your target marker until you get very close. Then press the "]" key to switch to Mr. Stranded and press "r" to activate his RCS pack.

Fly him to your ship and have him climb in.