how to pick the kerbal from space? (mission)

[OptiSTR]

i got this mission where i have to pick a kerbal from space so...

1. how do i pick the kerbal? like, i lunched a rocket, but it says i need to fly around for 30 months before encounter...

2. when ill finally get close to him, how do i pick him up? and where do i place him as there is no place in the pod right?

[Anquietas314]

You generally want your orbit to be smaller or larger than the target (the kerbal's) orbit. If your target is ahead in your orbit, you want to be below them for as much of your orbit as possible to catch up. If you are ahead of your target, you want to be above (not too much!). When you get close, use [ or ] to switch to the Kerbal, then just get in the ship using his EVA pack

[StrandedonEarth]

As the above poster said, but you also need an empty seat to put him in. Either a mkI pod under probe core control or a multikerbal pod with an empty seat

[bdito]

You need a free spot for him. Just stack a second command pod Mk 1 on top of your main one and leave it empty.

[Anquietas314]

As the above poster said, but you also need an empty seat to put him in. Either a mkI pod under probe core control or a multikerbal pod with an empty seat

Well.... technically speaking you don't need to launch the seat to orbit as long as you can get the kerbal to KSC (see kraken drive / pushing ships via EVA / ...) But yes you probably should have a command pod on the ship you're picking them up with (make sure it's empty at launch!)

[OptiSTR]

well... i cant use probes yet, i haven't got the tech

[Anquietas314]

well... i cant use probes yet, i haven't got the tech

Stick a second, empty command pod on top of the one with a pilot in it then One parachute should be enough for both.

[eddiew]

Short version;

- get your orbit outside the kerbal's by about 10km, matching his inclination

- create a retrograde manoeuvre node that would bring your periapsis down to his altitude *somewhere*, then drag the node around your orbital path until you get some kind of intersect (you may have to advance an orbit or two)

- make the manoeuvre, warp to that intersect point

- put your navball in target mode and try to equalise your velocity with the kerbal (burn at the retrograde marker until you're at 0.5 m/s or less)

- if you're now within about 10-15km, great, just gently burn towards the target marker, and tweak your course to keep prograde on top of him. If not, consider repeating the above steps and trying again.*

- just keep the target and prograde markers aligned as you get closer, and avoid getting too fast. Arriving at 100m/s is useless because you'll overshoot, or worse, bump him away. 20's plenty! Use 10x warp if you're impatient.

- once you're hovering in visual range, burn retrograde to the best stop you can manage (true 0.0 m/s is hard, the game's numbers aren't accurate below 0.1)

- now it's easy to hit [ and ] to flip between the ship and your kerbal. Activate his RCS with R, and gently fly him over to the pod so's he can get on board

Scott Manley has a decent episode on rendezvousing with a space station - it sounds different, but it's basically exactly the same as a kerbal rescue mission. Yours should be easier, since all lost kerbals seem to be in a perfect equatorial orbit, so assuming your launch was good you'll probably only need to adjust the radius of your orbit

* being much beyond about 20km apart can do weird and counterintuitive things when trying to meet something in orbit. You need to be at a really similar altitude or you get swept away by your orbit quite easily.

[bdito]

Stack em like this. Just make sure one of them is empty on launch. You'll kick yourself if they're both full

[Anquietas314]

You'll kick yourself they're both full

Well, only if you actually care about the second guy

It's not worth the astronaut slot though early game.