Missions to recover missing Kerbals

[wronkiew]

I ran across a missed opportunity to move the game forward that shouldn't be too much trouble to implement. Jeb was killed trying to land on a cliff on Kerbin. He touched down two legs of the landing vehicle, then the whole thing pivoted upside down and exploded. It seemed impossible that anyone could have possibly survived such a crash, but the astronaut center listed him as "missing".

Miraculously, a couple of missions later, Jeb was back! He must have survived somehow and wandered back onto the base.

Here is what was missing. Why didn't I have to go mount a search and rescue mission to get him back? Earlier I had to rescue an unfortunate stranded in orbit using nothing but my rendezvous skills and the flicker of starlight. Jeb could have popped up as a career mission with no reward but his triumphant return and maybe some reputation points. Then I'd have to demonstrate some pinpoint landing skill to complete it.

[Bill Phil]

The big three automatically come back to life...

[wronkiew]

I'm suggesting a change to that feature for career mode.

[Tex]

I'd hate to harsh your mellow, but there actually are contracts to rescue Kerbals stranded in various places, the only ones I've seen, however, are all in some orbit around Kerbin.

Also, Jeb most likely came back because the "Missing Crews Respawn" option was checked green when you made the world... So the Big Three, at least, can respawn.

[vexx32]

I'm reasonably sure OP is aware of that; the suggestion is to expand the existing rescue contracts to encompass the recovery of previously lost or missing Kerbals, not just random ones generated for the sake of the contract.

[Thiagobs]

Neat idea!!

If the kerbal was lost/killed in space, it would pop up as a regular orbiting kerbal rescue, but if it was killed while on the ground or sub-orbital trajectory, it would pop up as a ground rescue...

While at it, the kerbal could have a flare, so you see the colored smoke in the distance while searching around the mission area...

[eddiew]

I'd be a lot more inclined not to F9 after crashes if I knew that there would be a mission back at KSC telling me to go pick up the crew. I'd accept the loss of the ship, it's the dead kerbals that break my lil heart