Abandon ship!

[Foxster]

(Challenge updated for a wider range of solutions - 4 Feb 2015)

Here's a fun one for you all...

You have a ship in orbit and things have gone seriously pear-shaped. You need to get your man outa there! Thing is, the escape capsule has been jarred loose from the main ship.

So, basically, you need some way to boost an undocked and thrustless Mk1 capsule back to Kerbin.

Here's my effort...

I've undocked the capsule and I'm ready to use the decoupler and light the booster together. After that its all down to being pointed in the right direction and a big slice of luck.

A few rulelettes...

1. You can fly the capsule to orbit docked but before the de-orbit boost it must be undocked.

2. You can use any engine or booster to accelerate your escape pod but it must not be attached to the Mk1 when running.

3. Once the engine/booster is lit then no steering.

4. The main craft will be recovered later and so must remain in it's current orbit.

5. All stock. No mods that alter parts or physics.

6. Your Kerbal must make it safely to the ground and he must be in the Mk1 capsule with nothing attached other than a chute and power.

7. Orbit must be stable with Ap and Pe 70km or higher.

8. The spirit of the challenge is to use a railgun-type contraption to fire an undocked capsule towards Kerbin. If you want to try to find clever ways around the restrictions then I reserve the right to ignore your entry.

The winner is the person who gets their capsule closest to the KSC but just getting your Kerbal safely down anywhere on Kerbin is it's own reward.

I'd like to see a screenshot of the craft in orbit, the booster lit (if possible), a map shot of the capsule's homeward-bound orbit and a map shot showing how close the landed capsule is to the KSC (a Mechjeb landing guidance panel or similar might help with that).

Let's save our Kerbal!

Edited February 4, 2015 by Foxster

[panzer1b]

If i ever some time to just screw around ill try to pull this off, provided i can use a mass driver, and given i already use mass drivers here and there for various maneuvers.

Btw, are mass drivers allowed? Cause i could so use two SRBs to get a recoilless mass dirver to blast the kerbal home (made a mass driver frigate a while back, and ive used that to fire off small ships or missiles at stuff). The frigate ive made a while back was able to launch a small pod with a engine on it and 1 kerbal to duna (well i had to do quite some course corrections but that ship probably needed 100 dV to actually obtain a decent aerobraking attempt). If there is a limit of 1 SRB, i do believe i could pull off a recoil based mass driver that would just be disposeable and fly off somewhere after being fired up.

[Foxster]

If i ever some time to just screw around ill try to pull this off, provided i can use a mass driver, and given i already use mass drivers here and there for various maneuvers.

Btw, are mass drivers allowed? Cause i could so use two SRBs to get a recoilless mass dirver to blast the kerbal home (made a mass driver frigate a while back, and ive used that to fire off small ships or missiles at stuff). The frigate ive made a while back was able to launch a small pod with a engine on it and 1 kerbal to duna (well i had to do quite some course corrections but that ship probably needed 100 dV to actually obtain a decent aerobraking attempt). If there is a limit of 1 SRB, i do believe i could pull off a recoil based mass driver that would just be disposeable and fly off somewhere after being fired up.

I'm not sure what you mean by a mass driver but as long as you adhere to the rules and the spirit of the challenge then I'd be very interested to see what you come up with.

[Ethanadams]

I used hyper edit to get everything in place BUT not to complete the challenge is that cheating?

[Foxster]

I used hyper edit to get everything in place BUT not to complete the challenge is that cheating?

Nah. That's all good. Its not about getting the craft up there, its about getting your Kerbal back. I wouldn't like to think that you used HE to line up your shot though. Edited February 3, 2015 by Foxster

[DaPatman]

Here's my entry, which uses a recoilless mass driver made out of two SRBs:

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[Foxster]

That's pretty darned cool. I had no idea that would work.

Is it as simple as it looks or do I need a craft file to try it?

Its certainly not quite what I had in mind but we'll see what others come up with.

[DaPatman]

Pretty simple - you just need to have a pair of engines pointing in opposite directions. I threw that one together in about five minutes, despite never having built a mass driver before now.

I might try something like your method anyway, since it seems like it would get you down quicker, which could be important in an abort scenario. That'll have to wait until tomorrow though, - it's past midnight here, and I ought to get to bed.

[Foxster]

Umm, I'm struggling. I built what looks the same as your MD but it didn't impart any thrust to the capsule. Only dV I got was from the stack separator.

[Foxster]

Ok. Getting somewhere now...

Decoupled the capsule and then lit the boosters. Capsule was pinged away.

I'd say this meets the spirit of the challenge in that the capsule was decoupled and the only force came from the one booster. However, the force is a short duration and so only just enough for a de-orbit. Not sure of the accuracy, might be better, dunno.

[Coga19000]

*Jebadiah lands with his capsule next to the KCS*

Heh heh... They called me mad! They said a spacecraft is not like a car, that you can't just get out and push... But I proved them wrong! I PROVED THEM WRONG!

HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA

Edited March 5, 2015 by Coga19000

[Sampa]

question...Can we design the original boosting stage to be able to be remotely controlled to deorbit the said capsule and than boost back to orbit?

[Foxster]

question...Can we design the original boosting stage to be able to be remotely controlled to deorbit the said capsule and than boost back to orbit?

Err. No.

Once in orbit you gotta detach the capsule and then fire an engine or booster so that it pushes, drags, smashes or forces the capsule downward without being attached to it.

[ihtoit]

I did this already (January 1-3 to be specific) with a manned recovery to a soft landing and vehicular crew recovery. Does this count as a Gatecrasher? Stock except for MechJeb and engines.

A few sample images:

Approach

Capture

Wrestling with a glitchy decoupler

Got it

Deorbit burn

Retro burn for a vertical drop somewhere near KSC

This is the puppy that made the 11km journey to retrieve the crews

Rover and Recovery sharing the limelight

Had to knock Recovery over to safely get the crew out. Note to self: install platform and ladder.