Stranded on Venus

[EmberSkyMedia]

so a solid “love tap” by the heat shield on the lower engine during decent has essentially left the crew stranded on Venus.

the rockhopper required both stages to reach orbit and get home… a rescue mission is being considered but I’m not sure how to “hold” the capsule on the return journey as I “foolishly” tossed the docking port when that booster stage was depleted…

 

[MartianMan]

so a solid “love tap” by the heat shield on the lower engine during decent has essentially left the crew stranded on Venus.

the rockhopper required both stages to reach orbit and get home… a rescue mission is being considered but I’m not sure how to “hold” the capsule on the return journey as I “foolishly” tossed the docking port when that booster stage was depleted…

View attachment 86792

What i see is that you have no docking ports, with the rescue craft, you could grab the capsule but you cant timewarp with it as during timewarp the game turns off collision and the capsule will just float thru your rescue craft, you could try flying the rescue craft near the lander, timewarp until venus and earth are on a transfer window, grab your capsule and yank it into a return trajectory to earths atmosphere. I dont know if i explained it well enough or if it comes out as gibberish, but that way it could possibly be done. Would be a hot reentry tho

 

[Altaïr]

The major challenge here is to leave Venus atmosphere and reach orbit, the rest would be pretty straightforward.

You could try to land a rocket next to the one you want to bring back, and as your second stage is functional, place it on your rescue vehicle like that:


The maneuver is not easy though, I broke the RCS, and you have to make sure you don't burn the rescue vehicle below.

But then reaching orbit is easy:


If you manage to reach orbit with enough fuel remaining in your rocket, you can even get back directly to Earth without more assistance.

Of course, this means you will have to land a rescue vehicle next to your capsule, and it will have to have enough fuel to compensate for the huge drag you'll experience on Venus.

 

[EmberSkyMedia]

The major challenge here is to leave Venus atmosphere and reach orbit, the rest would be pretty straightforward.

You could try to land a rocket next to the one you want to bring back, and as your second stage is functional, place it on your rescue vehicle like that:
View attachment 86829 View attachment 86830 View attachment 86831

The maneuver is not easy though, I broke the RCS, and you have to make sure you don't burn the rescue vehicle below.

But then reaching orbit is easy:
View attachment 86832 View attachment 86833 View attachment 86834 View attachment 86835

If you manage to reach orbit with enough fuel remaining in your rocket, you can even get back directly to Earth without more assistance.

Of course, this means you will have to land a rescue vehicle next to your capsule, and it will have to have enough fuel to compensate for the huge drag you'll experience on Venus.

This is not a bad idea, although I’ll likely line the rescue catcher with heat shields. As for landing close I’m thinking a direct de orbit with active engines…. It’s ugly (fuelwise) but should be more accurate than guessing atmo drag given I want to preserve as much fuel in the landing craft as possible.

 

[Altaïr]

This is not a bad idea, although I’ll likely line the rescue catcher with heat shields. As for landing close I’m thinking a direct de orbit with active engines…. It’s ugly (fuelwise) but should be more accurate than guessing atmo drag given I want to preserve as much fuel in the landing craft as possible.

Be careful as the engine can also burn things through the heat shield though. Maybe try and repeat the maneuver on Earth before, I failed several times myself. For the fuel expense you're right, but that's the price of precision.