Have you left kerbals to rot somewere

[Jack5.exe]

You've most likely got a rocket somewhere and left your kerbals there (gonna need some blunderbirds!) so if you did pls vote #RipJeb

Edited October 26, 2017 by Jack5.exe

[[insert_name_here]]

I had Val stranded on the surface of the Mun for around 100 in-game days until I finally decided to cobble together a rescue mission. Meanwhile, I still have Jeb in an inclined orbit around the Mun.

[Haruspex]

I had a few kerbals sit on the Mun for awhile in the early game, but they all were rescued eventually. Mun is too easy.

Then, I had a kerbal living for 30 years in a lander on Ike until a big Duna mission came around to refuel and rescued him.

And now, there's an engineer who's been living on Eve for 52 years. I already sent him a rover and going to provide him with a spacious lab shuttle and two more poor souls to keep him company. Looks like a start of a thriving colony!

 

 

Edited October 31, 2017 by Haruspex

[Scarecrow]

If I have a problem with a mission the first thing I do is organise a rescue mission.  No one ever gets left behind.

[Helmetman]

You need oxygen to make them rot, the only places where this can happen is Kerbin and Laythe.

All the other people are lying.

[linuxgurugamer]

Poor kerbals

[michal.don]

They're not stranded. They're colonising

[Tw1]

I call it an indefinite mission. 

[Slam_Jones]

I usually assume that they are able to hibernate and/or undergo photosynthesis, ergo not likely to rot in any sense.

That said, I've left Kerbals on nearly every stock body...

[Whisky Tango Foxtrot]

I'm a bit uncomfortable with the amount of time my Ike/Duna crew's spent away from home, mainly because whenever a Duna transfer window opened I always had more pressing matters to attend to than sending a relief crew and return module. I did end up sending them eventually, though, and the relief crew has already taken up their posts in the Duna and Mun space stations and ground bases, so now the original crew is loaded into the return module waiting for a transfer window to come back.

As for leaving Kerbals stranded because of a design and/or piloting error, fortunately I've been able to avoid that so far. I tend to "simulate" my missions before I launch them, especially the manned ones, so I haven't sent any Kerbals somewhere where I can't get them back. The fact that I'm pretty quick on the F9 key also helps.

[OhioBob]

I left a crew of three on Eve for about 20 years, but I did eventually mount a rescue operation to bring them home.  That was probably the biggest and most complex engineering and logistics operations I've ever conducted.  By the time I got them back home they were a little ripe, but not rotten yet.

[Red Shirt]

First time I landed on Eve, back in KSP 0.23, I had no idea leaving would be so difficult. Actually, during landing, gravity crushed the landing legs and caused engines to break off. I tried one unmanned rescue that landed successfully but could not make orbit. So, technically, I guess I didn't leave them to rot. 

Also, there is no entry for ran out of fuel, still circling in the depths of space forever. When I realize the utter hopelessness of such missions, self destruct becomes an option.

[something]

I don't leave Kerbals behind. Although, I have to admit that Jeb et. al. decided that staying on Duna for just 30 days was too short and consequently extended their trip a bit..

[dvp]

Mining/refuelling rovers can be on a planet for a very, very long time. Just saying.

[Cydonian Monk]

I always bring all of my kerbals home. I have no idea what you mean when you say I’ve left one stranded on Eve and eight stranded on Duna. Clearly never happened. And we brought 2/3rds of those stuck on Mün back to Kerbin. (The other 1/3rd is no longer a kerbal. Doesn’t count.) Well, ok, there’s that one from the crew of six at the münbase, but he’s off somewhere in a stolen spaceship, so....

No, we have no kerbals rotting anywhere because as helmetdude said above rotting requires oxygen.  

[Spricigo]

Does kerbals in the bottom of the crew roost that never get used count?

Does kerbals in the mid of mission when abandoning a save (like when update hits) count?

 

 

[MoarBoostersRUS]

Had a contract to land a kerbal on eve so I grabbed a random flew him out, and dropped him. Then I felt bad that he was alone so I brought him a rover to give him something to do.

Edited October 26, 2017 by MoarBoostersRUS

[NSEP]

The Orange Four live on Minmus, safe from Death.

[Fearless Son]

I never leave a Kerbal behind.  Ever.  

My first experience with the game was before science and career modes were added, and I did nothing but uncrewed launches and Munar landings until I was sure I had a good handle on playing the game, just so I knew I would not be risking lives unnecessarily.  Indeed, any extra-Kerbin exploration I do usually involves sending probes ahead of me before I send crewed missions just to make sure I know what I am sending them into.  

Now, I have miscalculated and left a few brave Kerbals stranded, whether in orbit due to lack of fuel, on the surface due to lack of fuel, or after a survivable crash due to mistiming my landing burn.  In that case my first priority is mounting a rescue expedition, usually armed with a little more practical experience with the specifics of the situation that got them stuck to begin with.

I might, in theory, leave some Kerbals "on station" somewhere, either in a space station or a surface outpost, for an extended period of time.  That science is not going to do itself!  But always with the option to return them when the low gravity is taking too big a toll and they need to rotate back to Kerbin for some well-needed recuperative physical therapy.  

56 minutes ago, MoarBoostersRUS said:

Had a contract to land a kerbal on eve so I grabbed a random flew him out, and dropped him. Then I felt bad that he was alone so I brought him a rover to give him something to do.

Have him drive that rover over to the top of a mountain (it might take a while.)  Land a rescue craft on that mountain top.  Should be easier than at see level (if still challenging.)

[Jack5.exe]

4 hours ago, Cydonian Monk said:

I always bring all of my kerbals home. I have no idea what you mean when you say I’ve left one stranded on Eve and eight stranded on Duna. Clearly never happened. And we brought 2/3rds of those stuck on Mün back to Kerbin. (The other 1/3rd is no longer a kerbal. Doesn’t count.) Well, ok, there’s that one from the crew of six at the münbase, but he’s off somewhere in a stolen spaceship, so....

No, we have no kerbals rotting anywhere because as helmetdude said above rotting requires oxygen.  

Like if you ran outta fuel and too lazy or dunno how to get him back 

[macbookacer]

I once had a space station called Spacelab 1. Long story short I launched around three Kerbals with the station itself (in one piece) but at the time I had no clue how to rendezvous in orbit so they were stranded. Another time I attempted to go to the Mun but the lander ran out of fuel just as it touched down on the surface so yeah... RIP.  

[MoarBoostersRUS]

@Fearless Son lol it was back in 1.2, he's the sole inhabitant for the rest of that savefiles life

[Inverurie Jones]

Came pretty close last night on my new Career game.

First manned Kerballed Mun land-and-return mission. Fluffed the orbit slightly, so I had to burn more fuel than anticipated to rendezvous with the Mun in the first place, which meant my 'Big Engine' ran out of fuel earlier on the approach than intended and I had to use more of the fuel from the 'Get Our Arses Back Home' supply to land on the Mun in one spaceship-shaped piece instead of one pancake-shaped piece.

Naturally, the fuel ran out early and left the KSS Trailblazer in orbit around Kerbin with an AP around 250,000 metres and a PE of around 68,000 metres. Watching it slooooooooowly bleed off height and speed with each dip into the atmosphere was...well, mindnumbing, actually. I was infinitely less frustrated, though, than I would have been had the PE been a couple of Km higher, I suppose.

'Oh, look, we're a space station now.'

Edited October 27, 2017 by Inverurie Jones

[Spricigo]

5 hours ago, Inverurie Jones said:

AP around 250,000 metres and a PE of around 68,000 metres

EVA propellant is infinite. How about your patience?

[septemberWaves]

I don't leave kerbals anywhere. The only times my kerbals don't return to Kerbin is if I get a serious mission failure (most often with ascent vehicles for larger worlds), but usually I test the technology extensively enough that this doesn't happen. And even if it does happen, that kind of "serious mission failure" is usually fatal pretty quickly, so it's not as if I'd be leaving them to rot in any case. I have yet to have any kerbals stranded with Kerbalism installed, and without it they live forever anyway so if they do get stuck somewhere there is always a rescue mission being sent in the next transfer window.

Edited October 27, 2017 by eloquentJane