Failure is Not an Option, Gentlemen.

[Ernst Eckert]

So my Space Agency has run into an issue...probably the largest I've ever encountered before, and it demands the likes of a solution I don't have a whole lot of experience with. So allow me to detail what happened below.

I sent a three man crew to land on Minimus, and they did land. But while one of my Kerbonauts was out exploring one of the frozen methane lakes, I decided that it would be better to move the lander to him, rather than him to the lander because of the distance. So I took the lander to just about one click north of the exploring Kerbonaut (the first man from my agency to set foot on Minimus.), Elcott Kerman. However, the lander ran out of fuel on the burn to land, and crashed - resulting in the death of two Kerbonauts, and the marooning of Elcott.

So I set a rescue operation into motion immediately. Another craft landed just three clicks west of Elcott and he was able to board the crew tank of the recovering ship. I decided to leave the recovering ship there for a while just so I had an established presence on Minimus. Until yesterday. When I chose to bring Elcott and the rescue crew home. However, the rescue landing had to be precise and thus it was fuel intensive (I'm still working to perfect landing and insertion technique, I definitely have improved a lot.) So when I lifted them off, they escaped Minimus orbit on a trajectory that put them into a heliocentric orbit. I sent out two rescue crafts to try to intercept them before they were flung into orbit with the sun, but neither yielded any success as craft rendezvous is not something I've ever done before.

So now Elcott and his rescue crew are orbiting the sun - and I need some guidance on how to handle the rescue operation.

tl;dr

1. Craft went to Minimus

2. Craft lifted off from Minimus

3. Craft has escaped Minimus orbit and is orbiting the sun.

4. I need to rendezvous with them.

5. Suggestions?

[vexx32]

Ouch... a rendezvous in Kerbol orbit... Well, that is going to take a long time... :/ Very little experience with rendezvous myself, though...

[Ernst Eckert]

Well I've landed on on the Mun and Minimus, and I've got the whole ISA MapSat/Exploring Special Locations thing going on right now. So I could use a good challenge. Plus it will be some interesting mechanical practice for going to other planets I would fathom. But I dont know a whole lot about rendezvous in Kerbol orbit. I wouldn't even know where to start.

[Endeavour]

I've never needed to rendezvous in Kerbol orbit (thank God), but if I was going to, I would make sure the rescue ship had plenty of fuel to use in Kerbol orbit. Then just get into a lower or higher orbit than the stranded ship and timewarp. I would do some math to get things close, then EVA across. But you really don't need to do math. Just wait until they are close and match the orbits. Good luck.

[Serratus]

I's no different that any other rendezvous. Just bigger, and as @vexx32 wrote - will take a-lot of time. I suggest You Take a look at orbital mechanics 101. There is a tutorial for this stuff.

Barfred Kerman is screwed thou.

[EndOfTheEarth]

How deep is the orbit of your damaged ship relative to the orbit of Kerbin? At a glance, the orbits appear to intersect, so you can theoretically just send your ship up to Max warp and wait for Kerbin to recapture it again. It will take time...a lot of time...but your command pod has infinite life support, right? I've done similar experiments with expended landing stages on return trips from Minmus, and they all come back down eventually...well, some crash into the moon first, but they were all recaptured.

Based on that, waiting and warping is your best bet. If you do find yourself on a moon intercept course, see Scott Manley's video on affecting capsule trajecotry using EVA-ing kerbals.