Well these Kerbals are forever lost...

[flyin_ruski]

I was in LKO toying around with manipulator on Bobcat's Buran. It was a simple mission. Deploy a satellite and attempt to re-capture it with the manipulator. It took a while but I eventually had a successful capture. THEN IT ALL WENT HORRIBLY WRONG. The satellite began to shake violently and then exploded along with the Buran leaving the crew compartment intact. The debris field was still in LKO and I had no means of de-orbiting the crew compartment so I decided to send a kerbal on EVA for fun before i ended mission and this happened. I took a few screens of multiple Kerbals I sent out at.The screens are captured a few minutes apart at max time warp. Two of the crew are on a Kerbol escape trajectory and one has a stable orbit around Kerbol.

Edited May 16, 2013 by flyin_ruski

[Finnerty]

I see a rescue mission in the future.

[Temstar]

I had no means of de-orbiting the crew compartment

There is actually a way for these kind of situations: send someone out and push the crew compartment retrograde with their backpack. Go back inside and then come out again repeatedly when you need to refill your backpack.

[Tristavius]

I wonder if it would be possible to catch up with, get within a few kilometers of and then rescue a Kerbal on a system escape trajectory....

[NeoMorph]

I remember something happening similar when I was on Minmus. My Kerbonauts were parked up in a DEMV mk2 and decided to climb out to watch the new mining pod land. First two got out fine but then the third Kerbonaut got out and something went bizarre. When everything stopped spinning the three Kerbals were in space with a further two others who were on the other side of the base. Some of the buildings were flying around too lol. And Minmus, well, that was about a couple of million miles away lol.

[Spatzimaus]

I had no means of de-orbiting the crew compartment

You had several means that you didn't use. You're using the Buran manipulator arm mod, which means you could have launched another vessel and grabbed the compartment to tow it to safety. Or you could have sent up another ship with a hitchhiker module and EVA'd your kerbonauts into the new ship. Or you could have pushed, as others suggested, either with backpacks or by sending up a vessel designed to push. (You can use things like landing legs to make a conical "net" to capture stuff, or a winch from the KAS mod, or use quantum struts to hold them steady. Then just push with engines.) And this assumes the crew compartment didn't have any kind of docking port, which would have made it much easier.

Obviously, if the kerbonauts are on a solar escape velocity, you're not going to get them back. It's theoretically possible to catch one, but would take more fuel than any vessel could hold, let alone the amount needed to decelerate and come back home. But in the future, you now know several ways to recover stranded kerbonauts, so you shouldn't have issues like that again.

[leax256]

I have some video somewhere when I linked a fuel tanker (with the buran arm) to my mün space station and it caused the entire thing to explode into 200+ individual peices. if you want I can find it,else it's not worth it for me to search.

[Tristavius]

You had several means that you didn't use. You're using the Buran manipulator arm mod, which means you could have launched another vessel and grabbed the compartment to tow it to safety. Or you could have sent up another ship with a hitchhiker module and EVA'd your kerbonauts into the new ship. Or you could have pushed, as others suggested, either with backpacks or by sending up a vessel designed to push. (You can use things like landing legs to make a conical "net" to capture stuff, or a winch from the KAS mod, or use quantum struts to hold them steady. Then just push with engines.) And this assumes the crew compartment didn't have any kind of docking port, which would have made it much easier.

Obviously, if the kerbonauts are on a solar escape velocity, you're not going to get them back. It's theoretically possible to catch one, but would take more fuel than any vessel could hold, let alone the amount needed to decelerate and come back home. But in the future, you now know several ways to recover stranded kerbonauts, so you shouldn't have issues like that again.

You actually sound really quite stern at his squandering of Kerbals!

[flyin_ruski]

You had several means that you didn't use. You're using the Buran manipulator arm mod, which means you could have launched another vessel and grabbed the compartment to tow it to safety. Or you could have sent up another ship with a hitchhiker module and EVA'd your kerbonauts into the new ship. Or you could have pushed, as others suggested, either with backpacks or by sending up a vessel designed to push. (You can use things like landing legs to make a conical "net" to capture stuff, or a winch from the KAS mod, or use quantum struts to hold them steady. Then just push with engines.) And this assumes the crew compartment didn't have any kind of docking port, which would have made it much easier.

Obviously, if the kerbonauts are on a solar escape velocity, you're not going to get them back. It's theoretically possible to catch one, but would take more fuel than any vessel could hold, let alone the amount needed to decelerate and come back home. But in the future, you now know several ways to recover stranded kerbonauts, so you shouldn't have issues like that again.

Lol chill buddy.

Any how, as soon as I went EVA the kerbals went off into a system escape trajectory. And the craft I was trying to catch exploded shortly after the capture.

I thought it was a cool/funny story in true kerbal style