Is there hope for my Kerbals?

[Zero92828]

Hey, so I had a mission go completely awry last night trying to head for the mun, i overshot accidentally and my ship is now rather far from home. I'm still in the vicinity of kerbin. I'm just outside of the orbit of Minmus. They are unfortunately not able to shoot back toward kerbin, sicne they are out of fuel basically. Is there any way I can send another ship out there to get the trapped crew?

[Johnno]

As long as they're in a stable orbit there shouldn't be any problems. Of course you'll have to know a bit about rendezvous/orbit adjustments to get to them, docking tutorials should cover the basics (even if you don't end up docking).

You could build a rescue craft to pick them up, or send a refuelling craft.

[Zero92828]

How do I build such a rescue craft? will I be able to attach to them and push them with a docking port? Also, the orbit is not stable around Kerbin. It's set to start circling the sun in the opposite direction of kerbin. So, this may be a bit difficult. I'm trying to build a 3 stage right now that will give me ample ability to get out to the ship and hopefully will give me enough to shoot back home after.

[mcirish3]

What the heck are you saying that your relative velocity to kerbin is around 20,000 m/s,( that is what retrograde to Kerbol would imply) if so you didn't over shoot, you over powered.

[annallia]

I suggest your final stage of your rescue craft uses nuclear engines. This is because you are going to need a lot of fuel to get them if you are right about their orbit and they are the most fuel efficient (next to ion engines). Your rescue craft could be remote controlled if you want, but unless you had a docking port on the first craft you are not going to be able to latch on to them (assuming stock).

Instead your ideal craft will have a hitchhiker pod in it. Then all you have to do is rendevous with your wayward craft and eva your kerbals over to the rescue craft. Once they are in the rescue craft head for home.

[Zero92828]

The problem that originally happened was I messed up early in my flight, so i just pointed my ship at mun and just shot a ton of fuel. Then, I proceeded to speed up time and wizzed right past the mun, accidentally. When I logged in this morning, it was traveling at 3k m/s away from Kerbin. It had enough fuel for me to slow it down to about 800 m/s, but I only have a small spritz of fuel left now. I'm still completely new to this game. I've been playing now for 3 days. So, Hitchhiker pod it is. Do you guys have any suggestions on how to build this rescue hitchhiker?

[Zero92828]

How does one go about making a refueling craft by the way? That may be one decent way to fix the problem, too. I'm just weighing my options here.

[SkyRender]

Your target ship needs a docking port to refuel. If you didn't think to add one, you won't be refueling the ship; it'll have to be a rescue. Though really, the two are effectively the same thing. The only major difference is that a refueling mission gives you slightly higher mass allowance since you don't have to stick any Hitchhikers on the craft.

[Sauron]

Remember that you can always EVA your kerbals between ships even if the first one doesn't have a docking point. FWW a refueling ship seems like an unescesarily complicated solution when you can send a ship to pick your crew up. Also, rendezvous in higher planetary orbits are slower, but easier because you have so much time to correct, and because you can set up a really huge phasing orbit to get in the right position.

[Zero92828]

I'm sure the refueling ship might be a bad idea, I'm just trying to learn as much as I can. I'd like to learn how to refuel a ship anyway at some point, if it is possible.

[lammatt]

if you have monopropellent left

RCS to get the perigee as low as you can

anything below 65km is fine but perhaps it'll take a few laps while anything below 40km guarantee a landing without another pass.

[annallia]

Refueling is the easy part, you have to learn docking to do it though, that is the difficult portion of it. All you do to refuel is hold down alt and right click on the tank you want to fill and the tank you want to take it from. Then on the tank you want to transfer fuel into select "in" for the fuel and oxidizer and watch it transfer.

[LickableIce]

You could get out and push. You're far enough away that it might actualy work, just remember to get back in the ship and refuel eva packs

[TheDarkStar]

Since you are new (and since the ship currently in orbit probably doesn't have a docking port), don't try to refuel. Instead, get an unmanned ship with a Hitchhiker and get close. Once you do that, transfer the Kerbals by EVA. Make sure the Hitchhiker has parachutes on it in case the ship separates upon reentry.

[wasmic]

Do the "get out and push" solution. It will certainly be the easiest way to do it.

[Superfluous J]

Kerbal Space Program, the only space program where getting out and pushing is the best option.