Help me save my kerbalnaut!

[gettothemun]

After a failed attempt at a mun landing, I have a kerbalnaut stuck orbiting the mun without any fuel. I've managed to get a second ship into mun orbit for a rescue, but with low fuel, I'd like some help in making this happen!

Here are a few shots of my current predicament: http://imgur.com/a/0Waas

Is this even possible? Presuming that I can get my ships to match orbit / speed and intercept, can I EVA my kerbalnaut and have him enter the rescue ship?

How does intercepting even work?

What should I do here? Unfortunately I don't understand maneuvering aside from prograde and retrograde all that well.

[XoX]

Plot an intercept, on your closest approach match velocities. Repeat until you are close enough and then EVA your kerbalnaut and use the jetpack to fly to the other ship. If you have space in a command module he can simply enter it.

[mcirish3]

In KSP as in real life getting two objects close together is rather a challenge. In essence you need both ships on exactly or nearly exactly the same orbit. But that needs to happen only when the two ships are close together. the greater the radial difference between the two orbis the more quickly and more often they will pass each other in their respective orbits. The inner orbital craft will always be the one doing the passing. Incidentally that is why we see Jupiter so often in the sky. There is a large radial difference between Jupiter and Earth. So the greater you can make the radial difference the less time you will have to wait for a close approach. However there is a trade off with this, as with all physics nothing is for free. It takes more energy( think Fuel) to create this difference and then take it away again for rendezvous if the difference is large. Also as the difference between the two orbits gets larger timing the hohmann transfer gets harder to "eye Ball" in other words the timing needs to be more precises to get a decent transfer. Just so I am not throwing out a word you don't understand a Hohmann transfer is just a short way of saying the least possible energy (think fuel) needed to transfer from one orbit to another. THe basic rule of thumb is if going from a low orbit to a higher one you need be behind the target craft you wish to rendezvous with when you start the burn for the transfer. The greater the orbital difference the farther behind you need to be. The reverse is true when going from a high orbit to a lower one. Hope this helps solves your problem feel free to ask if you have more questions.

[capi3101]

Can we see an image of your rescue ship?

I might suggest that you send your first rescue ship home so you can gauge how much fuel you're going to need for the return trip with your design; that'll give your fuel reserve margin for maneuvers. I'd also suggest you send the second ship with RCS, and to attempt to perform the rescue on RCS thrust alone; that should give you a sizable capability for making maneuvers, plus if RCS runs out, you can always switch over to your main thrusters again. Only difficulty there is that you'd be carrying around a bit more weight, so you'd need a little more main thrust fuel for the return. The tradeoff is worth it, though.