So this base didn't quite make it to the moon, how do i save the kerbals?

[Blurberybaker]

I was trying to get a small base on the mun so Jeb, Bill, Bob and Tomfen could hangout on the Mun. As you can see things didn't go as planed. Now Bill, Bob and Tomfen are stuck. Wat do?

I dont have any experience in docking or anything either :/

[CalculusWarrior]

Multiple things! You could send a rescue craft up and return them to Kerbin, or else you could rendezvous with a replacement base in Munar orbit. Or you could just crash the whole thing into the Mun! You're only limited by your imagination.

[silkmonkey]

I can't see well enough on your shots to say for sure, but I'd probably burn retrograde at apoapsis (For 22 m/s ∆V) and get as low as possible then jump out and try to EVA down with jetpack fuel. One Kerbal per orbit at periapsis. Quick save first though.

[Dortmunder]

I'd use what fuel you have left to circularize your orbit a bit more. Probably get the side that's almost touching the Mun further up so the orbit is slower, then send a rescue craft with space for all the Kerbals to match that orbit and EVA them over.

[Cykyrios]

I can't see well enough on your shots to say for sure, but I'd probably burn retrograde at apoapsis (For 22 m/s ∆V) and get as low as possible then jump out and try to EVA down with jetpack fuel. One Kerbal per orbit at periapsis. Quick save first though.

I would advise against doing that if he wants to save the Kerbals (it is only possible to do so on Minmus and planets/moons with lower gravity).

[Tw1]

I suspect it's time to learn to rendezvous.

Getting them back is not going to be simple. You don't have enough to circularise, which would make rendezvous easier. You could to it with a kerbal's jetpack, (using the Mun's terrain to orientate yourself) but then you'd end up with four things that you need to rendezvous with.

Make something light, with lots of spare delta V, incase you make a mistake. Rendezvous is a very useful skill to have, but takes a little practice. If you bring RCS, you can use that to refine the close approach.

[Jacob01]

The only way to rescue them is probably to rendezvous with the base, and transfer them over one by one via EVA. Try and circularize a bit if you can, it will be rendezvous a lot easier.

[Spyritdragon]

The best way to rescue them would i.m.o. be to send an unmanned rescue craft over, rendezvous with the base and EVA them over. Your periapsis seems precariously low, so i'd raise that with your final delta-V to give you some maneuvring room.

Next, send a craft with plenty of fuel and space for your kerbals up and towards the moon. You need to have enough fuel to get to a munar orbit, preform orbital maneuvers there and preferably get back to Kerbin.

Crash course Orbital Rendezvous:

Get to the mun with your other craft. Make sure you're orbiting around the Mun in the same direction when you arrive, and try to get the inclination of your orbit as close as possible to the target craft. Looks like you have a pretty equatorial orbit, so you should aim for that.

Next, set the base as your target, and when the rescue craft is on the side of the Mun opposite the base's periapsis, then burn prograde/retrograde untill your periapsis is the same as the bases periapsis. They should be close together too now.

Now, set up a maneuver node. You should see an 'ascending' node and a 'descending' node indicator on your orbit. Move the maneuver node there and pull the normal and antinormal nodes untill they indicate something close to 0.1 or 0. Preform that burn at the maneuver node.

Then, timeaccelerate untill your base has just passed its periapsis. Then, timeaccelerate untill you reach your own periapsis and burn untill your apoapsis is close to the bases apoapsis, but still lower than it.

You should now be in an orbit with the base slightly ahead of you, and your orbit being slightly smaller than it. I'd quicksave at this point. This will make that you orbit faster than the base, and so catch up to it. From there, it's maneuver nodes and guesswork. When you've gone around the Mun enough times so you are getting close to catching up to the base, add a maneuver node at your periapsis and pull it prograde untill your orbits are equalised (don't execute it yet). You should see a marker appear for your 'closest intersect', along with the distance between you at this point. Pull your node more prograde or retrograde untill your closest intersect is within a few kilometres of eachother. If this doesn't work, either make another orbit or two and try again, or load your quicksave and try again, this time with less orbits. When you manage to get that node right, and your intersect within a few kilometres, execute it. When you then get to that intersect point, change your velocity meter to 'target' velocity and cancel that out entirely. Then point your ship towards the base and burn that way at maybe 20 m/s. When you get as close to the base as your velocity will take you, cancel out the target-relative velocity, point your nose back towards your target and repeat. In two or three goes of doing that you should be close enough to EVA your Kerbals over, ditch the moon base and fly your rescue ship back to Kerbin.

I hope that was clear enough :-)

[alacrity]

If you can rendevous and you have a docking option (unused port or KAS system) then I would get a fuel tug out the and refuel for a final burn to land that beast. You will have to design the tug to match the center of mass on the base tho so kinda tricky.

other wise the near rendevous and EVA transfer is you real only other option... trying to stop a fall with the eva pack to the surface is chancey at best.

Alacrity

[T-Pilot395]

If you had some sort of mod which could allow docking-less fuel transfers, like Romfaror's LazorSystem, you could send out an emergency rescue probe!

I did that when my rescue lander ran out of fuel after circularizing in a Munar Orbit. I topped up more than enough fuel for it to use its engine for the descent so the two pods landed pretty close to the KSC.

I crashed the probe into the Mun at high speed to destroy everything.

[Skorpychan]

I'd suggest using the remaining fuel to circularise the orbit as best you can, then set about using kerbal RCS packs to do the rest of the job, by having them get out and push.

[NeoMorph]

Rescue Mission... my favourite pastime playing KSP.

I think that I spend about 20% of my time building rockets, 30% time flying normally and the remaining 50% of the time is spent doing rescue missions.

My advice... design and build a rescue craft that has only one task... to rendezvous wiith the dead craft (which means lots of MonoProp if you aren't good at docking), A good recovery pod with lots of space (the Orion capsule made by Bobcat is my favourite for that) and a way to boost to the target and return to Kerbin (the Ares V EDS - Earth Departure Stage or in this case KDS - Kerbin Departure Stage).

Remember to leave spaces in the probe to fit the Kerbals in.

Alternative one... Send up a refuelling tug. Send a tank up into Kerbin orbit then send up more flights to fill the tank up. Depart for the Mun and refuel your lame ship then discard the empty tank.

Alternative two... Send up a heavy tug that will have enough DV to drag the ship into Mun orbit.

Alternative three... well, you get the gist... THERE ARE LOADS of things you can do. Kerbal Space Patrol. Interplanetary Rescue... The Thunderkerbs are GO!

Edit: It's one reason why I keep Rescue Sats out there... All they are is a tank of fuel, a small habitat module and several fuel tugs which grab the fuel and take it to the ship in distress. Alternatively they abandon the ship and return to the rescue sat which has a habitat module. Crew tug that gets despatched to the rescue sat which then ferries the crew home or wherever.

Edited August 14, 2013 by NeoMorph

[sardaukar11]

Send a refueling ship with kas if you dont want to dock the ships to transfer fuel, so you can save the base an still be able to land it on the mun instead of only save the crew

[Blurberybaker]

Thanks for all the input guys, ill come back here once I got this figured out!