No Kerbal Left Behind

[Apollo13]

A few days ago, Shepgee, Nelbur, and Doodman Kerman flew to Mun with a rover. There have been many Mun landings before, but this was a first with a rover.

Unfortunately, things went awry upon orbiting Mun. First, the Command/Service module ran out of fuel, leaving it in a very elliptical orbit (761.6k x 166.3k). The weight of the rover caused the extra fuel usage. Regardless, Nelbur and Doodman descended to the surface. The M.E.M. was an untested configuration, having never landed with a rover attached. Upon attempting to land, the rover was released too high, and it crashed and broke. The M.E.M. barely made it to the surface standing up. It, too, ran out of fuel due to the rover weight.

KSC Mission Control knew it could not rescue both groups in the same mission. The first mission (piloted by Mallan Kerman) was launched to rescue Shepgee in the unfueled Command/Service module. Due to the elliptical orbit, a typical rendezvous was all but impossible. Thanks to MechJeb's Maneuver Planning app, Mallan was able to get only within 2.5km from the Command/Service module. Shepgee immediately EVA'd out of his vehicle and spacewalked the 2.5km to the rescue vehicle. Thanks to lots of spacewalk practice, this went without a hitch. There was much jubilation at KSC when Shepgee's picture appeared in the capsule along side Mallan's. A maneuver node was immediately plotted for Kerbal, and they returned home as heroes.

In the next day or so, Shepgee and Mallan will return to Mun, where Shepgee will pilot the M.E.M. to the surface to rescue his buddies.

Stay tuned...

[Apollo13]

Forgot to mention. The two vehicles would be at the closest rendezvous point for less than one minute. By the time Shepgee made his four-minute "flight" to the rescue vehicle, the abandoned vehicle was already over 4.5 km away.

Indeed, his EVA was a leap of faith and a flight of desperation.