Will my shuttle reenter kerbin ever?

[ahnialator6]

So I did a munar flyby for science, and it actually ended up slingshotting me into an orbit around Kerbin, so I waited for the mun to come back around, hoping it would throw my ship at Kerbin. It didn't. It ended up circling the sun, and I was wondering if it would ever come back to Kerbin if I let it sit. Its orbit brings it within approximately 38,947,006 km of each other (the shuttle and Kerbin). If I leave it alone after a while, will it come back, or are they stuck up there forever? (I'm also out of fuel).

When answering this, if you could please explain how you know this, and how I can do the calculations myself. Thanks

[Taki117]

Not likely, you are probably stuck. Even if it did bring you back into Kerbins SOI (Sphere of Influince) I seriously doubt your periapsis (Closest Approach to a planetary body) is going to be low enough to cause you to aerobrake (Use the atmosphere to slow you down) enough so that you are in a degrading orbit (An orbit that given enough revolutions will result in a re-entry)

[ahnialator6]

Would it be possible that it would slingshot me to another body? I put solar panels and communications on it (thank the almighty kerbal) so if i manage to get pulled onto another planetary body with an atmosphere i can just get the science and communicate it

[Specialist290]

Hate to say it, but it sounds like they're going to be stuck there for the long haul. The only chance (and a slim one at that) I see would be if you had some sort of propulsion like RCS to lower your periapsis within atmo when you come back around to Kerbin's SoI, but I honestly wouldn't count on it.

That said, there's no life support modeled in the game, so you can probably leave the crew up there safely while you figure out what you might need to pull off a successful rescue mission. Rendezvousing two craft in solar orbit is going to be a real challenge, but I'd give it better odds than blindly trusting orbital mechanics to get you out of this situation somehow.

[Markus Reese]

If you wish rescue, there are two options to partake. First is the legit rescue.

An extra planetary rescue is entirely a finesse mission typically leapfrogging and controlled maneuvers until you can match. You want to plan for two parts. One, a stage with fuel for the outer planetary portion and then one entirely for getting back. The getting back is also your abort in case cannot catch vessel to rescue from. Just get close enough to Eva.

Leapfrogging consists of small maneuvers and orbit changes to slowly work yourself closer. If ahead of target, slightly increase orbit so you can intercept. Reverse if behind. Just watch orbit path until you tweak enough for non map flight.

The second way is a bit of cheating to refuel your craft but I will only post said info if asked since some people would rather not have the temptation of file modding.

[Soda Popinski]

I've got a similar dilemma, and built a rescue craft. I was having similar problems with getting an orbital intercept around the Sun. I got some good answers, so you may want to read the thread.

Another cheaty way to do it would be to point your capsule where you want it to go, and EVA out and literally push in that direction. Go back in when you're pack fuel gets low for the refuel, rinse and repeat. It's definitely an exploit, but at least it requires more skill than using infinite fuel or changing the files.