Career Mode:Out of fuel orbiting the Mun

[WAFFLES WITH SYRUP]

Ive sent a rescue ship to save Jeb while he was stranded on the Mun.I saved him then ran out of fuel and Im now orbiting the Mun endlessly now! Its a strange orbit not a normal one so its pretty hard to come into contact with it.Any suggestions on how to save it I really don't want to leave it there because I have alot of science on it. I dont know how to post pictures but i have a screen shot of its orbit.

[jmiki8]

If you have enough jetpack fuel, go EVA, and try to circularize your orbit with your lone kerbal(but leave a small amount of fuel to get into the rescue ship). Then send up a rescue pod, rendezvous, switch back to Jeb, and with the remaining jetpack fuel, get into the rescue ship. It's really easy to build a return-capable mun orbiter.

If you have doubts about having enough fuel in the jetpack, push your original ship while on EVA (literally!), and reenter the pod as soon you need more jetpack fuel. Be cautious when you do this, as on EVA you have no navball, and it's difficult to determine the correct direction. Also, if you run out of jetpack fuel, your kerbal is dead (well, if you manage to point your ship's hatch right next to him, he may survive.

Edited January 19, 2014 by jmiki8

[thereaverofdarkness]

Treat it just like a circular rendezvous. Make an orbit just outside of that orbit along its plane by first getting your craft to a point just beyond either end of the orbit, then ovalizing the orbit to match the other. When you are close to catching up, make a rendezvous nav point.

[Smidge204]

Share pictures with http://imgur.com/

As long as the orbit doesn't intersect Mun or is an escape trajectory, it's fine.

First, get your rescue ship into orbit around Mun. Ideally you want to be captured into Mun orbit as high as possible which will make the plane change more efficient. Extra points for matching the plane during intercept/capture!

Now you are in a circular orbit around Mun, you need to match orbital planes. Selecting the target, you'll get Ascending and Descending nodes with dotted lines jointing your orbital path with the target's. You want these to be as close to zero as you can manage.

Plane changes are more efficient at higher orbits, so if it's REALLY off (more than 30 degrees or so) consider raising your Ap to the edge of Mun SOI by burning prograde at either Ascending or Descending node (whichever is at a LOWER altitude) until your Ap is near 2000km or so. If done right, the ascending/descending node will be close to the Apoapsis.

Put a node at the new Apoapsis and tweak the purple handles until the Ascending/Descending nodes are as close to zero as you can manage. Tweak the retrograde handle to get your new Pe to match the Target's Ap plus a little bit. Do that burn to match orbital planes. Note: Direction matters! Don't accidentally put yourself into an orbit in the opposite direction!

Now that we have everything lined up, recircularize so that your orbit's Pe is roughly equal to the target's Ap. Doing this will enable you to control where you lower your Pe to match the target's Pe. Use another node.

Don't get the orbits TOO perfect, because you want to meet up with the target. Remember that LOWER orbits are FASTER, so if your Ap matches the target, bring your Pe lower than the target's to catch up or leave it higher than the target's to let the target catch up to you. Wait for a close encounter.

Once you have an encounter, match speeds with the target at closest approach by burning pro/retro grade to it. Once the relative velocity is the same, the orbits should be the same and you can very gently move in closer for a rescue.

=Smidge=

[thomasjkenney]

I've had good luck rescuing by using probes. It's pretty easy, once you rendezvous, to balance the probe against the engine cone of the ship you're trying to rescue. Once balanced, and in the correct direction, you can push the other ship around. Though I haven't had to do any Mun escapes this way yet, I've done several 'almost back to Kerbin' rescues.