How close to being totally out of fuel have you been?

[SorryDave]

I am an engineer by trade and have some background in celestial mechanics. I like to calculate required Delta-V on spreadsheets and then build rockets that just meet this capability.

So yes, I run out of fuel all the time.

On one trip back from the Mun I used the ejection force of my last decoupler to drop me into the atmosphere, it has a bigger impact when decoupled far from Kerbin.

[Magion]

Back in 0.17 I was landing on the ancient Moho with that hellish atmosphere and it was really terrifying - my fuel ran out about a meter over the ground

I liked that Moho. Previously it was a challenge to get to the surface. Today it's just a pretty boring, nothing special landing.

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[^^artin]

My closest situation to get stuck into space was when I once returned from Mun.

I ran out of fuel when periapsis was about 100000 m above Kerbin.

That's when I discovered Jeb's been able to push his tiny return ship by using his backpack on EVA.

[Flixxbeatz]

This vid of mine back in version 0.12 tells it all:

Also a recent one during my Apollo-style munshot: command module ran out of fuel during the return burn.

Thought it would be over then I remembered that I still had the monoprop thrusters from the ascent module

Now you know why I've only decoupled the ascent module after the burn.

[mythbusters844]

This close:

I was doing a satellite contract and it turns out I slightly misjudged my delta V requirements. If my ascent was just a tiny bit less efficient, then I would have failed and lost 20k (Technically, I would've kept about 8k because I put parachutes on the first stage and recovered it) on the lost money from the launch (I play in ultra-hard mode too).

Edited February 7, 2015 by mythbusters844

[theJesuit]

I've needed to get out and push when returning from the Mün simply to get an encounter with the atmosphere of Kerbin. That's how close!

Peace.

[Van Disaster]

Have docked a 70t spaceplane having run out of RCS ( and everything else ) about 50m away, that made my week

[MattQ012]

Once i landed on the Mun with just 0.6 Fuel left in the tank D:

Edited February 7, 2015 by MattQ012

[InterCity]

Once when returning to Kerbin from my Duna mission, I've ran out of fuel due to sloppy piloting.

I then used the EVA jetpack upon entering Kerbin's SOI to correct the course so that he entered the atmosphere almost vertically - it wasn't that hard, my orbital speed at that point was negligible.

He made it back alive, though I'm not sure whether he liked the 50-60G acceleration during the reentry...

[zekes]

I accidentally decoupled my Laythe base from the transferstage, without realizing i needed it to deorbit. Plan of attack: ram into the lander.

[Zzabur]

My closest situation to get stuck into space was when I once returned from Mun.

I ran out of fuel when periapsis was about 100000 m above Kerbin.

That's when I discovered Jeb's been able to push his tiny return ship by using his backpack on EVA.

Lol exactly the same issue here !

My first flight to Mün (in 0.9, got hundreds of landings on previous savefiles) ended at 110km peripapsis of Kerbin, Jeb had to do EVA to push the ship retrograde and return home ! He ended with about 1.2 monopropellant remaining in both ship and Jeb suit.

[KerikBalm]

huh? did they finally implement it so that refilling eva propellant uses the monoprop in the pod?

[KerBlammo]

After my first (successful) Mun landing I ended up in a highly elliptical orbit around Kerbin with no fuel. Luckily the peripapsis was down around 59km so after a couple of dozen orbits the capsule did de-orbit. This was with the mk2 Mun Lander (the less said about the mk 1 the better) the mk3 had the same fuel load as the mk2 but was lighter mostly due to less mono propellant on board. It didn't occur to me use the rcs on the mk 2 lander to speed up the areo braking until it was too late. The mk3 can make it home with some fuel to spare.

[samstarman5]

My problem usually isn't running out of fuel, it's running out of electricity... Even when I DO remember to put on solar panels, I seem to have a knack for positioning my ship so the panels get no juice XD

After so long in playing, I actually made that goof and got caught with it during a mission to Minmus. I sent a probe-piloted ship up to rendezvous with the station I had in orbit where two kerbals would take over and land on Minmus. After making orbit, I proceeded to plan the interception with the station, failing to notice my batteries begin to drain. By the time I finally had the interception set up and back to piloting, the ship was dead in space. Oops. With the way the panels were facing, I figured it was going to be a quarter of a kerbal year before they would get light again. So I opted to just send another mission with more solar panels, which did succeed. However, somehow the first ship was able to catch enough light in the time that the second mission was in flight, so I moved it to face the sun, finished the second mission, and then used the first to rendezvous with the station and bring a couple of kerbals home to get some nice XP reward.

The lesson here is, do not ever completely give up on a ship. Though the mission might end up a failure, the ship may still be recoverable and used for a secondary mission.

[MGCJerry]

3 units of LF and the proportional amount of Ox on my first Mun return. It took 3 quickloads to find the right window and approach. 68K pe over Kerbin was the best I could manage and made it work.

[Acet]

I once got my manned Mun lander mission to finish de-orbitting the Mun into a return orbit to Kerbin by using RCS alone since I completely ran out of fuel.

It turns out that if all you are trying to push is about 2t worth of capsule, small engine and an empty fuel tank in Munar orbit, RCS actually has a pretty decent TWR.

If I remember it correctly I also ran out of RCS fuel, but by then my Kerbin Periapsis was low enough for aerobreaking.

Apparently, it's also possible to send a kerbal out and have him push using RCS.

[RabidMonkey]

Apparently, it's also possible to send a kerbal out and have him push using RCS.

Done that. A couple versions ago, I had Jeb pushing the capsule back home from the Mun. Takes a lot of time and patience, but it does work.

[Matokage]

Now, if i remember it right, it was back in the 0.30. I was on a minmus mission, everything wet ok but when i was going back to orbit i noticed that i didn't had enough fuel left, so i abandoned the lander and made it home "By foot" ascending and transferring with only my EVA RCS. ended up on a LKO and rescued by another ship.

[r_rolo1]

Due to that , you are never really out of fuel, since SQUAD did not implemented that the EVA kerbals had to refill their RCS from the ship reserve like they considered at a time. The EVA thrusters might not have the power to push your ship in a satisfactory way, though, but that is another whole question

TBH running out of fuel only happens to me nowadays when I'm really pushng the envelope on my rockets on propose ( like the low cash, low part count rescue rocket I have for 0.90, that has just pretty much the dV for a 100x100 orbit and some extra 100 m/s for manouvers ... so unless the launch is timed perfectly it can easily run out of fuel ).

[Randazzo]

Just made a return from jool by the skin of my teeth, because of rushing into a mission. Usually that's what gets me.

[Random Tank]

I consider it a waste if my Rockets I'm ditching or returning to Kerbin have over 100m/s of fuel left, but I build them for optimum efficiency, so that's usually rare Depends how you play of course

[Randazzo]

I consider it a waste if my Rockets I'm ditching or returning to Kerbin have over 100m/s of fuel left, but I build them for optimum efficiency, so that's usually rare Depends how you play of course

Planning for it at the end of a mission is somehow not quite the same as having to alter said mission to avoid being stranded. Being right on the edge of disaster and still succeeding is the sort of mission that really keeps ksp interesting for me.