My little Kerbonaut is currently circling the planet in a stable orbit, and seems to be having a grand ol' time with it. You should see the smile on his face. He's been circling now for what looks like 5 days, and is still smiling. Poor little guy doesn't know what I have in store for him.
I could bring him down. I mean, he does have some science for me that I need for the next upgrade, but that doesn't sound like as much fun. I'm pretty proud of the little guy for making orbit. Can I just leave him up there forever, or will he eventually die of starvation or something? And if I do leave him up there, and decide to one day retrieve him (dead or alive) can I dock with that and extract him and (more importantly) my science from the ship, even though it doesn't have any docking equipment?
Best Answer
Currently, resources such as oxygen, food, or other things necessary to sustain Kerbal life have not been implemented (except through mods). He won't even die of old age. Since you are in a stable orbit, your Kerbal is effectively immortal, so long as you don't touch him or his ship.
Getting him back will be a bit trickier; to get the science he has, you have to either transmit it (and lose some in the process), or land the ship in a survivable manner. If you just want the Kerbal himself back, landing will also work for that. You can also get another ship close by with extra room, and then EVA your Kerbonaut into the other ship. Even with docking, you can't transfer Kerbals, so to get him and leave the ship alone, EVA is your only option.
Just to note: docking is a whole other ball of wax. The easier way by far is to just land the ship.