Say they landed on the moon but discovered the ship was damaged during the landing and they could not launch again.
What would have been the plan? Would another crew have been sent to rescue them? Would the astronauts just have to wait till they ran out of supplies to die or was there a procedure in place for them to commit suicide in a painless way? How long could they have survived on the moon?
The following is a speech written for President Nixon, in the event that the Apollo 11 mission did not succeed.
Fate has ordained that the men who went to the moon to explore in peace will stay on the moon to rest in peace.
These brave men, Neil Armstrong and Edwin Aldrin, know that there is no hope for their recovery. But they also know that there is hope for mankind in their sacrifice.
These two men are laying down their lives in mankind's most noble goal: the search for truth and understanding.
They will be mourned by their families and friends; they will be mourned by their nation; they will be mourned by the people of the world; they will be mourned by a Mother Earth that dared send two of her sons into the unknown.
In their exploration, they stirred the people of the world to feel as one; in their sacrifice, they bind more tightly the brotherhood of man.
In ancient days, men looked at stars and saw their heroes in the constellations.
In modern times, we do much the same, but our heroes are epic men of flesh and blood.
Others will follow, and surely find their way home. Man's search will not be denied. But these men were the first, and they will remain the foremost in our hearts.
For every human being who looks up at the moon in the nights to come will know that there is some corner of another world that is forever mankind.
This confirms there were no plans for a rescue mission if Apollo 11 wasn't successful.
Edit - 29 April 2021
As stated in this news item,
The plan had always been that if Armstrong and Aldrin crashed or were unable to leave the moon's surface, Collins was to head back to Earth alone.
A prepared contingency statement from President Richard Nixon, to be read out if the worst happened, made no mention of Collins.
The Apollo lunar module was battery powered, so could only maintain a livable environment for a few days (this was a major concern for Apollo 13, since the crew was reliant on the LM after the accident which disabled the service module). Once out of power, it would be unable to circulate air or to maintain a comfortable temperature inside.
Committing suicide on the moon, fortunately, is trivially easy. Once the LM was nearly out of power, they could depressurize the LM cabin while their suits weren't sealed (or exit the LM and then unseal their suits). They'd lose consciousness in a few seconds, albeit with some discomfort from the rapid depressurization, and die shortly thereafter.
As noted in other answers, there was not another rocket stacked and ready to launch in time to effect a rescue. If there had been, time would be very tight; the maximum surface stay of any of the Apollo landers (Apollo 17) was shorter than the Earth-moon flight time; I don't know if the LM endurance was longer than that, but it's conceivable that the astronauts could survive long enough to await rescue.
The crew transfer might be a challenge: the rescue crew would have to be suited up (because the entire cabin depressurizes to open the hatch; there's no airlock) and the rescuees would have to be suited up and wearing the bulky portable life support pack. They'd have to transfer one at a time, discarding their PLSS after connecting to the cabin environmental system. I'm not certain it would be physically possible to get four suited crew inside. I believe the extra mass would not be a major problem; the LM ascent stage was intended to return with about a human's mass worth of moon rocks, and usually completed its ascent with 150kg or more propellant remaining in the tanks. If it was limited to a lower orbit than usual, the command module could come down to reach it.
The alternative would be to land the rescue ship with a single crew member; this would be hazardous, but likely possible. The LM guidance computer was capable of semi-autonomous landing, and they'd have time on the outbound trip to program the precise location of the disabled lander as a target site. Three people could definitely fit in the LM (as demonstrated by Apollo 13).
There was no chance to get them back alive - no ready to launch rocket, no ready to launch spaceship, no lunar module capable to take 3 persons (or land automatically) - just nothing.
I've heard about something, but im not sure of its validity because I wasnt paying attention to where I heard it. Someplace Ive read about some sort of handheld mini ascent stage. Pretty much, two stranded astronauts outside the lander grab on this thing and activate an engine to go to orbit. Pretty much a rocket stick with two handles. This may have been only in planning, im not sure, but astronauts would then need to survive on suit o2 until the CSM picks them up. Any confirmation or denial is welcome.
At the time of Apollo 11, there weren't any systems in place for a surface rescue, but several possibilities were explored during the development of the Apollo program.
One of the more promising was the Gemini Lunar Rescue Spacecraft, which would be based on the older 2-man Gemini capsule.
This would either land uncrewed near the planned landing location for the crew to escape in, or just wait for a rescue mission to be assembled. Alternatively it would act as the rescue craft, with additional seats for the stranded Apollo astronauts as well as its own crew.
Oddly, this was vehicle was planned to use two Apollo service modules as upper stages to boost it to the moon. I'm not sure why the SM was chosen though, since a large portion of its internal volume was devoted to life support equipment
As others have said, no. There was nothing in place to allow a rescue mission in time to save a stranded crew. This was why the LEM had a separate ascent engine, tucked up in the ascent stage. No matter what happened during landing, it would be basically impossible to disable the ascent engine without killing the crew anyways.
Basically, NO. That is why the LEM Ascent module engine was designed to be extremely simple: Propellants were pressurized by a single helium tank and a single valve. ( fewer points of failure ). Fuel and oxidizer were self-igniting. Once that valve opened, they were going up.
At least that is what I read years ago.
Dig this:
The Rescue Agreement was considered and negotiated by the Legal Subcommittee from 1962 to 1967. Consensus agreement was reached in the General Assembly in 1967 ( resolution 2345 (XXII)), and the Agreement entered into force in December 1968. The Agreement, elaborating on elements of articles 5 and 8 of the Outer Space Treaty, provides that States shall take all possible steps to rescue and assist astronauts in distress and promptly return them to the launching State, and that States shall, upon request, provide assistance to launching States in recovering space objects that return to Earth outside the territory of the Launching State.
(source)
