IWanttobeEVA

Best way is to use the prograde and retrograde markers when you are switched to 'target' in the navball. Choose retrograde and fire until you hit zero m/s. Then you can choose 'target' and then fire toward the craft you're docking with. As you orbit around Mun or Kerbin the vector between you and the target will misalign, so repeat the procedure again as needed until you close. As you gain more experience with orbiting you will be able to figure out the thrust vector you need to keep moving toward the target. At less than 200m I kill all of the momentum and I switch to RCS and use 'H' and 'N' to close the last distance at a few m/s so I don't have to keep flipping my ship around.

In early part of the game with only a MkI and a MK1 crew cabin the best way to recuse Kerbals is to get <1000m to the stranded Kerbal. EVA the standard Kerbal and spacewalk over to the rescue craft. Grab onto the Mk1 command pod. You won't be able to enter because Jeb, or some other pilot, is there, so type ']' to switch to the rescue craft and let Jeb kick it in the crew cabin. Type ']' again to switch back to the Kerbal who should still be holding onto the Mk1 Pod and press 'B' to have him board. If he or she isn't a pilot you need to shuffle them around again. With the Mk1-2 you can avoid all this shuffling around and have room for two rescues.

Here is my 'Apollo' mission craft. As pointed out it is easier to make a single vessel for a Mun landing and return, but this is fun and if you plan to visit other planets with a mothership/lander operation this is a good first step.

Once I get the Mk1-2 and the Mainsail in career mode it becomes the work horse of my space program. 1) Rescue missions are so much easier without having to have Kerbals go on space walks to get the pilot back in the command seat. I could use a probe core here, but I usually forget about it until Jeb is kicking it in the passenger module somewhere with no other pilots on board. 2) I'm not much of a fan of the Jr. docking port. The Mk1-2 with the regular docking port on the top is my preferred docking vechile for space stations and landers. A Mk1-2 in Mürar orbit with a lander can for multiple missions can run so many different types of contracts that these missions are always super-profitable and they more than pay for the mission.

Maybe not a full repair but an L4 or L5 can maybe jury-rig something out of the broken/smashed parts to give "Solar Panel - repaired" that is 25~30% capability of an undamaged one. No spare parts needed, and you still pay a penalty for killing your solar panel (because it almost always is the result of carelessness).

Alris Kerbin accidentally was on EVA when the mothership broke orbit from Mun. She had to fly like super-girl and cover a 62km gap to meet up with the ship, but she made it with 0.15 left in the jet pack. Not quite as dramatic as the final scene from "The Martian", but a pretty exciting 30min.

Zen like patience is needed. I usually do best with the claw by lining up the target icon, the prograde vector, and the front of the ship exactly together on the navball and approaching at 0.3~0.6m/s. Make sure to remember to click 'control from here' on the claw so it points to the target. If anyone of these is even slightly askew the target will bounce off the claw because I guess it won't hit dead center and any tangential velocity will cause it to spin-off, making it even harder to grab on the next try.

Your best bet might be to break your orbit and plot a return to Kerbin orbit, and as you swing around Kerbin plot an trajectory so you orbit Mun the opposite way. I think this might be cheaper in dV then to try to flip the orbit 180'. Example: to flip your orbit from a 50Km orbit on Mun 180' is about 1000 dV, but swinging around Kerbin and orbiting the other way can be done for about 1/2 that amount.

Here is a small Mun or Minmus lander: Opps, don't casually walk into the landing leg...

I think these have been around since 1.1 at least. I get them for nearby rovers and Kerbals on EVA, measurements for the rovers, and collect surface samples or make EVA reports for the Kerbals.

For Duna and Eve chemical rockets work just fine. I prefer the mothership+lander approach. Build it with a little more dV than you would to go to Mun and it will be pretty close. You can test it by going the Mun and back to see who much extra dV you have. Mission to Duna before leaving Kerbin:

Stuck the landing on Gilly. I mean I had to fire the RCS to make sure it stuck on the surface.

Reverse the motor (Normal to Inverse, I think) on one side of the rover only (two of the wheels). I've noticed that if you land a rover near the poles of a moon or planet on set of wheels will turn in revese. If you put a Kerbel in the command set and click control from here it will operate normally like it did on Kerbin. Quite strange, but I could be doing something wrong building it too.

The above website, and a printed out protractor (no joke). If you have any transparent film that will work the best but thin paper will work too. Here is a good 360 degree on that you can scale. http://www.blocklayer.com/protractor-print.aspx

The command module ran into a mountain; it's gone. RIP your brave crew. I try to stay above 15km orbiting Mun for a little margin of safety. The rescue mission needs a rescue mission now.