colonel0sanders

How many extra points do we get if we don't use the map view either?

No idea if I was the first, but I did manage to launch, orbit the mun, and return safely to Kerbin without leaving IVA view for the entire mission. Here's a screenshot from that mission - I think it was mid-2012?

There's actually a possible transfer window to Duna, which doesn't take any more dv than the optimal one, which you can launch immediately (year 1, day 1) - but it takes about 2.5 years to get there. It actually takes less time to wait until the regular window opens up around year 1 day 236. To see the year 1 day 1 launch option, open the transfer window planner, hit the 'Advanced Settings' option, and enter 1500 days as the max 'time of flight'

Last time this happened to me, Jeb had landed on Duna. I was playing with no quickloads/no reverting/no crew respawns, and had just about unlocked the entire science tree (everything else was on normal difficulty) without losing a single crew member throughout the play-through. Since I wasn't about to take any risks, Jeb got out and went a few hundred meters away to wait for rescue. Luckily, the lander had a probe core on it, so I attempted to try to light the engine and pitch up. Surprisingly, it worked! I landed the ship, Jeb got back in, and they took off for home. It seemed to be just that kind of mission, though, as my extra takeoff and landing burnt up too much fuel, and Jeb had to bail out part-way up from the Duna surface. He managed to barely get into orbit with the EVA jetpack, and was successfully rescued, but all of the science and the surface sample was lost.

Old, but I still get a kick out of it:

It wouldn't be a stretch to get him to post - he's joined discussions on Fark.com for years

I will say, this is the first time I've started a career and remembered to drain the MonoProp out of the capsule before RCS thrusters were unlocked. That is entirely thanks to the Engineers Report

Actually, I think it only counts the best thing you do in each SOI, so as long as you make orbit, you get the 2 points. You could, for example, land on the Mun and return without ever actually being in orbit around the Mun.

The straight forward (and inefficient) way is to make a note of your orbital velocity, and then burn exactly twice that much pointing exactly retrograde

I tend to do the satellite missions one at a time, but as cheaply as possible. I had a sat in 0.9 that cost less than 5k (boosters and everything included) and could get just about anywhere in the Kerbin SOI. I dunno if you could do that now with the engine nerfs, but you could probably get close

To celebrate the release of KSP, I made a flag featuring my dog. Her name is Laika.

I started with 0.8.something, but then didn't start playing regularly until .14ish maybe

I did a free-return from the Mun to a Peri right under 30k, and used up half of the heat shield on reentry

You can use a probe core (Octo or better) to provide SAS. Although the earlier probe cores don't have reaction wheels

I did exactly the same thing. My Ap was only 143k, but Jeb was still killed.