FlyingPete

My Eve mission is taking along an aerospike-powered plane that has two rover wheels at the front so it can land and then drive around as a rover. I'm thinking I might send a dedicated rover along at some point too, as well as perhaps an ion-powered drone.

I like to explore the Mun and Minmus this way. Send some fuel and a reusable lander out there to dock with the station. The lander then goes to the surface, the pilot does science and then returns to the station. You use the lab to clean the experiments, refuel and repeat. When your fuel supply runs low, send a resupply ship from Kerbin. This saves having to launch from Kerbin every time. If you equip the lander with two sets of goo/materials experiments, you can take two sets of data from each biome. One gets stored and eventually returned on the resupply ship, and the other gets analysed in the orbiting lab and transmitted to get some science now. My stations start out fairly small and get built up in stages like this. The next part could be a habitat module with a couple of hitchhiker cabins, then a fuel tank module, then an adaptor with multiple docking ports...

In my science mode save, I've got the beginnings of a colony heading to Eve. They're going to stay there long term and analyse their science findings on site (there's a manned lab as part of the station) rather than attempting an ascent from the surface. A couple of the crew won't land and will instead man the space station/explore Gilly and Eve's upper atmosphere before returning to Kerbin. In my early career mode save, I've just completed a mun flyby and somewhat ambitiously sent Jeb to Minmus in a ship that didn't quite have the delta-v needed. He managed to get safely to the surface in the end, just as he ran out of fuel. So I guess a rescue mission is next then. Meanwhile he's exploring on foot. The clumsy oaf somehow knocked his ship over while EVAing around, with the hatch facing the ground- hope he likes camping.

I still think Kerbals are closer to a plant. They grow in the ground, then when mature they shed the leaves from their head, crawl out and jump into a rocket. Of course in most cases the rocket then explodes, which spreads the spores around and grows new Kerbals (which is why there's a never-ending stream of would-be Kerbonauts)

It reminds me of the incident on Laythe with the disabled plane, where one of the old landers was sent down to pick up the pilot. Leaving space junk lying around can have its benefits

With the amount of stuff you've got on Laythe, it's almost a small town I get the feeling that old lander on Bop might come in handy too.

I usually have an action group toggle the engine. When the rocket is launched, you just use the action group instead of the staging sequence, then turn the engine off and stage later

I sent my 'Eve to stay' mission on its way. I have three ships going to Eve: Ship 1- base module: Contains a lab, lander can and 4 hitchhiker containers. Also has a science package docked to the rear for measurements on the way. 3 Kerbals on board for the trip out. Ship 2- Rover/plane hybrid for exploration. Beneath it is a 1-man lander for exploring Gilly and half of the Eve station (fuel tank, lander can and docking ports) 2 Kerbals on board. Ship 3- Second half of the station (lab, hitchhiker) Also includes a crew return ship for the crew not landing on Eve. 3 guys flying out on this ship. The plan is to meet up in orbit of Eve and dock the two halves of the station together. 5 of the colonists will board the base and land on their new home. The sixth will fly down in the roverplane. The remaining crew will use the station and lander to explore Gilly and do science in orbit. When the next launch window opens, they'll use the return module to head home.