Kryxal

These things happen? THESE THINGS HAPPEN!? Well, until you STOP these things happening, THIS thing does NOT happen! (not really, but it WOULD be nice to have a better indicator of which side is the docking side, and bonus points if you can use it for alignment!)

Probably, yes ... for next time, set up with your panels perpendicular to your orbit about Kerbol (or whatever planet you're at's orbit)

You can reduce the delta-v requirements above if you have more life support by doing a longer return transfer, it all depends on your actual figures really.

Check the website linked above, you can select a point and it tells you when to leave and which way to point (honestly, I just set it up with a maneuver node once I have an idea of when to burn). Just have plenty of spare delta-v and be willing to break off if need be without trying to land or anything...

I'd suggest skipping Jool, bad things tend to happen...

I'd suggest spending extra delta-v to get to Duna sooner ... an extra 50 delta-v could take 60 days or so off the outbound trip, and you'd catch the edge of the return window that way ... you might need 1300-1400 delta-v, but you could spend a few days there and launch for a return without waiting a long time. Actually, it looks like delta-v costs will rise faster to a point for a later start from Duna, meaning you'll save by a shorter trip there so you can leave sooner.

Well, if you ever re-create this monstrosity, remember that drop tanks are your friend (and to make your life easier, build something that can lift a full orange tank, then DOCK that orange tank in a pull configuration to an engine framework)

Too bad, that ... see where else you can go? Oh, and I'll agree with the moon slingshot for inclination change, it takes work but is the most economical in terms of delta-v.

I'd never seen the advice, but I've done exactly this: instead of zeroing the AN/DN, I'd just make sure the AN/DN would be sitting on my destination point. It's more effective if you can aerobrake to deal with the greater difference in velocity, though ... you're going to be coming in relatively faster.

Actually, that 1100 when you get there means you used WAY more delta-v than you should have ... that 900-odd mostly gets used to get you up there, you shouldn't be moving very fast at all, Minimus should be catching up to you.

For a rescue craft you don't have to worry about, put one of the core probes on and an EMPTY capsule (you'll probably have to remove a Kerbal from it). You have a ship that can reach Minimus already, so repeat, but the way to do it is to be going slowly when you get up there, you were just flying past Minimus on the way out of Kerbin SOI, I suspect. Figure on using about 920 delta-v from a 75 km or so orbit to reach Minimus, and if your node shows much more, something's wrong...

I think the surprise is that KSC isn't also aligned to that same orientation to start...

Batteries, some solar panels for landing/moving, and the generator for active mining will do the trick nicely ... and it's not really hurt by deploying to Jool or something.

48-7S clusters are fairly good ISP and the best TWR you're going to see, Aerospikes just don't see a drop in ISP in-atmosphere.

You can only stage-deploy the parachutes once, but there's no reason that has to be the FIRST time you use the chutes ... I tend to right-click deploy and use the staging display to double-check.

All that science is probably still on the surface ... but the good news is that you should have PLENTY of delta-v for the trip back (chart places it at about 750 from LDO to Kerbin intercept, and you can just aerobrake). If you are able to dock to the ship you have there, it might be worth sending a fuel tank or two, if not then I'd just come back again later.

I can't say for sure where, but either your launch from Kerbin or your Duna transfer used more delta-v than they should ... 5600-5800 should be enough to take off AND make the transfer, and a fair bit of that's going to be in vacuum (so likely more efficient).

You're not kidding ... I did a series of missions on the Mun, then a BIG mission to Minimus that gave 6k science (all parts and I left a lab in orbit to re-use the lander).

I'm going to be different and say you'll make it easily. I'll assume you're near the equator on the Mun, just pitch over to 30 degrees above the horizon, due east, maybe more if terrain and TWR allow, and burn till you have an apoapsis above 10k. Either circularize so you can take your time setting up the next burn or go straight into that burn if position is good (which will be roughly 30 degrees onto the near side from the near/far border) and set up a node there to break Mun orbit and drop your Kerbin periapsis into atmosphere (30 km or so is good).

The Oberth effect is easy to take advantage of, just make your burn deep in a gravity well (so you have more kinetic energy) as opposed to higher up ... gravity assists are trickier because they involve SoI and direction changes, but there's no reason you can't do both.

These days, I tend to pitch over more than I used to ... you'd be surprised how much you can pitch over and still increase your apoapsis and maintain time to apoapsis. I'm hitting 10 degrees at 30k, often enough...

I'm going to suggest something a bit odd, the greatest separation between engines you can manage. If you have 3-4 engines you can throttle some down and adjust your angular momentum by trial and error.

Actually, gimbals may be a fair reason to use that one LV-909, though I don't know if it has the sort of power you'll need ... possibly ignite the two side LV-909s after dropping the LV-30s and transfer fuel to replace what you use up top...

It's a technical term, I think ... and the quick-fix for inverted controls on a rocket is to just spin 180 degrees with Q or E.

I put together a plane the other day and tried to do a split-S ... it didn't really work so well, I ended up just reversing direction and thrusting which SHOULD have been a disaster (though not so much as the time my engine exploded at 20 km up). I then ended up touching down on the runway at 120 m/s and just bouncing up again. I came down again a few km downrange. I think I'll be placing some reference markers sometime soon if I want to try planes again...