GoatRider

There's a tutorial built into the game that shows you how to do a hohman transfer to the mun, without using maneuver nodes.

You. You are awesome.

Isn't there a Gene Kerman in the tutorials? I got a kick out of that one.

Yes, I did that, with about 4k to spare.

I can believe that. I've done all of Mun and Minmus, and most of Kerbin, landed on Duna and Ike and did a fly-by of Moho. I think I have about 14k excess, so I can imagine if I were to do all the moons of Jool, Eve, and Eeloo and return, 70k would be about right.

The science lab can also take more than one of the same kind of experiment from the same biome, which is useful since some experiments (goo, mats, and soil) take 4 times to get full credit. But then you have to land the lab, like cantab said.

You can repack on the ground too. Last time I did it, the Kerbal wasn't even close to the chutes, just outside.

MJ seems to not even agree with itself on launch windows. I've had windows that were a long ways in the future turn out badly, so I tried stopping and recalculating about 20 days in advance- and the new one is yet another orbit away.

I understand their difficulties, I used to be a game developer, I know what it's like to be at the mercy of your framework. If they wanted to bypass Unity's joystick support, they'd have to do it for all 3 platforms separately. That said, I wish it was fixed! I was able to hook up the controller from my RC airplane/helicopter sim and it worked pretty good. My hope was that my helicopter reflexes would work for a VTOL lander- and it does! Only problem is I can't calibrate it, and the throttle goes from 10%-90%, so I have to unplug it once I've landed, or hook up an engine cut action group.

Even after you've unlocked the tech tree in Career, you can continue to accumulate Science!®

No, you have to EVA a Kerbal to pick it up and bring it into the lab or capsule. By the way, I sent a lander with a Sci Lab and full stock instruments to Minmus, and was able to land on 7 Biomes and do Science!® I had already done the EVA over every Biome without landing on a previous mission, otherwise it would have been more. Here's the results:

If it was a real plane, this would be the reason. I have a model airplane that has a pretty short fuselage, and it's rather squirrelly on the ground.

That and the ability to re-use your materials and goo experiments. The transmit bonus is rather meh.

Yes. This is a mobile lab on the launchpad, kerbal jumped out 4 times to take a surface sample, they all fit in the lab.

Maybe this will help: http://forum.kerbalspaceprogram.com/threads/42683-How-to-fix-horribly-calibrated-Joysticks-in-KSP-%28Workaround%29

Here's my version of that:

I haven't built many planes in KSP, but I fly both real and model airplanes. RL planes are usually designed with the fuel tanks centered on or near the empty CG, so that as they run out, the plane stays balanced. I wouldn't think that's hard to do in KSP.

Also try using the MechJeb "Limit to terminal velocity" option.

Wouldn't it make sense to connect the drop tanks straight in to the nearest tank, since that's the order it's being used?

You can empty the tanks in the SPH or VAB by clicking or right-clicking on them, and the moving the slider. That will show you the empty CoM. Don't forget to fill them up again before flying!

Answering my own question here- I pulled out just a lander can in the VAB, and put it on the launch pad. It didn't come with any Kerbals.

I just went to the VAB and pulled out a lab, put Bill and Bob in it, and put it on the launch pad. Did 4 EVAs to get 4 samples, here's the result. Last one didn't count because I had already done the launch pad before, back in the beginning of this career.

The best way to use a lab is to "clean out" Goo and Materials bays. After you take the data and put it in a capsule, you get the option "clean out experiments" which makes them re-usable. Transmitting a higher percent of experiments is pretty useless. Another lesser use is that Sci Labs can take more than one of the same kind of data. Some experiments you need to repeat up to 4 times to get 100% credit, you can do all of them in one go if you store them in the lab.

Hmm interesting. Could I use the Sci Lab as my first capsule, and pop a probe core on it for control? Then it would auto-kerb my lab?

I've been having the opposite problem- I have a single-seat capsule and a science lab. I want to take 2 more kerbals in the science lab, and they don't get saved automatically. I have to re-kerb the lab for every launch.