cantab

The more efficient way to land is a small deorbit burn to bring periapsis close to or below the surface, then a large burn as low as you dare to kill horizontal velocity (a "suicide burn").

As for Gilly, I believe the best approach would be to aerocapture into an orbit as similar to Gilly's as possible.

A 700 part ship on a 200 part launcher means you will go to space today - just not very quickly. I was running at around 1/6-1/7 speed on launch, up to 1/4 speed at best now it's in orbit and the launcher discarded.

In .23.5 you no longer need to make the setting change. With the default configs, if you're focussed on the body you're encountering it automatically switches to mode 0.

I'd almost completely forgot about Alderaan. It used to orbit between Kerbin and Duna, but it got removed and now they put the asteroids there instead.

I think the current system is more or less along the right lines. There are things that can only be done by a Kerbal, which is right. There are things that give full return by transmission, and other things that need returning for best results, which is also right. Now which things are which can be fairly quibbled - I agree that stuff like thermometry and gravimetry ought not to incur a transmit penalty - but the general idea is right. The issue is with the biomes, which make the science grindy. We need a way to get a message popup about a biome crossing so we're not resorting to clickspam to pick them up. I also think there should be diminshing returns to encourage going to new places rather than just spamming Mun and Minmus science. The simplest way to do that would be to make fewer experiments biome-sensitive; better I think would be diminishing returns so the first biome or two you hit are worth plenty and after that there's less in it. "Auto-Science" would take the load of the player, but removes the feeling of involvement. With messages about biome crossings (and include stuff like SOI changes and low/high space changes) there's no need for the game to actually run the experiment for you, you know when it needs doing. That said, a couple of experiments that require time to run would be good, rather than everything being click, done, return. I believe KSP Interstellar has a telescope that does something like that, though I think the stock game's version should offer finite science. There could be a requirement to keep the experiment fully powered throughout, or you have to restart, so there's an extra challenge of needing to think about your power supplies.

Two ships docked are treated by the game in every way as one ship. So yes, docking an experiment to the Science Lab will let you clean out the experiment.

I really don't think it matters that much. Laythe's rotational velocity at the equator is 60 m/s, so the ascent to a retrograde orbit is going to cost you 120 m/s extra. The descent, of course, costs you nothing more since you're aerobraking. Hopefully you aren't that marginal on delta-V that 120 m/s means the difference between success and failure. And as for burn to leave Laythe and go on to Tylo, I'm pretty sure it makes virtually no difference at all. Just you'll have to burn on the other side of Laythe to if you were in a prograde orbit.

You can, however, have two copies of the experiment in two different pods. In terms of science return this can be a practical option before unlocking the science lab, especially if you use destination orbit rendezvous. A Mun mission might have a two-pod orbiter and a one-pod lander. Put two Goo Cans (and if possible two Sci Jrs) on the lander (on the ascent stage if you drop anything!). Once you've rendezvoused back with the orbiter after landing, EVA, take results from one Goo Can and one Sci Jr, put them in one pod in the orbiter, go back to the lander and take the others, put them in the other pod in the orbiter, go home.

The Falcon X and the Merlin 2 engine planned to power it are pretty much concepts at the moment. In terms of timescale for flying and likelihood of being built they're not at all comparable to the SLS, which is using proven in-service engine and booster designs (in Block 1 at least). (Not that SLS is guaranteed to fly, but I think it will at least once.)

To be an actual spinoff it would have to be made by Squad or with their approval. The only thing fitting that bill would be the Kerbalizer. Otherwise it would be a clone if it's similar enough to KSP. The only KSP clone I know of is the mentioned Simple Rockets.

Amongst other things, I built a bomb. Weighs just over 4 tons and has enough force to lift a full orange tank off the ground. Which compared to real bombs is absolute rubbish, but it's what I've got. You win precisely zero internets for guessing what I'm planning on doing with it.

KSC on Eve would be interesting. Getting to orbit would I believe be even more difficult than on RSS Kerbin/Earth, but once you're up there, it's less halfway to anywhere and more 80% of the way to anywhere. I reckon it would encourage re-use of craft and building an orbital infrastructure. Of course, there's always interplanetary launchpads or whatever the mod is. Stick one on Eve, hack a ton of resources, and off you go I assume. If you want Ultra-Hardcore mode, put KSC on Jupiter in RSS.

If you just need a node editor, there's always Precise Node. It won't burn them for you like MechJeb mind.

When in flight, you can right-click on any manned or unmanned command module, docking port, or claw, and choose "control from here". That's important when you've got bits in different orientations. It's also where SAS takes its heading from, so it's useful if your ship is wobbly, you can control from a part that's nice and rigidly connected to your engines and the SAS keep the engines burning where you want and not be mislead by other parts flexing around.

Agreed, I think it would be a LOT simpler to list the allowed parts. And if OP wants to go the extra mile, create a save with only them unlocked - I *think* that can be done by editing the file.

Surely Jool even having a surface to land on is the bug. But unless Unity adds support for supercritical fluids, I don't see it being fixed.

The Smith 1 and Smith 2, cheap little probes, are on their way to Eve, and hopefully onwards to Moho. The Tycho 1, with Jeb, Bob, and Bill onboard, is landed on the asteroid 1 Jebediah. It will return when the asteroid passes close by Kerbin. The Macbeth 1, with Genery and Ronzer onboard, is on its way to rendezvous with asteroid 2 Bill. The Z-MAP 1 probe is on a Mun free return course, while its insertion stage is on a Mun impact course. I just wanted to check out the delta-V needed for a Mun free return and figured throwing up a stock rocket was the easiest way. Surprised and impressed it could actually make the burn, I guess Squad put a big margin for error in the stock craft. The Von Braun 2 interstage is in an elliptical Kerbin orbit. The test launch it was on went rather wrong, but I took fuel from the test payload to go straight up for a high apoapsis, and used the interstage's RCS (which give it quite a bit of dV) to make orbit. Now I can use it to make some gravity measurements.

Indeed. I also assume Probodobodyne Inc, who make all the tiny probe cores, several experiments, and a few other things, are named after Rocketdyne, unless there's another real world -dyne company I'm not aware of.

Funnily enough, a fair few people find it the other way round. They're different skills, I think.

The leading exports from the Moon, I believe, would be Anything Into Orbit. It's just so much easier to get into space from the Moon's surface than from Earth's. Once you've done the expensive bit of establishing a rocket factory (or at least a rocket fuel factory), you've got a chance of undercutting Earth-based facilities.

Use your second stage as your transfer stage, I guess.

In the VAB you can right-click the flight controls and select what inputs they'll respond to. So you can make sure, for example, that the ailerons on your dihedral wing don't go trying to control pitch and yaw. And in general remember that yeah, stock aerodynamics are dodgy. You can make flyable aircraft and have fun with them, but it's probably the least realistic aspect of the game. And, as mentioned, I'd try and fly it more like a real plane, using pitch and roll. In KSP I often don't touch the rudder at all.

I wouldn't even consider KSO. It takes quite a bit of extra fuel to reach from the launch, and you lose Oberth effect benefits. LKO is the obvious choice, but as others have said I might go a bit higher than your typical parking orbits. That keeps your station out of the way of other stuff, especially important if you have persistent debris turned on (though your station is only in danger when it's in physics range of what you're flying). It'll also permit a faster timewarp. A Minmus or Mun station is a quite different proposition. I wouldn't see it as an alternative to an LKO one, but a complement, though I'm not entirely sure what it'd be used for.