Hodari

The Voyage of the Dawn Treader: A single mission which landed on the Mun, then Minmus, then did a fly-by of Duna and Ike, before finally returning to Kerbin. Regular engines were used to get into low Kerbin orbit and do the inclination change, then ion engines only for the rest of the mission. The final landing on Kerbin was especially difficult since the craft design didn't allow for a heat shield and also because the day/night terminator was right near periapsis, so needed to just get a stable but highly elliptical orbit on the first pass and then gradually lower it on the next several orbits before final re-entry. Also kept the craft rapidly spinning during the final descent and ended up only losing the solar panels.

Yeah, it's worth noting that this is around the altitude most commercial aircraft will fly at too.

It has nothing to do with the tech tree(at least not directly anyway). For crewed vehicles, it depends on the experience level of your pilot. For uncrewed probes, it depends on which probe core you use(right click on the probe in the VAB part list to see which functions it offers). Of course, if your pilot is too low a level or your only crew members are engineers or scientists, you can also put a probe on in addition to the command pod in order to gain access to its functions. Either way, use the T key to turn on your SAS and whatever buttons you have access to will show up.

You don't need an equatorial Munar orbit or even to get into an orbit at all(it certainly makes planning easier though). Just fly directly opposite the direction of the Mun's orbit until you're able to escape into Kerbin orbit. You also don't need to worry about the inclination of that orbit unless you're trying to land back at the KSC(and if you're that low on fuel, this is probably the least of your worries). Once you're in Kerbin orbit, jsut burn retrograde at apoapsis as usual in order to drop your periapsis to the desired height As for the stranded craft, if you need to rescue the whole craft, then yeah, refueling rover would probably be the easiest way. If you just want to save the crew, all you have to do is land the rescue craft anywhere nearby and have the crew EVA over. They can also collect any science data first, of course.

If it inflates fast enough, use it to launch stuff from Gilly.

I originally made this for the K-prize challenge, but maybe can use it for this one as well? Only problem is it uses a normal docking port, not the Senior.

Took a few tries to get the landing perfect, but finally made it! Payload was a full orange tank with probe core, docking port, and a few solar panels(mostly just so I could switch control to it to verify the tank was still full).

Wow, very nice. Gonna be hard to beat that one for part count.

Not sure if I absolutely needed it or not, but thought it would help with stability during ascent(especially since I didn't have any fins) and that would be a rather big ship to turn just with the command pod(especially before dropping the first stage. Anyway, that was a ship I just threw together quickly and didn't completely optimize. But yeah, if I could have gotten away without the reaction wheels, then I could have put in a parachute or something instead and still kept to 10 parts. Also could have dropped the mono-propellant to save a bit more weight. Fuel wasn't even really an issue except for the Duna landing and even that was only because I didn't bother waiting for optimal transfer window and there were a lot of things I could have done more efficiently. In any case though, I'd say that was WAY beyond the scope of the original challenge

And with the same 10 part craft as I used before...

Made it back to 71 x 73 km Kerbin orbit with fuel to spare too. Would need 2-3 more parts to be able to actually land it though.

Oh Misy, you're so fine, you're so fine you blow my mind. Hey Misy!

Definitely think you're gonna have to add a rule about the launch clamps there. Having it high enough to give you some clearance off the ground and get started is one thing. Almost a kilometer off the ground is another.

As far as rockets destroying the runway, this should only happen with a vertical launch. Launching horizontally, like a spaceplane, should be allowed. Simply making the runway be very sensitive to heating should work. Atmospheric Fluid Spectro-Variometer isn't available until relatively late, so I'd substitute only requiring the barometer. Variometer scan could still be required before crew are allowed to EVA on other worlds. Otherwise, these look like good suggestions, though I'd also add in a more realistic tech tree progression. Basic aircraft and unmanned rockets first, then crewed missions later. A lot of the science parts would have to be moved a bit earlier in the tree as well in order to support the idea of requiring those scans in order to be able to plan out the mission.

1. Watch Scott Manley or some of the other people on Youtube and see how they design theirs. Don't need to copy them exactly, but at least see how they approach the different problems and get some ideas from that. 2. Start from the end of your mission and figure out what you need for that, then work your way backwards through each stage from there. 3. If you haven't already done so, learn to dock. There's only so much you can carry up in one launch, but being able to dock or refuel will let you do a lot more. 4. There's two ways you can make your rockets bigger, building up or building out. Experiment with both. 5. If your first attempt doesn't work, at least figure out WHY and learn from that. Use what you learned to make your next one better. As for more specific suggestions, post what you've tried so far and whatever specific problems you're running into.