WhiskeySage

Will do, just keep in mind I won't actually be getting every piece of science off the mun in one go. I've spent so much time designing the craft, I really want to get away from mun stuff and maybe start the laythe project soon. Potential project burn out is the only thing stopping me from making the whole thing be able to connect and relocate to minmus instead of just going back to kerbin. I'll save that for LL Bean Mk4.

By the time I build the refuelers and their station (they double as the transit vehicle for this) I'll be over 600. Then I want to launch it with an ssto because if I do, it's nearly free of debris at final deployment because each stage is itself a vehicle, 20 in total, configuration varies as mission progress is made. Fairing and couplings is all it would leave as trash. The 4 mun rescue lander's will send its stages into mun and kerbin, I can't reasonably get around that. Tempted to go full recovery but this is already way over built. Landed base with 4 mods (rover, miner, tanker, comms/inv sci) Orbital refueling station with 4 lander/loaders 4 rescue vehicles to return a kerbin home 4 relay satellites 2 scanners Nearly 600 parts, just over 100 tons without the 4 fuel transports, haven't finished those yet. Fully autonomous, capacity of 8, but only taking 2 scientists and an engineer. I will not admit if it has 16.6k electronic charge for some reason, or if I was a reasonable person and didn't do it just because I could. You be the judge. Side note, I'll be borrowing a computer for this launch haha.

oh why not, have a peek at most of what's inside the fairing of Mk3 currently. Sorry for the camera shot, pc doesn't agree with my router right now. https://imgur.com/gallery/aDZCxJw

I should clarify, it's not a big station. I started with a requirement of 2.5m fairing, i'm having a hard time doing that though. It's pretty compact at launch and likely won't have much dead air in the fairing if I go back to that restriction. It all started with the rover in a service bay. I'll post the mk1 of that after work so you guys can get the idea of what I mean by the compact but no clipping thing.

old pilot back in the game here. still hell bent on a revenge mission to the mun (im up to 300pc on mk3, mk1 had over 500 at launch for proof of concept, its not an average mission) that i never pulled off so i havent gone anywhere else yet but im looking forward to the community aspect and sharing my creations now that im back into it. hopefully i can finish the design soon because im dying to share it. im really looking forward to the revisions after it finally flies and i get some criticisms on it. basically, single mission orbital station that can deploy (possibly recover for relocation) its own scanning and relay network, land itself, biome hop, and return to orbit before sending the kerbals home. between the mobile station, its rover, and deployable titleless craft mk3, it can in theory get every piece of science from the mun all while providing comms for other missons and refueling them as well. to keep things fun, ive nearly eliminated part clipping as an option unless its unavoidable. as in, im not shoving tanks inside each other, and im verifying that no moving parts ever intersect with others during operation, but yeah, you cant make the flat plate of landing gear line up with a curved tank/pod soooo.... clip till it looks right, but no more.