LikeMyBread

Is there a way to set up automation from within the VAB? It seems odd to have to manually configure things like the solar panels and fuel cells from scratch with each launch.

This is a bit of a corner case, but has anyone figured out an easy way to do the "Science data from space around Kerbin" type missions? In the stock game I'd just send up a satellite with a thermometer or something, but I don't see a way to force an experiment to run if you've already gotten the data from that biome.