RoboRay

Ships already gain ElectricCharge from solar panels during warp in stock KSP, I believe.

I try to send an orbiter probe first and keep it in-place as a relay. If there is no suitable orbiting relay, or if I want a second relay for better coverage, the lander will include an orbiter to leave up. My two deep-space links at Kerbin are in highly-elliptical polar orbits, with apoapsis either over the North Pole or over the South Pole. Ap is just inside Kerbin's SOI, further out than Minmus (if Minmus was in a polar orbit, anyway), and Pe is about 200km so I don't have these things screaming through my populated equatorial belt in LKO. They spend most of their time hovering high up over the poles for weeks, then drop down and zip over the opposite pole before flinging themselves back out and away from the planet. This ensures that they pretty much always have sunlight to power their systems and that their line of sight to other planets doesn't get blocked by Kerbin or the Mun. There are brief outages as they make their flybys of Kerbin, but the Zenith and Nadir Relays have their orbits synchronized so that one of them is always at Ap while one of them is at Pe. Due to their low velocities near Ap, they are both usually far, far away from Kerbin. I chose this configuration over a wide, circular polar orbit because that would still leave the relays in shadow or blocked by Kerbin for significant periods of time. The high eccentricity results in more outages, but they are much shorter. And the other relay is generally always available if one of them is blocked. The polar orbit is important because it gets the satellites away from Kerbin's orbital plane and minimizes obstructions.

Go ahead! I'm sure the Realism folks would love it.

(Squad? Why is the Delete Post button still gone?)

Oh, right... the science reward of bringing the lander back to Kerbin can't be gained without actually bringing the lander back. And that's fine. As somebody else noted, that reflects being able to study the vehicle post-mission and see how it was affected. If you don't bring the lander home, you obviously can't study it. But, does it work if you bring part of the lander home? Say, have a docking port on top of the lander, with a probe pod then another docking port on top of that. When docking the lander back to the return vehicle, keep the probe pod and bring it home to Kerbin.

Uh... yeah... I tried that but things didn't go well. If you want wheels, install them yourself!

http://forum.kerbalspaceprogram.com/threads/66502-Kerbonov-Kn-2-Cockpit-Module

I tinkered with a tilt-rotor crew-recovery vehicle.

You already can. EVA, click the experiment or pod, choose Take Data.

I hoped somebody would notice that. I actually moved it over right in front of him and waited for that animation to get the shot.

And now for something completely different... A tilt-rotor crew recovery/rescue/transport vehicle. It cruises at 150m/sec at 1500m, and faster as you go higher. I haven't explored the range yet, but there's plenty of room for more drop-tanks, if need be.

Thanks! I thought about wheels, but I'll leave that as an exercise for those who wish to experiment.

KSP .craft files are stored as plain-text. Right-click the link and choose "Save As" to download the file. Put it in your KSP\saves\[name]\ships\VAB or ...SPH folder. It was created in the SPH, but you'll probably want it in the VAB to build a rocket underneath to get it into orbit.

The LEM is looking fantastic! My only concern is that the crew eyepoints are too far back to give the proper viewing angles through the windows, but that may be unavoidable due to the proportion differences between kerbals and humans, not to mention that kerbals must be seated while humans stood in the LEM (though having the seats so high up as you've done goes a long way to mitigate that). If I can make a suggestion, if you cannot move the eyepoints any further forward due to physical limits of the cabin, sacrifice a little realism to move the upper docking window aft so that a kerbal looking straight up can see through it directly along the vertical axis of the craft. That would make IVA docking a little easier.

Nah... just not letting it go. Anyway, back on-topic:

I finished the design and testing of my new Mun lander: Here's the thread with the download links and details, if you're interested: http://forum.kerbalspaceprogram.com/threads/67253-Kiwi-Lander-A-reusable-Mun-capable-lander-built-around-the-new-Kn-2-cockpit?p=928499#post928499

Ok, I finally got the kinks worked out of my Mun lander design... I had to remove a little fuel because I was getting flow-control issues, but it's still got enough for a Mun-landing with a reasonable 25% safety margin. Here's the thread with the download links: http://forum.kerbalspaceprogram.com/threads/67253-Kiwi-Lander-A-reusable-Mun-capable-lander-built-around-the-new-Kn-2-cockpit?p=928499#post928499

The Kiwi Lander is designed to operate from low-munar orbit, landing and returning its crew to LMO. Transportation to and from the Mun requires additional hardware. The craft provides sufficient delta v for its intended Mun-landing mission and an additional 25% reserve for scouting a landing site or emergencies. Minmus operations are, of course, well within Kiwi's capabilities. WARNING: The Kiwi is not capable of surviving a landing-attempt on Kerbin. As with any assymetrical design, slight uncommanded rotation under thrust is possible as the center of mass changes during flight. Kiwi is well-balanced so the effects are minimal, but thrust should be conducted with SAS engaged to mitigate any balance issues. Kiwi's Kn-2 cockpit features a deceptively spacious and well-equipped interior. Standard crew-size is three, with an external seat providing a total capacity of four on rescue missions. Kiwi is available in two versions, a basic model that requires only the Kn-2 cockpit and KAS (which is essential due to the use of some structural elements), and a deluxe model that integrates RemoteTech omni antennas, ScanSAT map receiver and MechJeb. A comprehensive science package is installed on both models, as is a belly-mounted KAS winch for hoisting cargo. A variety of winch attachments and spare emergency parts for the craft are loaded into the two aft storage boxes. The aft engine, KAS winch, and both docking ports are in-line with the Center of Mass and make suitable attaching points when mounting the lander to a launch vehicle. Action groups are configured as follows: AG1 - Toggle aft engine for longitudinal thrust. AG2 - Toggle ventral engines for vertical thrust. AG4 - Toggle solar panel deployment. AG6 - Winch: Eject AG7 - Winch: Unplug AG8 - Winch: Retract AG9 - Winch: Extend AG0 - Winch: Release Basic download: https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/14176520/Kiwi%20Lander%20(Basic).craft Deluxe download: https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/14176520/Kiwi%20Lander.craft

So, are we ever getting this thread moved back to General where it belongs? Reasons would be the same reasons it was moved back to General the last time it got moved here.

To simplify the explanations... the 4km/sec velocity difference is simply because the two ships are nearly on the opposite side of the planet from each other. If you shift one of their orbits so that they approach each other, when they are on the same size of the planet their relative velocity will be very low.

Floating. Floating around the cockpit.

It's a modernization update. Heck, compare the early space shuttle cockpit configuration to that on the last missions... if Apollo had been cancelled and Gemini upgraded for the lunar missions, NASA may well have continued using it long afterwards, like the Russians just kept improving Soyuz. Then we'd have seen Big Gemini and the other "what ifs" in the FASA pack.

I had the same thing happen to me twice in Munar orbit. Luckily, I had recent quicksaves and reboarding the second time wasn't a problem.

Yeah, that's on it too. I always strip off any non-essential mod parts when distributing a craft file, so those will be gone. When designing, I try not to use mod parts if there's a stock part available that will do the job, to make it easier to "sanitize" craft files.

Thanks! It's got a couple of RemoteTech parts on it (which I can remove) along with the KAS stuff (the toolboxes are full of attachments and spare parts), but it's otherwise stock (except for the cockpit, of course). The maiden voyage found a few design flaws I need to take care of, but I'll share it when it's fixed.