riversmoke

Also: * Probe-based (robotic) sample collection * Satellite-based mapping/scanning (I think I might have seen this in the what-not-to-suggest list...)

I second this. My game crashes when I try to go to the VAB even if the ship in the VAB doesn't have B9 parts... (Was somewhere in the middle of career mode)

I like this as an addition to the existing concept. IRL, we learn a lot by dropping a probe in a planet's atmosphere and expecting it to crash/be crushed. That should still count for something in the game. But I love the idea of experiments as a resource. Something to be conveyed to and from a lunar/orbiting base. It helps to push players to create a multiple-launch-and-docking-challenge of a space station, and then gain rewards by ferrying experiments to it. I guess it should, like all science, have a decaying reward value. So after your 10th or 20th experiment (depending on where you are, and how much you gain per experiment), you just don't learn anything more. And perhaps if you research and unlock a shiny new science part, now you can dock it to your space station for more science-y rewards.