Gritmonger

I'm actually wondering why a capsule is required at the lowest stage - Goddard did liquid fuel at a very small scale, sounding rockets, V-2, Sputnik - it was quite a while before more than dogs and chimps went into space. A really dumbed-down probe level (no reaction wheels and so-on) at a very small scale might be what you've got at low level, but allows you to do robotic missions early rather than after risking a bunch of your pilots. Then again, I'm a Noob who still hasn't landed on a planet other than Kerbal or orbited another planet other than in the tutorial. I'm not a power user.

I don't know if money or discovery should be the criteria - maybe you can only recruit stupider and stupider crew until you cross the threshold of nobody will fly for you and get killed. And if you don't have a robotic probe by that point, you can't really fly any missions. I'm a new player and I make plenty of mistakes. Even with the tutorials, I have yet to actually intercept Mun except once by accident which sent my probe winging out of the solar system...