Crew Transport for a Jool Base

[Sauron]

I'm building a large-ish baloon base inside Jool's atmosphere. Putting it there is essentially idiot-proof (The base is under 15 tons). I know exactly how much my tugs can move, and this isn't going to be anything remotely close to that. Where I'm running into problems is crew return systems. I'd like this to be a long-term base with the ability to transfer crews to orbit and, especially, back down. However, I'm not sure how to make this happen. Docking inside Jool's atmosphere seems impossible. Also, I'm really not a huge fan of the Firespitter parts as they're rather ugly/very incongruous, so I'd rather not make my CRV with propellers. I realize that that may be impossible, but if it were easy, where would the fun be?

EDIT: If I could switch vessels while in atmosphere, I might be able to crash the CTV into a KAS electromagnet, but that doesn't look promising. Innability to switch vehicles in atmosphere looks like it's going to be a killer. This may be impossible

Edited July 2, 2013 by Sauron

[Pulstar]

Don't vessel in atmosphere get automatically deleted unless on an orbital trajectory though? Or does the Airship mod prevent that somehow?

[Sauron]

No, as far as I know that's still the case. I'm fairly sure this is impossible. Which is a real pain because I'm going to have to attach the return vehicle to the base no. Ugh

EDIT: On the other hand, I spent a wonderful hour tethering the base to random things around KSC. Rovers. Monuments. The side of the VAB...

EDIT 2: Also Bob.

Edited July 3, 2013 by Sauron