A cupola good ideas and a Laythe lander

[nadreck]

So with their trusty landers, and atmosphere probes, Bill, Bob and Jeb arrive at Laythe in the good vessel DS - Groupo Niche:

In orbit around Laythe (keeping it quite elliptical to save delta-V) you can see the Laythe Lander on the left end of the ship, and what I call "A cupola good ideas in a lander" on the right, that also is the heart of the interplanetary reach using 4 LV-Ns. 3 pods will return to Kerbin with the science (though that is a formality for style, since just with the Jool atmosphere probe, the landings on Laythe and Pol so far, the tech tree is maxed).

Now Bill didn't quite get where he wanted to go on Laythe in his lander, but it turns out that it was amphibious even in launch mode. Note that to save weight (the parachutes that were used to reduce the landing thrust requirement to minimal were blown away before launch with radial decouplers) only the parachutes on the lander can remain. Hopefully there is sufficient fuel to soften the landing back on Kerbin. So, the sample from Laythe was some of that funky ocean. Bill complained bitterly of the smell in the lander can after he reboarded:

Here the remains after the side tanks were jettisoned comes back to dock with the reduced ship (note that the big orange tank has now been discarded a it was empty by the time the final orbit around Laythe was established.

Here the happy gang is at Pol:

The support modules and Bill and Bob stayed in orbit while Jeb went down. Now they are back in orbit with Jeb sneezing all over the place after exposing himself to the dust from Pol. They are also having a bit of a discussion about what to do next. Jeb is positive they can manage manoeuvre to Val, land and take off and make it back to Kerbin intact, Bill thinks they should go for Bop and return to Kerbin, while Bob says go back to Kerbin now 'cause he just wants to have plenty of margin in case anything goes wrong.