Tonight I tried 1.11.1. Previously I was playing 1.11.0.
Observations
Observation 4. Back to the surface does not require recovering the vessel.
If one were to land a vessel without probe control on a mountain side, automatically cut one of two parachutes, slowly roll far down the mountainside, reach a spot where rolling slowed further, not stop, automatically cut the other parachute, start picking up speed, and explode prior to becoming recoverable… That would be considered a successful return to the surface of Kerbin from orbit of the Mun.
This sounds an oddly specific hypothetical… 
I might have a house computer back at some point in the next few months, I’m sure kid[0] would love some quality KSP time!
Ok, so you see… I’ve had this problem. A deep space cruiser, outfitted with a Mk3 capsule, a science lab, and 6 nuclear engines. Crewed by one pilot, one scientist, and one engineer, it has completed orbital tours of Duna, Ike, and Eve.
The problem? I uh… I got it stuck… around the sun. Uh oh.
So I knew it would be tight only having about 2000dV left when leaving Eve SOI. I figured maybe it would take a couple passes to line up reasonably well with Kerbin but I could hit the SOI and return to LKO for a full refit and refuelling. Boy was I wrong.
From about 90 degrees right of Kerbin (I guess the term is Eastern Elongation?), I could hit the Kerbin SOI with about 1200dV to spare. This is fantastic, and it’ll only take…
2400dV to achieve capture. If I had made that burn it would also be on a trajectory completely out of the solar system’s orbital plane and that made it a slingshot maneuver into deep space. Nuts.
So here goes the first tanker. I used the precious little fuel left in the cruiser to re-circularize the solar orbit, leaving about 300dV left in the tank.
First, we get the tanker sorta within an AU or two.
With remarkably little RCS thrust from there I could get that intercept to less than 10km! That was never going to hold since there was still a 1300m/s speed difference to deal with but it’s getting there.
Oh man, there it is. Sooo close…
If you ever want to see Jeb alive again ya’ll need to be paying me a lot more money for solar rendezvous you jerks.
Well nevermind that. First thing, this cruiser was launched before I unlocked the Gigantor Arrays and with the science lab it was woefully underpowered. Time for a quick refit. Do your thing Bill.
Turns out, you can do EVA construction while flying, no ladders needed! Made it easy to reach the more distant components.
Monoprop refilled, fuel transferred, solar panels and batteries added. Proceed with undock.
Now for all our efforts, we now have a new fuel load of a whopping:
Did I mention this automated tanker ship launched with just under 10,000dV? Sigh… ok then. Well at least we know solar docking is possible now. Just have to do that 4 more times to get home. 
This is the story of a fledgling space agency (and the backstory [and the real story]). Valuing Kerbal life, probes have orbited and landed on Mun and returned. (Also, probes are easier to provide with the necessary delta V.) [Also, the settings are on hard plus various difficulty effects enabled, so Kerbals die easier and don’t respawn.]
Having completed various maneuvers in and around Mun, a well-paying contract to flyby Minmus was accepted and completed. We’ll probably be asked to plant a flag on Mun next.
Nope! The public wanted a face for the KSP closer to home, so we arranged a crew transfer between vessels in orbit of Kerbin (hardly mentioning that this implied getting at least one Kerbal into orbit). While that cost some credits, it should allow us to go on to even bigger things. (We launched a test vessel with enough delta V it should have been able to make the trip while also demonstrating the ascent was safe before doing the same with a Kerbal.) [It also seemed like a good time to upgrade the Astronaut Complex to allow EVA in case something went wrong, and possibly get another contract for docking rather than doing that for free.]
Since we needed publicity, how about we plant a flag on Mun? Wrong again, the public wanted us to land on Minmus and return, so we were obliged to accept (and it paid well enough we could upgrade the R&D building, if we were willing to forgo a safety buffer) [and I’m only choosing mainline contracts which tend to come one at a time, so the options are limited].
As a well-run agency, we’re careful with our credits and efficient with our hardware, having not yet exceeded 30 parts in a mission. (… and haven’t upgraded the VAB to ensure we have a buffer to cover publicity stunts like that crew transfer which paid less than 6K credits!) [… and I was more urgently interested in getting things like docking, fuel cross feed, and fuel transfer available.]
Having landed on both Mun and Minmus, perhaps someone would pay us to plant a flag? Whoa! An Eve flyby and return? Let’s do it! With Kerbals! For the public! (We don’t have relays that can reach that far yet.) [Upgrading R&D would still put me rather low on credits, especially now that I’m looking at interplanetary missions and still need to upgrade the VAB at some point.]
What’s the plan for Eve? Let’s send a Pilot (otherwise we won’t be able to plan maneuvers.) A Scientist would help a lot. (We’ll need science to buy those more powerful relays once the R&D building is upgraded.) [I should probably save a Pilot and an Engineer for a rescue mission; guess that’s everyone!]
[edit: I need the R&D upgrade for fuel transfer, and stored parts count toward mass but not toward part count limit. Looks like the R&D upgrade is more urgent than the VAB upgrade.]
[edit2: I’m not actually sure if there are mainline missions to plant flags on various bodies or if I’m being promoted early. (It might have something to do with losing control of that probe but publicizing it as a gravity assist to escape Kerbin’s SOI.)]
Congratulations to Valentina and Bob! You have been selected for two round-trip tickets to Eve’s SOI.
(
Valentina is still in orbit from that transfer. The ship currently has 3946dV available. If it were fully refueled, it would have 5179dV. If an occupied command pod and heatshield were docked to that fully refueled ship, that would bring it back down to 4314dV.
)
dV map:
870 to barely escape Kerbin (this is an inefficient first step, but it allows [[us]] to figure out the timing for the second step, then combine them into one burn for efficiency)
900 to burn near an intercept with Eve
450 to setup final intercept for the flyby to leave [[them]] heading back out toward Kerbin
870 to shape [[their]] orbit roughly like Kerbin’s, [since I can’t seem to plan an intercept for the body I’m currently orbiting]
[ That last step should be roughly what I need to enter Kerbin’s SOI going slowly. If I enter going quickly but then burn low, that’ll save fuel. If I combine the first two steps, that’ll save fuel. I might need help slowing down enough to land, but if I’m captured at Kerbin a rescue can be sent. ]
Total: 3500dV including some safety margin.
[ I was planning on adding a second ship minus the extra scients bits, docking, and sending them both off with a bunch of extra dV but avoiding the fuel transfer. ]
( There was a small mishap… while typing up dV calculations, someone must have hit space in the wrong window… Valentina is now in a fully fueled ship… with 2097dV, having ejected two half-full fuel tanks. )
[ I tried tabbing away from the window and pressing “X” to try to avoid saving the lost fuel tanks. That didn’t work. I know I could have been more violent and run kill -KILL, and I could have edited the save file, but I didn’t, and I won’t. New plan: dock a second ship, still have something like 4300 dV and some backup parts in case something goes wrong.]
==========================
Update: After receiving extra experiments and fuel, Valentina and Bob are on their way! (The new ship configuration meant the Science Jr was going to be ditched first rather than last. Now it connects the two command modules. Extra fuel seemed prudent, especially with the extra mass.) Since the trip was delayed, we’ve sent Since a parts run was already necessary, some EVA experiments kits with them. (First, an Engineer was needed to move the Science Jr. Then the Engineer couldn’t move the tanks blocking the Science Jr, so another parts ship was sent.) [That ship barely made orbit, so a second parts ship was sent.]
The ship is currently orbiting Kerbin with 4014 dV available. (Extra parts mean extra mass, and fuel available was not enough to top off without taking more time to dock with a tanker in addition to the ships carrying parts and the Engineer.) As planned, the first two burns have been combined for a burn of 1016.2m/s (with a flip in the middle to ditch mass, swap control points, and activate the engine on the opposite side of the ship). This saves roughly all of the dV which would have been spent on the second burn. (It was possible to spend about 200 more dV and intercept without the next node, but the savings would have been less, and a course correction would surely have been needed anyway.)
Bob and Valentina preparing to leave Kerbin orbit:
==========================
Update, some four hundred days later: After burning to leave Kerbin orbit (~10m/s adjustment 2 minutes after initial burn), Valentina is planning nodes with 2958m/s to spend. Currently the plan is to spend ~420m/s to intercept Eve and escape with Kerbol Ap just larger than Kerbin’s Ap. That will be refined after Kerbin escape.
Update, days later: After escaping Kerbin SOI, Valentina continues to refine planning nodes. There were some adjustments after our crew swapped places to allow Valentina to better control the ship and Bob to better reach the science experiments. He still can’t reach the Science Jr without the EVA jetpack (not having the goo above the crew hatch might have helped). Current dV remaining is 2957m/s.
The current plan is to
That leaves over 1000m/s safety margin. [Good thing Kerbals are so self-sufficient!]
[I’ve been wishing there were a way to adjust the time of a node in steps like there is for the three spatial magnitudes of a node. There is! The adjustable step-size scale is m/s for space and s for time; the center circle around the 3-d axis is split with symbols for ‘<’ and ‘>’. In addition to -/+ full orbit buttons I was aware of, the center is a pair of step-node-time buttons!]
==========================
Update some hundred days later: 2529m/s remaining and on target for the flyby. Next step, collect some science!
==========================
Update some scores of days later: Valentina and Bob are flying by Eve! Science is being collected. Escape is days away! (Something was funky with the controls until Bob let go, but Valentina got it under control, allowing Bob to collect science and return to the cabin.)
==========================
Update some scores of days later: Just another burn on the long road home, this time ~310m/s. 2218m/s remaining. The next burn is planned for 84.0m/s in 73d1h. Depending on accuracy, that might reach Kerbin SOI. Either way, a correction is expected somewhat over 4 years later. (Valentina is so patient!)
==========================
Update 73d1h and 84m/s later: Current dV is 2134m/s. Kerbin Encounter in 4y97d5h with no intervention. The current plan is to spend 73.5m/s to adjust deep into Kerbin’s SOI in 4y54d, burn about 200m/s inside Mun’s orbit, ditch over 300m/s dV in extra fuel tanks (no need to pollute Kerbin’s SOI when Kerbol is so much larger), burn about 700m/s to reach Kerbin orbit with Pe ~180km and Ap ~800km. That should leave about 800m/s to figure out how to land this thing. (Valentina thinks this is Fantastic! Bob was ready to go home after Eve but has to wait over four more YEARS until Valentina does anything more to get him there!)
o.O Ditch… dV… on purpose?
You know you can destroy debris in the tracking center, right?
@Syonyk I have enough extra dV I might try a Minmus landing. If not, maybe a Minmus or Mun flyby at least. I think that would be enough to level both of them from 0 to 3 in one go.
==========================
Update: Ditching partially full fuel tanks seems like a waste (especially when there is Science and Experience to be had). There are even fuel tankers hanging out in LKO (and an Engineer to hook up the fuel lines). Valentina could plan more nodes. Bob could collect more Science.
Here is one plan being considered:
73.5m/s radially => 391,304m Pe above Kerbin
1.1m/s fine-tune encounter to place Descending Node WRT Minmus near Kerbin Pe and further lower Pe
~190m/s to achieve capture and drop Ap to just above Minmus
~10m/s to adjust to Minmus plane
~230m/s to nearly circularize near Minmus
That leaves ~1500m/s to land on Minmus, return to orbit, and figure out how to get home. The landing may include hauling 2 empty fuel tanks to serve as landing legs.
Here is another:
73.5m/s radially => 391,304m Pe above Kerbin
~1m/s fine-tune encounter to further lower Pe and possibly tweak plane
~1100m/s to circularize around 110km
dock with one of the fuel tankers and continue to Minmus or Mun
Update: Here’s the new plan which gives Valentina more burns to execute and Bob more Science to collect (and both of them enough experience to get promoted from 0 to 3 stars) [and allows me to ditch the tanks after using them to land on Minmus. I /can/ just destroy debris, but I /prefer/ to plan the missions where it naturally falls into a gravity well.]:
That leaves ~1700m/s to land on Minmus (More Science AND Another Landing!), return to orbit, and figure out how to get home. That leaves ~200m/s in the fuel tanks before beginning the Minmus de-orbit.
==========================
Update: [4y takes awhile, even at maximum warp] Prepared to burn. Current dV: 2134m/s.
==========================
Update: The burn went well; overshot a touch and corrected.
Current dV: 2107m/s
Kerbin Pe 87,479m
Descending Node WRT Minmus: -8.1 degrees and aligned with Kerbin Pe
The plan is still to spend 191m/s to get Ap just above Minmus.
==========================
Update: Orbiting Kerbin! That’s almost like being home, except we’re flying past at over 3100m/s.
Current dV: 1916m/s
Pe: 87,494m
Ap: 49,397,156m
8.1 degrees from the plane of Minmus
This was NOT in the original mission plan!
It looks like we’ll spend a touch over to 170m/s and 70m/s on the next two burns, but we’ll end up in a ~20km orbit rather than a ~48km orbit.
…
~170m/s spent.
Current dV: 1745m/s
Minmus Encounter 38d3h1m
…
Current dV: 1676m/s
Minmus orbit: 23,716m-24,916m
Inclination 85.3 degrees
Hey Bob, where would you like to do some Science? (Preferably somewhere flat – we have no landing struts. 175m/s left in the tanks we plan to land on.) We’ll spend a little dV to keep the tanks through the landing, but that’ll be much more stable than landing on the Terrier (let’s not disable gimble in this ship).
…
[ Every time Bob steps out, the ship bumps around enough to change the orbit. Weird, but I didn’t plan on going for Minmus when leaving Kerbin! ]
Landing on Minmus, orbiting, and returning to Kerbin was rather uneventful. There was initially some concern about deorbiting the command module docked to the science Jr docked to the command module, but the undocking force was not enough to disturb the Pe too much when facing normal, and there was plenty of dV remaining to re-dock and make another attempt anyway.
Landing provided 810.8 science points (not counting any already transmitted or any mission rewards) and 6 stars worth of experience.
That’s impressive.
and this was all still with the 30 part limit VAB? Amazing!
@Canem 30 part limit in VAB, yes, but docking was used, and I upgraded R&D to unlock fuel transfer and partially refuel before originally leaving Kerbin orbit. I didn’t write it down, but I think roughly 30 parts made it to Eve SOI.
I brought a science lab to Eve orbit and dwarfed the science points of the previous mission. Then a spacewalk and rendezvous was requested around Mun. That paid to develop a liquid fuel tanker (prior to that I had some liquid + ox tankers), put a relay into orbit of Mun, and refuel the ship from the previous Eve mission. [Both the primary pair of docking ports and a secondary pair bugged and wouldn’t release the crew vessel from the science lab nor the science Jr, so I used a tool to edit the save and unbug the docking ports.] Now the mission is to enter Eve atmo, land on ground on Eve, and splash down on Eve. First, I’m experimenting with combining jet and rocket technology.
Two things to observe about the results:
After the wings were lost, splash down was successful without additional lost parts. This was an automated test flight, so the cockpit was unoccupied. Does that qualify as great landing?
If there’s nobody to walk away from it, was it even a good landing? 
What? You want someone to walk away AND be able to reuse the plane? As to reusing the plane after losing the wings… previous editions didn’t have wings… I’ve been playing with new designs. So far disposable boosters are still beating jets for getting nukes to space, but the combination of fuel tank and wing is intriguing.
Cross-linking from the 3D printing thread: The State Of FDM 3D Printing, according to me - #58 by SirDrew
That’s a really good idea! I should have kid[0] make some designs with the kit and try to launch them. I think we need to unlock the -64 RocketMax tank still, but that’s not hard.
Massive stack-o-boom.
Also, regarding previous conversations on the “half height 1.25m tank and Terrier” vs the full tank, wow, that’s way less dV difference than I’d expected! Twice the tank for something like 30% more dV.
I was thinking there was a reasonable Mun lander scenario where the dV actually decreased with the larger tanks. Maybe the TWR dropped below 1.0 requiring more engine, but I’m not seeing it now.
30% isn’t great, but it isn’t too bad as long as you aren’t making up for it by burning upper stages when the launch stage fails to deliver the extra weight.
