Yeah I've seen a really good Munar rescue on Youtube but I am not competent enough to try it yet. I also would like to know how to save the game manually so I can go back and retry something without having to launch another rocket and redo the whole darn thing.
On your lander:
Hmmm I would think a 1,600L would be enough (I use an 800L, but then again I ran out of fuel [though that was pilot error mostly] and I wasn't trying to do a rescue) but you could attach a tripod arrangement of 3 of the smaller fuel tanks to the side for the extra juice and maybe upgrade to the more powerful thrust vectored engine (though it might drain fuel too fast). You can also land on the tanks and thus do away with the landing gear and such.
How do you:
a)send up only one kerbal in a 3 seater?
b)get more than one kerbal to do an EVA? (Once the first one is out of the lander, the little picture of the other two goes away so I can't select EVA for them)
And yeah the puddle gets on my nerves. It's very fuel efficient but it's thrust is too damn low. I'd like something in between it and the next most powerful rockets. Though I've been contemplating switching to a trio of the nuclear engines in place of a single poodle.
Just to make sure we are talking about the same things, I think the small diameter fuel tanks have 200 L and 400 L capacities, while the larger "oil drums" have 1,600 L and 3,200 L capacities. And to launch a single kerbal in a 3-pod, I do an EVA on the launchpad, have them jump off the rocket (using their jetpacks otherwise they die in the fall), and then end the flight. Then I go to the tracking station, select my rocket on the pad, and repeat so I only have one kerbal on my flight. Then I take off and hope nothing goes wrong.
Side problem I have in take-off: since I use the connecting struts to connect the nose cones of my first-stage booster rockets to the second-stage, my rocket always tumbles after I detach the lower stage. It's really annoying, but the system has enough give that I can take the tumble and re-orient the rocket before losing my chance to orbit. And there's enough extra fuel in the second stage that it doesn't affect my reserves for the Mun.
I used to use a 3,200 L for my lander, but I switched to a 1,600 L because the lander was too top-heavy and it fell easily. Now, I have a 1,600 L on my lander body, with a triplet of 1,000 L total tiny tanks attached with fuel lines around it. I also have a tripod of heavy landing gear attached to explosive bolts.
So my procedure is to get this contraption into near orbit with a two booster stages (I aim to get my periapsis or however it's spelled to around 45k, then I jettison the final booster, but they don't start slowing down in the upper atmosphere like they should, starting to get too much low-orbital space junk). Then, I use the 3k extra fuel to get into orbit, to the Mun, and then to de-orbit around the Mun. Usually, I'm vertical and starting to fall when the outside tanks are empty and they are jettisoned, crashing into the Mun and getting destroyed in the process.
After landing and messing around with the EVAs for a little bit, I start the take-off, and once I'm barely off the ground I jettison the landing gear to save weight on the return trip. Usually, at least one of the pieces survives, and it marks where I landed on the Mun. Until we have flags, I'm leaving my landing gear. My return pod consists of the module-parachute-decoupler for re-entry, and then an Advanced SAS, empty RCS w/ 4 thrusters, 1,600 L fuel tank, and a poodle engine.
I'm thinking about making a two-stage lander with a large number of tanks around the outside with tons of fuel and nuclear engines, landing gear, etc., and have it all attached to a decoupler that would serve as a moon base. A tiny pod could then separate from the base with a poodle and a 3,200 L tank for the return voyage.
EDIT: I'll try and get some pictures of this system when I'm not at work.
