With a big bunch of science, I can now develop a few new craft.  The first two will be scanners for the local system and return probes also for the local system. The scanners will be the Spectrum series. The return probes will be called Armstrong series. Sims of the Spectrum series. This went exceptionally well.  Other than adding the fairing jettison to the custom controls, it was perfect. The Armstrong will b every challenging.  Many steps and sims will probably be necessary to get this right.  The challenge on return will be waiting for the window as well.  I can use the atmosphere for braking, but it needs to sling back. First sim of the top of the Armstrong core shows that I need to keep the retrograde enabled during descent.  It leans big time to the side and it will probably cause some heat issues that I am not seeing in the slower orbital return speed. The engine also does not appear to be strong enough to to lift off probably.  It appears it will work for most but not Serran.  I also think I want to add material and goo gathering for low and high space, so I want another level.  Serran will be a special case all around I think since it has atmo as well. Did a sim from Mun landing to complete return.  Got a bit hot at the end.  I hope that isn't the case with others.  My fuel was actually pretty tight but Mun has the highest gravity, so that should not pose a problem for the others non-atmo.  Serran, again, special case. Overall, the sim looked pretty good.  I may be ready to start launching some real missions soon. My launch test went well, but 7431 dV I don't think will be enough.  I need to add boosters I believe. Now with boosters taking it to good orbit, I did a sim run to Eli and had 319 dV left in the landing stage.  Tight but good. Everything was going fine (plenty for return) until I warped past the landing and then ended up leaving Kerbin orbit with no more engines attached.  Oh well.  The sim looked good overall. Launch date: 1y 210d Spectrum 1 Spectrum core (7130 dV) Scan mission to Eli. The porkchop had just over 100 dV but the actual turned out to be about 1600.  Odd, but fine since I have plenty.  Need to be more careful with lander mission. 686 dV left with a 260km circular polar orbit.  Scans underway. <Spectrum 1 Scanning> It looks like Serran may be in good position to send its scanner.  Aptur and Mun are pretty frequent so it doesn't seem that they would get priority. Back to the return mission.  I may test the craft a bit more with an actual dip into Sonnah's upper atmosphere with return.  Could get me some good science and would be a good 'real' test. Launch date: 1y 219d Spectrum 2 Spectrum core (7130 dV) Scan mission to Serran. In 260km orbit.  1490 dV left.  Quite a bit! The transit was not very expensive.  Was a bit challenging to set up (porkchop set weird values) but I was able to get it really good with a low dV demand. <Spectrum 2 Scanning> Launch date: 1y 235d Spectrum 3 Spectrum core (7130 dV) Scan mission to Mun. The incline change is a massive 1341 dV!  I hope I have enough fuel! Needed to reset. Cannot make a 90 deg incline.  Get in orbit and get as high as I can I guess!  Really demanding a lot of fuel here for some reason I don't fully understand. The porkchop really messed up because this is a 3k dV mission.  Way off.  I really need to pay attention because the lander mission would be toast if this happened. Because I did the orbit first, the incline shift was within my range.  Mission rescued since I could not so the Survey without being in polar orbit Final orbit will be at 297x260km with an incline of 90. Final dV left is 47.  That's all! <Spectrum 3 Scanning> Launch date: 1y 240d Spectrum 4 Spectrum core (7130 dV) Scan mission to Aptur. Tricky getting to Aptur.  Not real impressed with the MechJeb interplanetary window launch.  Not sure what the point of it is. Good polar orbit (260) 1454 dV left. <Spectrum 4 Scanning> Small complication. It looks like we need to be lower for the survey scan.  (maybe due to the planet size) Therefore, I need to get that done when we return to gather the science from the other scans which are all in the ideal range for now. Armstrong craft This is a science return craft. 1 - Jettison Fairing 2 - Toggle Panels 5 - High Orbit Science 6 - Low Orbit Science 7 - Ground or atmo science (depend son the mission) 8 - Dust science for transmit Launch date: 1y 241d Armstrong Sonnah Armstrong Sonnah (8136 dV) This mission hopes to send a return probe into Sonnah's upper atmosphere. The ranges are 265k to 6000k for low orbit. Below 265k for upper atmosphere. Need to swing through and then get a higher periapsis to return to Kerbin. In orbit 200 km 4335dV in tank. 907 dV needed to swing just above Sonnah atmosphere. 3428 dV available. 1251 to make a 33mm circular orbit for return.  Looking good! 2166 dV left. 3 days to a 200 dV burn to get back to Kerbin.  Almost 2000 dV left with only minor adjustments afterwards! It worked!  We got it back!  519 science recovered not including the dust science and gravity science transmitted. What a mission! <Armstrong Sonnah> Correction, I now have 519 science.  It brought back about 100.  Not as awesome... <Scan Science Recovered> Also a little less than I hoped.  About 100 science as well. Working with the Armstrong Serran simulations.  Hard to get it to work right.  Lands hard now and kills the gear.  Don't even know if I can take off yet.  More parachutes! It appears the micro gear is just too weak.  Need to reassess. After multiple sims, I have to conclude my core lander designs (Armstrong) simply won't work on Serran. Even when I can land clean with a full two stage launch, I don't have enough dV to make orbit and return.  Despite the small payload, I will need a much larger craft to return from the surface.  I may use the Armstrong craft to do an orbital return from Serran so I can get the science from low/high space as well as upper atmosphere.  Similar to my Sonnah mission.  I may actually use the same craft that I used on Sonnah. Launch date: 1y 248d Armstrong Serran Armstrong Sonnah craft (8258 dV) A low pass of Serran with return. Mission went well.  Used most of the fuel so the land return will require much more (of course). 75 science earned and a little more returned. <Armstrong Serran>