My KSP career has stagnated. I can't get enough income from contracts to cover my launch costs. My per launch costs to LKO and back are 20-30k depending on payload size. Is there any way to get income other than through contracts?
Here's what I have to work with:
- 39k in cash
- Flight Control (and everything before it plus Advanced Rocketry)
- EVAs from an astronaut training complex
- Have never returned or transmitted EVA data from space
- 37 research
I have very few contracts that will pay for a launch. I have more contract slots available, but no lucrative contracts available.
- 64k to recover Herdun Kerman from a 100km circular orbit of Kerbin.
- 124k to explore the Mun
- 27k to transmit or recover science data from space around Kerbin.
A series of small catastrophes have depleted my surplus resources. An experimental orbiter left Jeb stranded in Kerbin orbit with no means to return. I recruited two more pilots who suffered similar fates. I dispatched first Camley Kerbin then Billy-Bobdrin Kerman to recover Herdun Kerman. Camley got within a couple kilometers multiple times before depleting his fuel reserves; he had to deorbit. While Camley was deorbiting, Billy-Bobdrin launched a follow-up mission to recover Herdun. Billy overshot his prograde burn at periapsis and couldn't match Herdun's orbit. In an effort to salvage Billy's launch, mission control directed him into a polar orbit to survey new biomes. Billy overcooked that burn as well and is stranded in an eternal Kerbin orbit serving as a warning to new pilots. This warning is apparently too severe; no new pilots are willing to sign on. When mission control was done with Billy they turned their attention back to Camley, but couldn't find him on tracking; it's presumed that Camley began his deorbit but never deployed his parachutes. In another serious blow, the contractor offering to pay for science data from space around Kerbin wouldn't pay for a recovered mystery goo observation made in LKO by engineer-turned-pilot Bill Kerman.
Is there any way to get income from a launch other than through contracts?
Best Answer
Contracts are currently your only source of income in KSP*.
When you don't have any contracts you find profitable, you can reject any contracts you haven't accepted yet without a penalty. You should do so until you get some which are lucrative and easy to do.
Your best bet are "Test [part] in flight over Kerbin" contracts, which have a low height requirements. It is often possible to build a single vessel which can complete multiple of them with a single flight and then land near the KSC in one piece. When you recover the vessel at the KSC, you get a refund for almost the complete launch cost.
To secure your financial future in the long term, you should get a capsule with solar panels and an antenna into the orbit. When you have one, you can fulfill the "Return science data from Kerbin orbit" just by switching to the vessel, making a crew report (even when it is only worth 0.0 science) and transmitting it. The contract is repeatable indefinitely, so you can do this again and again to get unlimited money with zero effort.
*) Edit: OK, I lied. Contracts are not really the only one. You can also use the "Patent Licensing" strategy in the administration building to convert some of the science points you get into cash. But the transfer rate is so bad and the number of science points you need to pay to activate it is so high, that it is not a viable option to make lots of money, especially in the beginning. The only useful application for this strategy is when you already unlocked all parts and want at least some use for additional science points you make.