Can I salvage my KSP career with a single launch
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
I realize this is an older thread, but there is another cheaper, yet more time consuming (maybe) solution -- that is to accept only the "landed" contracts. I did this for quite a while until I had enough money to build a plane that could do the visual survey missions (then I made millions on those over time).
Just cancel (don't accept then cancel, because there's a penalty) but you can reject contracts you don't want, and I noticed that if you keep rejecting the same one, you often get a repeat, so bounce around and reject different contracts, and eventually you'll get a "test X while landed at kerbin" contract. Because you don't launch, you get 100% of the funds back.
Also, if you're testing an engine, you can right click on the engine and set the fuel amount to 0, so it costs less and you don't have to worry about accidentally launching your likely-no-parachute rocket into the air.
Once you have enough to build a stable spaceplane, I'd recommend the visual survey missions. As I said I made millions on them in just an hour or so, and if I recall correctly, they usually grant a small amount of science too. Just plan them out so that they're relatively close together so you can complete two contracts in one mission. If you suck at landing them, just put a couple radial parachutes near your center of mass and viola... recover the plane when complete.
Update There is now a default of -1 reputation penalty for declining a contract (which is what I suggested above in order to refresh the contract list to get new contracts). When creating a new game, I disabled this functionality so it resembles the original circumstances.
Pictures about "Can I salvage my KSP career with a single launch"
Can you lose Kerbal Space Program?
losing the campaign is something you almost have to intentionally do. Just use the bailout option and hire a kerbal, then do some basic missions. the only reason you 'lost' is because of your own unwillingness to exploit the options available to you.How do you recover a rocket in Kerbal Space Program?
Hold down the right mouse button, and move the mouse until you see the spacecraft in the distance (see Figure 1-15). Click it, and click Recover Vessel.How do you stop a launch in KSP?
Select the ship there, and you'll have an option to recover it in the lower left corner. Originally posted by andylaugel: You can also hit escape, and then go to the tracking station. Select the ship there, and you'll have an option to recover it in the lower left corner.Gonna be a struggle | Kerbal space program Career mode
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Answer 2
With 1.0 there is another method of making money. I like to call it...
Drilling for Oil
Warning, this is much more boring than building and flying spaceships for money.
Requires
- Enough science to unlock
- Ore drill
- Ore storage tank
- Ore converter
- Venture Capital - can be acquired from a long to complete mission that gives you lots of money up front and hopefully you make enough money to offset the failure costs
To Implement
Build a ship with the 3 above items (it is good to put many drills on in order to keep the converter running at 100%) also put on an incredible amount of solar panels and monopropellant storage tank(s) - make sure you empty the monopropellant tank(s) before launching. Also it will need a probe core or a Kerbal in a capsule to control it.
After launching, deploy the drills and solar panels, start ore harvesting and start converting to monopropellant.
Now that you are drilling, hit the fast forward button until your monopropellant tanks are full.
After they are full hit the recovery button for your ship annnnnd Voila extra cash without leaving the launch pad.
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Images: Nicola Barts, Nicola Barts, Nicola Barts, Monstera