Now that contracts have been added, and idea might be to rarely or after an accomplishment(Finish a Mun contract or something) you could get a contract for new experimental things not on the science tree. For example, lets say you just finished the contract for exploring the Mun. C7 Aerospace offers you a contract for a new type of Wing, the contract details: ----------------------------------------------------------- Test wings on a Space Plane over altitude X-Y Record Temperature Range of Altitude(as in actual numbers) Record Atmospheric Pressure of Altitude(also in actual numbers) Land safely back on the Runway ----------------------------------------------------------- After you complete the contract, you would get a followup contract with similar details, but the wing would be slightly modified based on the accuracy of the readings given. After doing doing a few more contracts like this the wing could be completely different from what it was at the start based on the readings given, allowing for a large variety of possible outcomes. That alone was just an example for a Contract series, however other contract series could show the location of Easter Eggs, unlock new or unknown science nodes, etc.