How are contracts chosen?

[jdcr]

I'm sure there must be some info on this somewhere on the web, but I can't for the life of me find it. So...how exactly does KSP decide what contracts it offers to me? I'm assuming they're chosen randomly from a pool, but what exactly goes into that pool at any given time?

Reputation seems to be involved but is that the only criterion? Does the status of my research facility matter? If so, in what way?

The parts I have researched seem to matter at least indirectly. For instance I never got asked to launch a satellite equipped with part X unless I had researched X first (unlike testing contracts where you get early access to the part in question).

It would be great if someone could answer this (admittedly very broad) question or point me to where I can read up on that stuff. The wiki, by the way, doesn't know anything on the matter.

[nightingale]

To start, the contract system has a number of slots for contacts - if you have low reputation these will mostly be one star, high reputation will give you more total and more 3 stars.

When a new contract is needed, the contract system will randomly select a type of contract to generate. It will then ask if the conditions for that contract are met, which varies for each type. The satellite ones need you to unlock power and probe cores, among other things.

Each contract has its own logic for what goes in it. Part test contracts will look at the parts that are unlocked or soon to be unlocked, for example.

[Deutherius]

I would also imagine the game taking into account your past progression, at least for the big contracts (I mean, you probably won't be asked to build a base on Laythe if you haven't been outside low Kerbin orbit).

[jdcr]

First of all, thank you both for your answers!

When a new contract is needed, the contract system will randomly select a type of contract to generate. It will then ask if the conditions for that contract are met, which varies for each type.

That is very interesting. Do you happen to know if there's a list somewhere with the different kinds of contracts and their specific conditions? If not, is it perhaps possible to extract this kind of information from somewhere inside the game directory?