You hardest contract in KSP

[Pawelk198604]

I was required to test through staging sequence RT-10 "Hammer" booster orbiting at 90 to 104 km

It was rally challenging despite i made loot of other contract along the way.

[Randazzo]

Test the TT18-A Launch Stability Enhancer in flight over Kerbin. That's tough.

But seriously, I think the hardest time I ever had was trying to do visual surveys very early on in one of my first careers. I was launching rockets like missiles towards the sites and hoping to cross into them at the right altitudes.

[Sharpy]

Note it doesn't mean the orbit must fit in that range. It just means you must be orbiting, and being at that altitude at the moment - the orbit may go e.g. 70-130km, just do it at the right moment.

[LittleBlueGaming]

I think diverting a class-E asteroid into Minmus orbit. Between the difficulty of moving those hunks around, and the NRE claw bugs, I had to return it.

Next time I'll just bring it to Kerbin and mine it til it's empty.

[Nookos]

Definitely anything regarding moving a class E asteroid. And it can be as bad as moving a class E to an orbit around Pol.

I ve seen a test launch clamp landed at Eve also.

And a ridiculous extract 3000 ore from Eve and deliver it to gilly orbit.

[AbacusWizard]

"Test Launch Stability Enhancer on [anything other than launchpad]" is definitely the hardest.

[jkool702]

"Test Launch Stability Enhancer on [anything other than launchpad]" is definitely the hardest.

I've seen these, but have never been brave enough to accept one. Is this even possible? And if so how?

[Evanitis]

Testing a mainsail on LKO above 120km. Got that one just when I unlocked the engine - so pretty early on the tech-tree. I was just accepting all testing missions. I probably could have done it, but not with making profit. And somehow when I was doing multiple tasks at once, I could never get myself to include it into the payload.

[Pawelk198604]

[katateochi]

well, for some time now I've had 3 tourists who want to go on a sub-orbital flight on the Sun. Still not managed to get a design that's even remotely cost effective for that.

[AbacusWizard]

I've seen these, but have never been brave enough to accept one. Is this even possible? And if so how?

Sadly not; the mere existence of contracts to test Launch Stability Enhancers off-world is a bug. Idid once witness a launchpad explosion that somehow resulted in a couple of Launch Stability Enhancers in low Kerbin orbit, but that was even buggier--when I attempted to approach them with another ship, my speedometer went all wonky and the distance-to-target display refused to change.

[Pawelk198604]

i wonder why re entry almost not affect my craft, while i was returning from solar orbit the ablative shield was only partially used.

[SkyRender]

Well excepting the impossible ones, the hardest I ever saw pop up was to place a class E asteroid in orbit around Pol. The payout for the mission was pretty absurd, fitting for something that difficult, but I turned it down. There's much easier ways to make a few million Funds.

[kiros]

I find sun diving ones easy compared to some I have a 200k ship that is all nukes and ions but it takes about an hour of burning leave and get back

I think the hardest missions by far are sending tourists to land on eve and return

[Thnd3r]

Hardest one I've ever had was in 0.90, eject a class E asteroid out of the solar system. I had to turn on infinite fuel and let it burn for about 3 hours. The stupid claw caused me to have to pull the asteroid at about 50% thrust so it wouldn't spin around out of control. No way to push it.

[Nich]

I think the hardest one i have had was test the LV-909 through staging at some stupid altitude like 11-12 (really tight and a place you would never want to use an LV-909) and 300-400 m/s again really tight. I eventually got it but I probably lost 100k (half my savings) on the endeavor.

[Zild]

I ignore tests anywhere but the launchpad these days, and never take reports. (I will probably start skipping launchpad tests as well soon... Although then Bill will have nothing to do at all!)

I used to take "reasonable" tests - such as a parachute test under survivable conditions or anything in orbit of somewhere I planned to orbit anyway - but I found I would either time it just wrong, or completely forget it, far too often.

[Goddess Bhavani]

I think the hardest one i have had was test the LV-909 through staging at some stupid altitude like 11-12 (really tight and a place you would never want to use an LV-909) and 300-400 m/s again really tight. I eventually got it but I probably lost 100k (half my savings) on the endeavor.

This one is alright I think.

Could accomplish the required speed with a simple liquid fueled first stage with an LVT-45, throttle back and maintain 300+ m/s velocity until 11km altitude, then light off the LV-909 coupled to the smallest fuel tank you have.

Ride the rocket until it crashes into the ocean or land it back on the launchpad if there's enough fuel.

If you miss the contract speed/altitude parameters on ascent, remember you can continue the ascent and try to hit the same parameters on the way down.

The contract's don't specify that the engine itself needs to have a certain runtime, just staged. You could even have the -909 stage with no fuel and get the contract rewards. Ditto for contracts to test jet engines in flight - they don't need to have intakes or fuel attached.

[Frank_G]

Build a space station on a D-Class asteroid... In orbit around Gilly... That took quite some effort. Did not pay out, but was really dun and challenging.

[Nookos]

Sadly not...

I think it s possible but only with the extraplanetary launchpads mod.

[annallia]

I don't know which are the hardest, I would lean towards the eve return ones because that has always been a pain flying through that soup.

As to which ones I have taken personally, I find that the recover kerbals from orbit ones can be tricky if you have 2-3 of them and are doing it early career. I have a vessel that can house them and survive reentry, the problem is packing in the fuel needed to make 3 different rendezvous can be tricky, got a lot easier in 1.0.4 though.

[Sharpy]

Could accomplish the required speed with a simple liquid fueled first stage with an LVT-45, throttle back and maintain 300+ m/s velocity until 11km altitude, then light off the LV-909 coupled to the smallest fuel tank you have.

It doesn't need to be coupled to any tank. Sputtering out for lack of fuel still counts as contract completed. Same about separators, they don't need to separate anything.

My absolutely favorite was "test Flea on launchpad". Place Flea upside-down. Place Stayputnik right in the engine nozzle. Fire. Collect.

The Stayputnik survived.

There was another, similar, to test a decoupler. The Stayputnik jumped 20cm up.

Heh, science still in the bushes, and got two "on escape trajectory" (for Flea and decouplers). And another for "BACC" solid thruster which was quite a bit above my tier. I built a rocket out of BACCs capable of escaping Kerbin, carrying the Stayputnik and the two test components. Got nearly 5000m/s on solid thrusters alone, within 30 parts limit.

[Evanitis]

the problem is packing in the fuel needed to make 3 different rendezvous can be tricky

Dunno, I found that kerbals on LKO are often have really close (if not the same) orbits. Gathering them fast with close rendezvouses (rendezvoui?) needs fuel indeed, but you can just set your AP and PE 1.5-2km lower than theirs, and eventually your carft will get into EVA range without any further assistance. So patience and time acceleration is just as good as dV in these cases.

[Jesrad]

Yup, impossible. Kerbol's SOI has infinite range. I accepted it nonetheless

[Evanitis]

I kinda' like the notion of downright impossible missions. It's a very kerbal thing to attempt what can't be done. It also teaches us to read the fine-print when accepting contracts.

Hope Squad considers that a feature instead of a bug.