Long term science megaprojects for space stations and / or probes.

[Arendey]

To give space stations purpose beyond being a fuel depot, have them undertake "megaprojects" like analyzing the Cosmic Microwave Background Radiation. These would take YEARS of game time to unlock, BUT would yield a tremendous amount of science on completion, that high science could be used to finance other long term experiments (that require huge amounts of science themselves).... say the CMBR analysis unlocks the Kubble space telescope or the Terrestrial Planet Finder

So while you work on doing science for rocket parts, your long term project is cooking, then one day, SURPRISE! mega project complete! So whats next? A Kubble telescope? An Exoplanet Finder? or maybe a Kitzer Space Telescope for INFRARED telemetry (infrared cuts through gas and dust, giving data different then that of visible spectrum telescope), or maybe something more challenging... A Space Interferometry Mission... imagine the challenge of building a space telescope array in laser guided formation .... SOOO MUCH POTENTIAL

A S.E.T.I. project would also be awesome, and even though the devs said (I'm pretty sure) there would NOT be alien civilization that can be reached, learning that they exist remains in the realm of the feasible (besides something that's 100 lightyears away requires 200 years of delay for a two way communication), this way no need for complex implementation, you learn they exist, a bit about them, but not much else can be done.

Edited October 23, 2013 by Arendey

[Arendey]

Addendum: The Megaprojects should not just be dead weight. Once completed they should actively participate in providing the science for the next project by giving science over time. In Example 1% of the total science value of the project over the time it took to complete the project. So if the project cost 100,000 science and 5 years to complete, you get 10,000 science over time every 5 years.

- Extra science can be applied to hasten the completion of Megaprojects: This gives the player an incentive to complete mega projects, AND keep exploring all the biomes of all the worlds available once all the rocketry is researched.

- Placing the Megaprojects in places OTHER then the Kerbin system gives an added bonus (say 1.1% of the total science value of the project over the time it took to complete the project). So, the afore mentioned example around Duna would generate 11,000 science instead of 10,000 (in the Kerbin system) science over 5 years. This may not seem like a lot but as the projects accumulate... the bonus gets significant, AND it gives further incentive to visit the worlds.

- A side reward from the project could be in the form of screenshots: Imagery their megaprojects took (I don't know if displaying this kind of image in game is feasible, but all NASA imagery is public domain as far as I know), either pulled directly from NASA archives or with a KSP twist .

- These time scales may seem long... but a round trip to Jool can take 2 years to complete... so the numbers I gave may be too short (or too long, but I doubt that). Also, these numbers may not represent something that would be balanced, but could serve as a foundation.

Edited October 23, 2013 by Arendey