What if the Kerbin System Replaced the Sol System?

[bigyihsuan]

Self-explanatory.

[EatThePath]

Not that self-explanatory. It'd be a lot easier to get into space, I guess?

[Kerbface]

Then there would be no humans and Kerbals would find some unfamiliar stars in the sky.

[Scotius]

Afer couple of decades alien astronomers would be quite mystified what happened to that one, insignificant but fairly normal yellow dwarf. What could cause it to shrink so abruptly?

[bigyihsuan]

No, what I mean is that the Kerbin system is blown up to the same ration as the Solar system (i.e. Kerbin=Earth, Jool=Jupiter, the Star=the Sun, Mun=Moon, etc.)

[Hyomoto]

Your question makes less sense now. I refer you to Kerbface's post.

[KOCOUR]

I thing he means: "what if the kerbin system is scaled to the scale of our solar sistem?"

Is that right?

[SunJumper]

I thing he means: "what if the kerbin system is scaled to the scale of our solar sistem?"

Is that right?

If that is so, then I guess it would be even easier to get into orbit, but no planet would have atmospheres. Also, Kerbin would freeze, and so on.

You never said anything about scaling mass

[Jokurr]

Do the densities of the planets stay the same? Kerbin is made of a super dense material that allows it to have the same gravitational field (g at surface level = 9.8 m/s^2) as that of the earth, yet be a fraction of the size. If we scaled Kerbin up to the size of the earth and kept the density the same, it would actually be much harder to escape, if anything. In fact the gravitational field would be so strong your bones would be crushed.

[Sof]

If that is so, then I guess it would be even easier to get into orbit, but no planet would have atmospheres. Also, Kerbin would freeze, and so on.

You never said anything about scaling mass

The masses wouldn't need scaling up. If Kerbin's mass stayed the same, but its size was increased to that of Earth, it would be like Earth. 1G gravity still.

Kerbin is smaller than Earth but has the same mass.

[EatThePath]

The masses wouldn't need scaling up. If Kerbin's mass stayed the same, but its size was increased to that of Earth, it would be like Earth. 1G gravity still.

Kerbin is smaller than Earth but has the same mass.

Kerbin has much lower mass than earth. Surface gravity is related to mass and radius both. A planet with the radius of earth and the mass of kerbin would have a much lower surface gravity than either, and would most likely have a much thinner atmosphere too.

[Jokurr]

Here is some fun math. According to the Kerbal wiki, Kerbin has an equatorial radius of 600,000 m, and a mass of 5.29x10^22 kg. You can calculate surface gravity with

g= G x M / r^2

G is a constant, 6.67x10^-11 N-m^2/kg^2

M is the mass

r is the equatorial radius

So with those values you get 9.81 m/s^2 as surface gravity.

If you increase the radius to that of the earth, which is 6.378x10^6 m and keep the mass the same, surface gravity would be 0.087 m/s^2, less than 1/100th of before. Very unlikely that the planet would be able to retain an atmosphere.

If the density is kept constant (58 485 kg/m^3), the new mass of an earth sized Kerbin would be 6.36 x10^25 kg, substantially heavier than the actual earth (5.97 x 10^24 kg). This results in a surface gravity of 104.28 m/s^2. I very much doubt you'd be able to stand up.

Edited May 24, 2013 by Jokurr

[icemasterpt]

If earth was the size of Kerbin, the whole world would be a massive dystopic society, a giant compact concentration camp...

No free space for a launch center XD