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I would imagine that at some point in the evolution of life on Kerbin, there was an extremely dense barked species of tree. It would have resembled an evergreen or palm of some type that would periodically lose all it's fronds or branch-like needle clusters becoming at times no more than an upright spike. Native to hotter climates, this tree would've drawn up large amounts of water in spring, to use during the summer, and also create nutrition internally, because the tree's inner chemistry mixed it's sap with the water and ground minerals to produce a nutrient broth. Interestingly.....in the right combination of soil conditions, liquid concentration, tensile strength of the individual tree's bark and the volatile properties of the trees own natural sap....a stray lightning strike would produce a rather spectacular natural missile, and a forest fire result in a fusillade to rival the most ambitious Terran fireworks displays. Combine this with the Kerbals' love of fiery explosions...(their eye structure suggests a nocturnal creature in their ancestry, contributing to a tendency towards heliotropism) ...their natural durability....(tendency to survive falls, crashes, explosions, which probably also explains their natural optimism)...and one could easily imagine early Kerbalkind adulthood rituals involving riding these natural rockets into the sky. (Maybe 'Kerman' is not actually a family name, but a title given to any Kerbals who have launched themselves in this manner....or by more modern methods...and lived to tell about it.) It's been theorized that man invented the wheel by watching trees fall over and rolling downhill. With trees doing far more exciting things on Kerbin....is it any wonder the wheel came much later? And with much more glorious ways to reach high places....wouldn't the ladder also be a late development? -Crystal Mace, BS (Durned right it's BS..) PhD (You know this one, right...?) in my paper delivered before Committee preceding my sudden (and completely unjustified) dismissal.