Location for Kerbal Penal Colony

[SpacePigeon]

Exile 'em to 0.7.3

Edited April 13, 2018 by SpacePigeon

[FleshJeb]

On 4/11/2018 at 10:18 PM, ARS said:

Dres is escapable since kerbals can still use their jetpacks... With some ingenuity, I think (explained below, this gave me an idea). I think, an orbital prison on E-class asteroid beyond the orbit of Eelo would be good (no snacks!)

So... About that ingenuity... I want to ask something. If for some reason, a group of kerbals can hold their hands to form a circle to support another, smaller group of circled kerbal, and again, and again, and again, like a rocket (you get the idea, right?) and they use their EVA jetpack in stage like a rocket, how far they can go?

Assuming they grouped like this:

1st stage is 8 kerbals forming a ring, supporting 2nd stage

2nd stage is 5 kerbals forming a ring, supporting 3rd stage

3rd stage is 3 kerbals forming a ring, supporting 4th stage

4th stage is a lone kerbal (escapee)

1st stage use their jetpacks to start "most kerbal rocket ever" (pun intended) to liftoff, after their fuel emptied, they detached (don't worry, their helmet is damn tough enough to survive suborbital freefall), 2nd stage took their place until their fuel emptied, then the 3rd stage, then the final stage

Assuming we start on dres equator, on the perfect launch window to return to kerbin, how far we can go if we plot the course to be as efficient as possible (disregarding how long it takes)?

I had to do some data collecting and some figuring. It took a while. Since EVA fuel is massless, the calcs are pretty easy. Compare to the usual subway map and figure out where you can go. EDIT: The answer is that you might be able to get a Jool flyby. If you add another Kerbal or two, you could grav assist in the Jool system and pretty much get anywhere.

Alternate staging for 17 kerbals shown to the right.

Edited April 13, 2018 by FleshJeb

[StuLong]

My first thought is naturally "The Mun is a Harsh Mistress", but Heinlein pretty much showed that probably won't work out in the long run.

[Mark Kerbin]

Stick em in LKO. No not Low Kerbin Orbit... Low Kerbol Orbit. Those suckers will never escape the sunspa!

https://youtu.be/qD028TNMvqA 

^A Lovely Nexter's Lab Video

Not To Be Confused With The Old Rick Roll Link

https://youtu.be/dQw4w9WgXcQ

[Zeiss Ikon]

Escape proof pretty much has Eve written all over it.  The big issue is the cost to send Kerbals there and get 'em there alive (if you're not going to get them there alive, you may as well just send them on a half-orbit in a Mk. 1 lander can).  The simple, cheapest way to do it would be to use a spaceplane SSTO to launch them into orbit, in a command chair probe with the command chair controls disabled (decouple in a physical restraint, like a cargo bay, so the chair can't get away from the probe, but the controls won't operate the probe's engine or attitude control) with just enough dV to make it to Eve atmospheric interface.  A Spark/Bobcat and three or four Round 8/Bagel tanks ought to do it.  A 10 m inflatable heat shield should easily get such a tiny probe to ground intact, then the probe core can fire decouplers or open bay doors to free the command chair (and Kerbal) from the transport restraint.  Best to decouple the engine and tanks after the reentry is set up, to be sure they burn up and don't reach the surface intact.  The heat shield will serve as a raft if they land in the ocean.

If there are a lot of these Kraken worshippers, you'd have a little flock of these probes headed for Eve every window,  but you could store the transportees in LKO between transfer windows (they'd be adequately secure with their chair decoupled inside its cage).

Once on Eve's surface, they're there forever, unless you send them power sources, drills, ore converters, rocket parts, and the tools to build rockets (dependent on having the correct mods installed) -- or land (a series of) personnel transports near mountain tops to allow a pilgrimage of Kerbals to be taken off the planet.