Do kerbals breath oxygen?

[Arugela]

We all might assume at some time or another that kerbals all breath oxygen because they use suits like ours to go up into space. But why do we assume this. Because they look like human suits, but are not(assuming of course). Because they have seemingly have to use them in space(assuming also). What if they are not needed(why they can stay in orbit) or need them for very different reasons? What if what they are keeping in is not oxygen but something their body produces that they do need like amonia or some other bodily produced gas or substance. Maybe it's just or also heat for instance. Or simply for style and/or comfort!

Any way, to cut this short, I thought it might be funny if they really produce a gas from their bodies that they need(energy from sun or other radiation naturally.) In reality the suit is a simple containment field for themselves and not specifically oxygen. I also thought it would be funny if being potentially self sufficient if this explains their personality. Since they possibly don't have to eat or sleep but just produce this gas/whatever they have no need for thought beyond their own pleasure and goofiness! this could explain their existence as a species and seeming attributes. Maybe they go from planet to planet as the please and start producing this gas to as they go for their survival(no necessarily consciously) and it fills an atmosphere having various affects depending on the planet. Hence the lack of plants on kerban(maybe it was earth and this is also an affect somehow). Maybe this also explains their love of space travel. It developed eons ago as a form of enjoyment(maybe they had a low gravity planets and just flung themselves into the dark void out of sheer amusement and joy!). And it changes as they move(assuming they ever hit anything afterwords) and adapt/absorb encountered cultures or phenomenon they encounter(also explaining the oddity of the form of their space vehicles in KSP) but potentially have a slightly detrimental/modifying affect on them most of the time(also potentially explaining the lack of any other cultures). But being kerbals they go on with joyful glee oblivious to the surroundings no matter the affect and just keep going on. Maybe their only function for eating or doing certain things is to accelerate the development of this gas/substance to be able to survive in their normal kerbal way on any planet they go to and it's ingrained in them to do so as they travel. Maybe they can eat almost anything including rocks(reason for kerbal being smaller than earth) but usually eat the more interesting moving things first or seeming fun things to eat the cultures they encounter eat as it is most fun to enjoy their customs first!

How realistic does that sound. Then maybe they ate the moon and other things over time to try to develop atmosphere(instinctively trying things as the visited over time) but it never held the gas.( on top of possibly being told the moon was made of cheese!! Imagine the carnage after the moon shrunk down 1/10th to the earth....) Changing the solar system forever!

Maybe this is the real reason they take dirt samples everywhere they go. Maybe it's not for science in the way we think of science. I mean, what are they getting from it all anyway!?

Edited March 9, 2015 by Arugela

[Tex]

Hence the lack of plants on kerbin

Aha, but there are plants on Kerbin. Trees and grasses, as the ground is green. Plus, the terrain scatters allow several forests around the planet.

I've always been a fan of the Kerbals-are-descended-from-plants theory, because it explains away their potentially years-long missions with their ability to photosynthesize. The suit can be explained away by protecting the Kerbals from radiation and keeping an environment with the right amount of moisture and heat, because plants can only survive under certain conditions. Their EVA suits are basically sealed plant pots.

[Arugela]

FYI, I didn't mean a complete lack of plants. I meant a relative lack of plants. The plant idea is interesting though. Goes right with it including the green part. And plants do the above things. They just eat with roots and not mouths! 8) Maybe the normal plant abilities happen inside if they eat something! And there are alot of plants that do a lot of things and live off of a lot of things. It would be an easy fit! And they could hypothetically survive space travel. Maybe if the suits are for fun or just make it easier but ar enot really needed. Hence making it easier for them to get into space. but they took them from their last hosts! 8) And more or less enjoyed them and found a practical and fun use for stuff. Plants have the ability to make seed that last forever in the harshest environments and change to a form to do the same as a grown species. So anything could go!

Not to mention the plants could change ecosystems as I described and eat dirt naturally. Reducing planet body sizes potentially. Maybe if they do a real mode with real earth it could be set in the past nearer if they arrived under such a scenario.

Edited March 7, 2015 by Arugela

[Daze]

Plot twist - the game absolutely need life support mechanics

[Tex]

Plot twist - the game absolutely need life support mechanics

Yeah, I know it's a joke... But I do believe that life support is something best left to mods, as it's quite limiting and requires a lot more planning than most players (and certainly I) are willing to put forth.

[Arugela]

Say the above things mentioned are true. IT could still allow for a life support system. Just maybe one not as needed or with superfluous benefits instead of completely necessary ones. Like bonuses or silly things for the player. Spawn a kerbal!? Increase size? Increase weight? Absorb fuel? Turn into a giant blueberry?!(This brings up another very important and interesting question. Do Kerbals eat or like or know what chocolate is?!)

Edited March 7, 2015 by Arugela

[Daze]

Yeah, I know it's a joke... But I do believe that life support is something best left to mods, as it's quite limiting and requires a lot more planning than most players (and certainly I) are willing to put forth.

It really depend, without going OT i can assure you that some guys in suggestion section has come with an amazing system that actually would works really nice even in stock game without too many restriction

[Musil]

Lately I am thinking reptiles, not plant's. They go in hibernation during long flights, that's why they don't need a supply of snacks to last for years, but they do need some sort of snacks. Also, they would have evolved underground (that's why there are no citys on Kerbal) and would only very recently have developed an interest in what's out there: better caves, maybe?

[Starwhip]

Well, considering that you never, ever see them with a helmet off outside (The VAB has a massive air curtain to keep outside "outside".), they may not breath any gas familiar to us at all.

Or they might not breathe, period.

[Skorpychan]

The way I see it, they photosynthesise. They ARE green. The suits are only there as pressure suits, to keep their cute little bug eyes from popping out.

[FlyingPete]

I like the idea of the EVA suit being essentially a pressurised bottle garden

[Roderik]

no kerbals don't breath oxygen because it's kinda obvious they breath koxygen

[aleis]

(This brings up another very important and interesting question. Do Kerbals eat or like or know what chocolate is?!)

the prevalence of snacks in modules would suggest they do

[RocketPilot573]

I also think they do photosynthesis, only thing that can explain how the can live in space for years with nothing except their space suit..

[Scotius]

If Kerbals photosynthetise, then snacks are essentially a fertiliser containing mineral salts, nitrogen compounds and other nutrients. At best it's Soil-in-a-pill. At worst...

[Lhathron the Elf]

I believe they photosynthesize and the suit is a sort of greenhouse for them, used for climate control and stuff like that.

The other obvious answer is that all Kerbals are fungi and they eat off of some sort of dead material on the insides of their suits, like tree bark collected carefully from the terrain scatter. Which also means all of their snacks are little trees. This also solves the problem of why they go poof when they die: their spores are spreading around, which also solves the problem of how Kerbals simply appear in the Astronaut Complex.

EDIT: Actually, I'm liking the plant ideas and the whole thing about the bottle garden system of an EVA suit.

Edited March 8, 2015 by Lhathron the Elf

[FlyingPete]

I believe they photosynthesize and the suit is a sort of greenhouse for them, used for climate control and stuff like that.

It would explain why they always wear their helmets on Laythe despite the presence of oxygen- the temperature, pressure and humidity aren't right for long-term survival. I reckon they'd manage without for a short-term dash between base modules though.

[Majorjim!]

Yes, and exhale cyanide gas. It's perfectly plausible.

Name that movie folks!

[PB666]

Yeah but with the suits on they cannot photosynthesis, so they have to have lights inside thier suits to keep the alive.

There is actually not enough surface area on a kerbal to keep them alive, and since they have mouths you assume they eat something that feeds a redox reaction so, if it not O2, its chlorine, or Sulfuric acid or Nitric acid.

BTW plants also consume O2 during the night cycle so . . . . . .

[Random Tank]

I love it when people say "Kerbals can photosynthesise, so they don't need food they just need sun". Guys, photosynthesis doesn't mean sun = food, plants and Kerbals aren't solar panels... Plants need sun yes, but they also need carbon dioxide, water and a hearty amount of nitrates; also, during the night when there is no sun (as PB666 says), they still need energy, so they respirate instead, consuming water, O2 and more food to produce said energy: we're just lucky they produce much more O2 during the day then what they consume during the night.

So even if Kerbals were plants, they would still need life support, just different stuff to what we would need...

[Arugela]

If Kerbals photosynthetise, then snacks are essentially a fertiliser containing mineral salts, nitrogen compounds and other nutrients. At best it's Soil-in-a-pill. At worst...

There are plants, like the Jerusalem artichoke(I think that is the correct plant) and others that can survive nearly endlessly in dormant states. So from a plant perspective there is a lot of potential.

And, no, plants can be made to be self sufficient in a small environemnt and never need virtually if not literally anything but sun. It's called a terrarium! 8D So, it is possible! They could have just borrowed space suits(assuming the past earth hypothesis) and terrariums and made them a special way to travel... Or take really long naps without needing to eat!(Could be a cool idea for a kerbal cryostasis pod! >< We could just assume the suit is a smaller version.)

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Terrarium <- so they would just have to get past that. And given the potential of plants you could probably minimize/modify it based on the plants characteristics.

I wonder if every time a kerbal takes a tiny step he takes a little dirt with him?

Edited March 9, 2015 by Arugela

[Random Tank]

And, no, plants can be made to be self sufficient in a small environemnt and never need virtually if not literally anything but sun. It's called a terrarium!

While a Terraruim would help a lot (good shout by the way), they are much more helpful in the water side of plant growth and maintenance; the plant will still require fresh nutrients. The thing is that most plants consume the nutrients in the soil very very slowly, making them last a very long time; but (if we assume Kerbals are plants) Kerbals are considerably larger, more active and more complex than your average Rose Bush; meaning they would require considerably more energy, and therefore will consume considerably more nutrients, even maybe when dormant.

Annoyingly, one of the best ways of restocking a plant's nutrient source is when another plant dies, as it will degrade and recycle the nutrients it holds back into the soil; you can't really do this with Kerbals, as then dying is... kind of a bad thing. And even if a Kerbal does die, I don't think other Kerbals would be very eager to start consuming the Nutrients they hold, as that is very much cannibalism...

[Arugela]

I think that is one of the potential tricks of terrariums(or so I've heard). If their own plant flesh is dieing and falling back in the terrarium I think it makes them self sufficient. I've seen people go over stuff like this and I think that is what they usually say. Though they may also have multiple plants. I think it depends on what the plant does and what it decays into. So if they are a complex plant and produce the right things, you never know.

Technically, if they do something like what we do(poop,pee,fart,exhale) let alone shed skin/hair(assuming that stuff is hair) they could be doing this. Thos byproducts could allow them to act like multiple plants could and make them capable of being self sufficient in space in a small environment. It could be justified they had to be to have become a space fairing species if they are a plant. So, maybe they evolved in this way. That is, also, assuming they evolved....

If nothing else it could give them really long periods of time. Let alone, again, if they went dormant in that state(like the cryochamber vs a suit) they cold last in space and fling themselves between stars or galaxies. Heck they could use interstellar materials if they, say, developed(or were developed...sshhhh!!!) on a low gravity planet that had the characteristics of both life barring and barren worlds. Or whatever floats your boat.

Or are you saying that doesn't really work in terraiums. I haven't actually done them yet. Or not that I remember. 8p

I think assuming size must be a factor to efficiency is a mistake. The potentials for a weird walking plant would probably be out of this world!! Who knows what the particular parts of a walking plant could do for surviveability. It's just form. You can take long lanky things(like rope) and do just about anything with it.

Edited March 9, 2015 by Arugela

[Brotoro]

Thoughts for today:

Kerbals are much too active to be plants. The energy available to oxygen-breathing animals is much greater.

If you are a plant, you'd make your whole spacesuit transparent...not just the faceplate in front of your eyes.

Animals can hibernate.

[Arugela]

Not necessarily. In seed barring plants sun tends to speeds up the lifecycle/reproductive cycle. Like with lettuces and alot of root plants you might want to limit sun. So, you can use sun in different ways. If you know you are going to potentially be adrift you may purposely limit sun to stop aging etc.

I think terrariums have alot of open space becuase they are inside alot. Inside the sun is limited and you may need it for any growth at all. Plus it's for appearance and you want to see it. So, less sun would be potentially accurate. I beleive you can keep terrariums in the dark or in limited light. I think it makes them last longer potentially. Plus, again, the variance of plants can change any of that drastically. Plants are the most complex mechanical devices we probably know of. There is way more variation than most people realize.

Edited March 9, 2015 by Arugela