What is the impending event/disaster coming to Kerbin...

[justidutch]

… that will drastically change its atmosphere, such that most of our planes and rockets will behave differently?

What form will this Kerpocalypse take? Is it a large impact of some kind? Kerbolar flares? The only theory I can come up with is an undetected alien terraforming project.

[Greenfire32]

I'm taking the easy way out and saying that nothing in the Atmosphere is changing, but the Kerbal's understanding of Aerodynamics has greatly improved.

Allowing for more efficient aero-technologies.

[Slam_Jones]

A sudden and dramatic (not to mention totally unprecedented) solar wind blew away Kerbin's atmosphere. Very very conveniently, a previously undiscovered cloud of gases (which happens to be similar enough to breathe, but different enough to affect physics) swooped in to replace it.

All within the span of a second.

Mhm.

Edited March 20, 2015 by Slam_Jones

[thadisjones]

The discovery of the principles of fuel-air explosions (following a massively large "MOAR BOOSTERS" accident) led to the disasterously catastrophic phase of the space program where kerbals tried to launch space vessels by "blowing up the entire atmosphere".

"Why do we need an atmosphere," they said. "All our population and industry is underground. We have unlimited rocket fuel. We volatilize that, make the entire atmosphere reactive, and then explode it, thus launching every ship in our inventory into space at once. From then on it will be easy to launch more ships because there will be no surface pressure and no air friction to plow through on the way up."

Then they realized how much, VERY QUICKLY, having no atmosphere sucked, and replaced it with atmosphere 1.0 (sold to the public as "better than betatmosphere") which was better engineered for transit to space while preserving vital functions like "oxygen", "surface pressure", "radiation shield", and the all time popular "not killing us all deathcloud".

Edited March 20, 2015 by thadisjones

[dryer_lint]

A sudden and dramatic (not to mention totally unprecedented) solar wind blew away Kerbin's atmosphere. Very very conveniently, a previously undiscovered cloud of gases (which happens to be similar enough to breathe, but different enough to affect physics) swooped in to replace it.

All within the span of a second.

Mhm.

This, but Kerbals could never breathe the atmosphere. Why do you think they always wear spacesuits, and the doors are always closed?

Plottwist.

[Torquemadus]

Kerbin's atmosphere was sucked away by a giant maid with a vacuum cleaner. As a result of this catastrophe, the president of Kerbin has vowed to change the combination on his luggage!

[Deutherius]

The Kraken got bored.

[Delta7]

Jeb's ship is damaged on a return trip from Duna, so he has to use his LV-N powered transit stage to land. The use of a nuclear reactor in the souposphere sets of a chain reaction, conerting the atmosphere to it's new state. A plan was made to restore it, but scraped when it was discovered that it would be easier to get to space with the new air.

[Moon Goddess]

Best way I've found to handle these things is I start a new save every update. (And then start a new save after FAR, RT, DRE, and TACLS are availble) The current save is reality, any previous save is just a game and never happened, so... what atmosphere change, it's always been like this.

[GoSlash27]

There will be no change to Kerbin's atmosphere whatsoever. Same sea level pressure, same scale height, same temperature gradient.

What's going to change is the parts themselves.

Best,

-Slashy

[Cydonian Monk]

And here I thought it was obvious. They're going to....

Release the Kraken!

Though I'm still not sure what that has to do with the atmosphere. Maybe it's the year 1994 and a rogue planet passes between Kerbin and The Mün, taking half the atmosphere with it?

[Technical Ben]

A sudden and dramatic (not to mention totally unprecedented) solar wind blew away Kerbin's atmosphere. Very very conveniently, a previously undiscovered cloud of gases (which happens to be similar enough to breathe, but different enough to affect physics) swooped in to replace it.

All within the span of a second.

Mhm.

And such an event also resets all their technology and science. All those computers with data got wiped. Kerbals being Kerbals decided to redo the science and launchers instead of digging out the paper backups.

[bakanando]

A massive planetoid goes so close to kerbin that the meteor's gravity pulls away a good chunk of kerbin's atmosphere with it, thus reducing the average density of it. It luckily didn't affect either Mun or Minmus.

The planetoid was never seen again.

[Renegrade]

The atmosphere has always been thin. It was never a soupy-thick jellosphere. Anything else is doubleplusungood crimethink.

[cantab]

Drastic change? On the contrary, the weatherman at Kerbal Space Centre - normally a useless job if ever there was one! - is predicting only minor alterations, likely down to subtle changes in solar activity.

On the other hand the space program's engineers are rather apprehensive at being told their aerodynamic analysis tools are to be replaced with a new and unknown system. They like their friendly green and not-so-friendly red numbers.

[AbacusWizard]

The atmosphere isn't changing at all--instead, Jeb finally figured out how to turn off the parking brake on the spaceplanes.

[White Owl]

Kerbin has never had an atmosphere before! The superdense exotic matter at the planet's core has been emitting slightly greasy gravitons in a technically kind of strange and difficult to adequately explain reverse doubled helix pattern, with the net effect that anything within about 70 km of the surface experienced drag-like forces that were kind of similar to an atmosphere.

In other news, a freaking enormous asteroid/comet composed mostly of frozen nitrogen, oxygen, and argon appears to be on a collision course with Kerbin. Most of the planet's population is reasonably ho-hum about the whole thing, seeing as how they've been through lots of impacts before and nothing notable has ever resulted. A few scientists are cautioning that this one may be kind of different, but they've mostly been dismissed as a fringe group of doomsday munatics.

[Amihan]

Something big and toxic must have crashed into the ocean, causing all the oxygen-producing algae to die out and having a bizarrely immediate effect on the atmosphere. Good thing there are no fish on Kerbin! Maybe they were hogging all the water.

If you want an explanation about the parts instead, probably some silly mechanic at the junkyard misread the instructions for assembling the parts and then kept the result when they realized it was easier to get to space. And of course it would be a crime to keep such an amazing discovery secret, so they kindly shared it with everyone!

[SkyRender]

I think we should consult the Hitchhiker's Guide to Kerbals for this one. Let's see... Ah yes, here we go.

Kerbin's Atmosphere

It has come to the attention of the Guide that, while the knowledge we possess concerning Kerbals is quite extensive, one thing that's been consistently overlooked in discussing these strange little explosion factories is the fact that their atmosphere makes no sense whatsoever. While it does generally exhibit certain qualities known to exist within atmospheric bodies, such as lift, drag, and mucking up the lovely view of space with an annoying color change, it does not actually seem to follow many of the rules of aerodynamics. Previous Kerbologists sent to Kerbin by the Guide failed to mention this phenomenon for no reason we can ascertain, mostly because there aren't many surviving Kerbologists outside of those in the employ of the Guide, but this editor suspects that it had something to do with the fact that paying attention to aerodynamics is not something you usually have the luxury of doing when dealing with Kerbals. Generally speaking, if you've got time enough to notice that the air around you isn't behaving like air, you're probably either dead or about to be when Kerbals are involved.

Whatever the case, the Guide has now sent a new Kerbologist out to study the phenomenon. The extensive report can best be summed up as: the entire Kerbin solar system is one seriously messed-up place, and worrying about the fact that the air on its various planets doesn't behave itself seems kind of petty in that respect. This Kerbologist was promptly sacked, and a new one was hired to give us a non-sarcastic analysis of Kerbin's atmosphere. His report was, in full: it's beans. We are once again in need of a new Kerbologist; please apply if you have the time and lack of self-presevation skill required for the job. Regardless, one thing is certain about Kerbin's atmosphere: whatever it is, it is truly a unique gem in this galaxy for us to treasure. So long as Kerbals have that going for them, their tourism and body count both should remain high.

Addenum: It has come to our attention that the Kerbals caught wind of the Guide's entry on their atmosphere, and have decided to alter it to more closely resemble a normal atmosphere out of spite for us. In retrospect, this was something of a predictable side-effect of letting the Kerbals know that we've been watching them and laughing at them for so long. This editor in particular finds it quite terrifying that they can radically alter their ecosystem in such a short span and in such a fundamental fashion, but that's just my opinion. The post of Kerbologist remains open, incidentally, as it was when this article was first published two weeks ago. We've admittedly gone through 14 Kerbologists since then, but don't let that deter you from applying!

[skyace65]

It's a kerbnado

[tntristan12]

The Kraken's spirit has returned from its resting place on Bop to enact sick revenge on the kerbal race for vanquishing it all those years ago.

[SpacedCowboy]

The 2nd Coming of Jeb

[PB666]

There will be no change to Kerbin's atmosphere whatsoever. Same sea level pressure, same scale height, same temperature gradient.

What's going to change is the parts themselves.

Best,

-Slashy

Hah, wrongo bucky . . . . . . whats going to change is some 1s and 0s, unless you have a quantum computer in which case maybe.

[SickSix]

I'm taking the easy way out and saying that nothing in the Atmosphere is changing, but the Kerbal's understanding of Aerodynamics has greatly improved.

Allowing for more efficient aero-technologies.

I concur with this guy.

[Sampa]

Jeb's mother-in-law pays a visit to the space center! xD JK! (I'm sorry, just learned Weight and Balance in my last class session!)