Is this intentional ? [EVA fall from Orbit]

[fatjoe2015]

Recently noticed that in ANY circumstances a Kerbal Survives a free fall from orbit.

Not only that but my little astronaut seems to bleed off so fast and so high speed that he doesnt even gets reentry effects ?!.

If i rcs up in the last few meters i survive no problem. SOmetimes i survived even without doing anything.

Is this normal ? and if not should be fixed

VIDEO :

[n0xiety]

Yup its normal. You don't even have to use rcs actually. Just land him on his head at full speed Kerbals are tough nuts to crack

[guitarxe]

I was just asking about this the other day - http://forum.kerbalspaceprogram.com/threads/125053-EVA-re-entry-is-possible

Was really surprised this was possible. I've never tried it before in earlier versions, how did it work in earlier versions?

[Snark]

Yeah, it's ridiculous. Really wish they'd fix it. Reentry heat for an exposed kerbal should be deadly, and they shouldn't survive hitting the ground either.

Makes it even more ridiculous when you consider how overpowered their dV is on EVA. I can have a kerbal standing on the surface of Minmus, and he can easily get himself home to Kerbin without a ship. That's just wrong.

[Kruleworld]

he doesnt even gets reentry effects ?!.

Is that because you were running at 4x speed?

[hendrack]

Yeah, it's ridiculous. Really wish they'd fix it. Reentry heat for an exposed kerbal should be deadly, and they shouldn't survive hitting the ground either.

Makes it even more ridiculous when you consider how overpowered their dV is on EVA. I can have a kerbal standing on the surface of Minmus, and he can easily get himself home to Kerbin without a ship. That's just wrong.

Holy crap. Why was I bothering with upper stages and reentry? When I get home I'll just build a rocket with a seat on top and hohman it to Minmus, grab a surface sample and EVA home. :confused::confused:

[Streetwind]

Kerbals probably have really unrealistic heat and pressure tolerances to allow people to still have fun with planes that feature external command seats. It was popular before the aero revision and the adding of reentry heating, so taking that away by Kerbals randomly dying during flight would likely have upset a lot of people.

[Snark]

Is that because you were running at 4x speed?

I think the issue is just that kerbals have a lot of drag relative to their mass. This means that the kerbal bleeds off speed very rapidly at really high altitudes, where there's not enough air to generate reentry fireworks. It's like trying to throw a feather.

That's the game-physics explanation. In terms of immersive gameplay, it just seems silly.

[nekogod]

I've been unable to replicate this, I took Jeb to minmus in a standard rocket then had him eva from minmus back to kerbin, he burned up and died complete with re entry effects at around 30ish km above the ground. It was quite a steep entry though and he did hit the atmosphere at around 3km/s

[Snark]

I've been unable to replicate this, I took Jeb to minmus in a standard rocket then had him eva from minmus back to kerbin, he burned up and died complete with re entry effects at around 30ish km above the ground. It was quite a steep entry though and he did hit the atmosphere at around 3km/s

Oh, it's possible to kill a kerbal that way. Jut that you don't have to.

Try doing it by giving your kerbal a periapsis something high, such as around 45 km. That's way higher than you would use for an aerobraking ship (doing that high would cause a ship to need multiple passes). Should slow him down gently as a feather, with no reentry F/X, even though you're hitting atmosphere around 3 km/s.

[Jason Patterson]

I was just asking about this the other day - http://forum.kerbalspaceprogram.com/threads/125053-EVA-re-entry-is-possible

Was really surprised this was possible. I've never tried it before in earlier versions, how did it work in earlier versions?

There has always been a chance of kerbals surviving impact as long as they hit land rather than water. Water landings are always fatal, but a ground landing often results in a bounce. Oddly, the second impact, the one from the bounce, is more often fatal than the first, in my experience. If you've got a ship coming in too fast to land, the safest thing to do is to bail out at the very last second. You'll bounce more often than not.