Ask SQUAD: Are the Original Four siblings? What is their history?

[Souper]

While i'm sure this question has already been asked, mentioned, and generally neglected for a while now, I've come to wonder, are Jebediah, Bob, Bill, and Valentina Kerman related?

SQUAD, if you come across this thread and come with a spare moment, can you give us an answer? Or, better yet, their backstories? We would really like to see a backstory.

I think that for too long have we just looked upon Jeb and his companions and just been... impersonal. I mean, they aren't real people, but for immersion and character's sake...

[Endersmens]

I'm developing a fan fiction that describes just this question.

http://forum.kerbalspaceprogram.com/threads/130473-Before-They-Were-Orange-CHAPTER-ONE-FINISHED

[Flymetothemun]

I like to think that Jeb, Bob, and Bill grew up a long time ago, and that Valentina is the orphaned Russian kid that their parents adopted when JB&B were young. As for official facts, I've got none.

[RainDreamer]

They are all genetic clones of the same pair of Kermans and thus technically siblings.

[Thomas988]

I don't think so, but I see them as good friends.

[KSK]

Have a browse through the Fan Works forum some time - there's quite a few back stories on there, although none of them are official of course. My own version is linked in my signature and includes quite a lot of other stuff on kerbal history and culture too. Again - not official.

I don't have Jeb, Bill and Bob as siblings and Val has only just appeared and isn't anywhere near being in the space program yet. Kerman isn't a family name and the reason that a lot of kerbals take it as their second name comes from a rather important episode in their history.