How do you suppose Kerbals engrave the plaques for flags?

[Superfluous J]

They use the cheat menu to rendezvous the plaque up to the Kerbal.

Because of we're assuming stuff like this wasn't planned a year before launch, we may as well just admit we're playing a video game

[DarkOwl57]

Grab knife.

Scrape.

[RoadRunnerAerospace]

20 grit sandpaper

[septemberWaves]

No, no, I've figured it out. It's obvious that they carry round a miniature particle accelerator to write the words in the plaque by selectively transmuting lines in the surface of the gold into lead via neutron bombardment. The particle accelerator is also useful for cooking lightly-irradiated steak.

[Ultimate Steve]

AAAAaaaaaannd, out of likes because of this thread.

EDIT: The plaques are made out of solid likes. Kerbals can only carry 25 likes at a time and plaques can be spontaneously assembled using 25 likes, which is why they can only carry one flag at a time. Fortunately, command modules have an Infinite Like Source installed, which is why Kerbals can summon an infinite amount of flags and an infinite amount of EVA fuel.

Edited August 28, 2017 by Ultimate Steve

[qzgy]

On 8/27/2017 at 4:06 PM, MrLake said:

With their teeth, like men.

Nah, REAL men use their sick abs. Elbows for detail work.

[septemberWaves]

6 minutes ago, qzgy said:

Nah, REAL men use their sick abs. Elbows for detail work.

Nah, the kerbals use teeth, but not their own teeth. They use kraken teeth.

[Fireheart318]

[I haven't read the other responses here]

I've always assumed the flags and plaques were pre-made, and being able to type a message on the spot is just a gameplay thing. Also, the same thing applied to space probes before 1.2 - there were pre-programmed and being able to directly control them is just a gameplay thing 

[Allocthonous]

48 minutes ago, Fireheart318 said:

[I haven't read the other responses here]

I've always assumed the flags and plaques were pre-made, and being able to type a message on the spot is just a gameplay thing. Also, the same thing applied to space probes before 1.2 - there were pre-programmed and being able to directly control them is just a gameplay thing 

Well, yeah. The original question only really came to me when I was putting down flags as waypoints to track the progress of a manned rover. It ended up being a journal-anecdote sort of thing about the mission. It wouldn't have been something that you could use pre-engraved plaques for.

[qzgy]

2 hours ago, Fireheart318 said:

Also, the same thing applied to space probes before 1.2 - there were pre-programmed and being able to directly control them is just a gameplay thing 

Yeah, sure. Correction burns are "pre-programmed"......

Might have been that there was no logical reason for communication, until 1.2

[roboslacker]

They launch a second mission to deliver plaques to the first mission.

[LordFerret]

This is an ongoing issue, all this guessing, because none of you have ever seen a Kerbal out of his/her spacesuit... woohoo!

They have what amounts to a very sharp, strong, dew claw which retracts laterally into the heel of the palm; The act of making a fist extends this claw out and downward, and, much as one would holding a awl in their hand, they can inscribe things with it... like plaques. They also use it to tear open snack packages, and to pop open cans of fizzy golden colored liquids they imbibe, and even for desperate useless attempts of self-defense against the Kraken. There's a few other things they've been known to do with it, but I'm not allowed to go there as per the forum posting rules.

So there you have it.

[qzgy]

Wait, but wouldn't that puncture the space suit?

[Firemetal]

They launch a small rocket in the shape of the words at the plaque.

Fire

[LordFerret]

21 hours ago, qzgy said:

Wait, but wouldn't that puncture the space suit?

Re-posting because the original got squashed during the forums update...

Nah... Their suits have a small portal on the cuffs, much like an injection bottle, which allows the claw to extend out. The portal self-heals when it retracts.

[suicidejunkie]

They aren't engraving the plaques, they're just choosing which one to use.

The large supply of pre-engraved plaques for every possible occasion and typo is why stock rocket parts are so heavy.

[G'th]

Personally, i always just imagined them scribbling in the dirt. 

[tomf]

The flag plaque engraving department uses a psychic kerbal who is able to read other kerbals thoughts over space and time. So when the kerbal plants a flag and thinks of a message he pulls out his plaque and low and behold it is already engraved there.

Unfortunately the psychic is only able to detect the most powerful thoughts of kerbals, i.e. their inspiring space quotes.

[John FX]

Everybody has missed what is actually going on.

There is no physical plaque.

You only see it on your screen, not on the flag, so there is a chip in the plaque which has enough storage to store a few lines of text. When you click on the flag it relays that text to your suit and shows the message via bluetooth or something.

It is programmed the same way.

[Neil Kerman]

My thought is that they have a sort of typewriter like device designed to engrave metal using acid instead of ink ribbons 

[Confused Scientist]

They bring up many plaques with every possible combination of letters and pick the one that suits their needs. This is why it feels like fuel tanks are made of lead.

EDIT: Ninja'd!

Edited September 4, 2017 by Confused Scientist

[MinimalMinmus]

They look at the plaque very hard, obviously.

[Allocthonous]

So, we've all seen those alphabet refrigerator magnets, right? A really tiny set of those would work pretty great for this. Rainbow colors optional. Typos are because the kerbals ran out of that particular letter.

Edited September 5, 2017 by Allocthonous

[septemberWaves]

2 hours ago, MinimalMinmus said:

They look at the plaque very hard, obviously.

This only works for those select few kerbals who have had laser eye surgery (to get laser eyes, of course).

[DeltaDizzy]

With magic

or  maybe a little bit of wizardry

 or maybe they invoke the power of scott