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Location for Kerbal Penal Colony

Ixamus

By Ixamus
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Ixamus

Ixamus

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The Kerbal Space Program board has discovered that there are some rotten apples among the space program crew. A few kerbonauts are found to worship the Kraken and therefore declared to be heretics. Jebediah and Valentina have conspired against our great leader Wernher von Kerman. The board has decided to send these traitors to a penal colony somewhere in the stock Kerbol system. The only problem is that they don't know where this penal colony should be placed.

So where would you construct a planetary surface base to serve as a penal colony? Eve would of course be escape proof but otherwise too nice place in my opinion. Maybe Eeloo would make a decent Siberia analog?

Where should the penal colony be constructed?

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FlyingPete

FlyingPete

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Anywhere that's out of the way and can't be escaped by a Kerbal's jetpack. So that rules out minmus and Gilly. Make sure your chosen site has no no other activity on the surface, lest a determined deportee hike to the other base and commandeer a ship. So you need somewhere that's either uninteresting or already fully scienced, and has no practical mining prospects.

The airless wastes of Tylo is a good option if you've finished with it, or else dump them in the crushing pressure of Eve for a lower delta-v and maximum security.

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ARS

ARS

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Dres is escapable since kerbals can still use their jetpacks... With some ingenuity, I think (explained below, this gave me an idea). I think, an orbital prison on E-class asteroid beyond the orbit of Eelo would be good (no snacks!)

So... About that ingenuity... I want to ask something. If for some reason, a group of kerbals can hold their hands to form a circle to support another, smaller group of circled kerbal, and again, and again, and again, like a rocket (you get the idea, right?) and they use their EVA jetpack in stage like a rocket, how far they can go?

Assuming they grouped like this:

1st stage is 8 kerbals forming a ring, supporting 2nd stage

2nd stage is 5 kerbals forming a ring, supporting 3rd stage

3rd stage is 3 kerbals forming a ring, supporting 4th stage

4th stage is a lone kerbal (escapee)

1st stage use their jetpacks to start "most kerbal rocket ever" (pun intended) to liftoff, after their fuel emptied, they detached (don't worry, their helmet is damn tough enough to survive suborbital freefall), 2nd stage took their place until their fuel emptied, then the 3rd stage, then the final stage

Assuming we start on dres equator, on the perfect launch window to return to kerbin, how far we can go if we plot the course to be as efficient as possible (disregarding how long it takes)?

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FlyingPete

FlyingPete

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1 hour ago, ARS said:

Dres is escapable since kerbals can still use their jetpacks... With some ingenuity, I think (explained below, this gave me an idea). I think, an orbital prison on E-class asteroid beyond the orbit of Eelo would be good (no snacks!)

So... About that ingenuity... I want to ask something. If for some reason, a group of kerbals can hold their hands to form a circle to support another, smaller group of circled kerbal, and again, and again, and again, like a rocket (you get the idea, right?) and they use their EVA jetpack in stage like a rocket, how far they can go?

Assuming they grouped like this:

1st stage is 8 kerbals forming a ring, supporting 2nd stage

2nd stage is 5 kerbals forming a ring, supporting 3rd stage

3rd stage is 3 kerbals forming a ring, supporting 4th stage

4th stage is a lone kerbal (escapee)

1st stage use their jetpacks to start "most kerbal rocket ever" (pun intended) to liftoff, after their fuel emptied, they detached (don't worry, their helmet is damn tough enough to survive suborbital freefall), 2nd stage took their place until their fuel emptied, then the 3rd stage, then the final stage

Assuming we start on dres equator, on the perfect launch window to return to kerbin, how far we can go if we plot the course to be as efficient as possible (disregarding how long it takes)?

I can see some Kerbals trying this. So we need somewhere where the T/W of a Kerbal is <1 and the problem is solved.

 

Thinking of another alternative- just exile them to the island airfield, where KSC can keep an eye on them. If they try to escape, deploy the large and explodey rocket you have nearby.

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severedsolo

severedsolo

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3 hours ago, FlyingPete said:

Thinking of another alternative- just exile them to the island airfield, where KSC can keep an eye on them. If they try to escape, deploy the large and explodey rocket you have nearby.

Nooo  that wouldn't work, they would just hit the "recover vessel" button and escape.

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Zhetaan

Zhetaan

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Posted

I'm surprised that no one has suggested Bop.  If they worship the Kraken, then they won't want to leave Bop.  Additionally, Bop's orbital characteristics make it (surprisingly) one of the more difficult places in the system to reach.  Many a would-be Jool-V expedition ended up as a Jool-IV because the planner failed to account for Bop's inclination.

Also, you can solve the jetpack problem by making a base that has only command chairs and no capsules.  Then there's no source of EVA fuel.

An asteroid on a solar escape trajectory is an interesting idea, but it leaves the problem of subsequent transportees.

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Ixamus

Ixamus

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Posted (edited)

Many great ideas here!

Mun might indeed be an interesting choice. Every day the poor prisoners could look at Kerbin and wonder if they ever get back, while contemplating their crimes. Although I don't think that escaping the Mun would be entirely impossible, considering the large amount of abandoned spacecrafts that I have there.

An asteroid on a solar escape trajectory might make it extremely laborius task to send new convicts in and therefore be too inconvenient arrangement.

Being escape proof is not the only desired quality in a perfect location. While it is important, most places are safe enough since jetpacks are after all very limited in their ability to assist escapees. In addition to safety concerns it would be great if the place felt like a place for a penal colony. (Which also applies to most places in the stock system.) Bop, Tylo and Dres especially are great places for this. Often forgotten Dres might be just the place for the convicts to be forgotten. And while I have never been to Tylo, many people in the forum describe it to be a very unpleasant place to be.

Edited by Ixamus
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Tyko

Tyko

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Posted

just stick them in a Mk 1 capsule and shoot them off on a multiyear journey to Jool with no food/water/air or entertainment!

.....Oh...never mind...we do that to all of them...

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Ultimate Steve

Ultimate Steve

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Posted
On ‎4‎/‎11‎/‎2018 at 1:23 PM, suicidejunkie said:

Construct a surface base on Jool, using a KAS-deployed launch clamp to keep it from being destroyed if that works?

Wait, does that work? If it does that will work nicely for something I was considering working on.

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