How do Kerbals survive the perils of extended space travel?

[Puddle Jumper]

Well, there are several biological justifications for why Kerbals can survive extended space travel like they do. Hibernation, regeneration, most of them not even that far-fetched. The question I would like to answer is: Why do they have these biological traits in the first place?

Oké, my theory. Kerbals are descendants of a long gone spacefaring civilization which after a big societal collapse is now once again setting their sights on the stars. Hey, those monoliths were built by someone.

[Fearless Son]

41 minutes ago, Puddle Jumper said:

Oké, my theory. Kerbals are descendants of a long gone spacefaring civilization which after a big societal collapse is now once again setting their sights on the stars. Hey, those monoliths were built by someone.

That was @NovaSilisko's original intent, as I understand it:

 

[Puddle Jumper]

Oh, wow, that's kinda awesome, especially since I completely made it up myself. Who is that guy anyway? Every time I read an awesome idea about Kerbal Space Program that never happened his name is somehow attached to it.

[NorthernDevo]

On 1/13/2019 at 2:54 AM, Xavven said:

In KSP I can send Kerbals to Jool for an extended 5 year stay without consequence. Yeah, it's just a game, but in my head I need some justification for their seeming ease with space travel. What are your rationalizations for it?

Actually; this is precisely the focus of the short story A Hope of Calling that I've been working on for a while now. Alongside what the Monoliths are, why Kerbin seems to be enormously fertile but with astonishingly low biodiversity and why Kerbals are...well...how they are.

Lol I fiddle with it whenever I get sick of the bloody novel I can't finish editing.

[ExtremeSquared]

It's an orbital physics game. Every reference to biology in stock KSP is more flagrantly impossible than Spore. The tracking center claiming there is life on Moho and Eeloo is probably more egregious than a Kerbal being stuffed in a tube for decades.

[PunkyFickle]

Kerbals being able to perform photosynthesis is a well known fact. The fact that they might be bioengineered (by who/what?) is a widely spread theory, although no actual evidence was brought to light yet, to my knowledge.

You can either face confusion as to how Kerbals survive interplanetary journeys or embrace the True Faith and never fail to the Commandement that states that thou shalt not play KSP without a life support mod and Kerbal Health installed. Heretics. The Kerbalism branch of the cult might gain in importance in the future, if it manages to overcome a few theological flaws.

 

On 1/15/2019 at 7:46 AM, steve_v said:

For hibernation there's DeepFreeze, but it feels a bit cheaty to me when running alongside a life support mod.

I'd say that the whole point of DeepFreeze is to be ran alongside a life support mod.

 

On 1/15/2019 at 12:29 AM, Fearless Son said:

copula modules

Tell me more about your childhood.

 

[steve_v]

10 minutes ago, PunkyFickle said:

I'd say that the whole point of DeepFreeze is to be ran alongside a life support mod.

Well yeah, it is pretty pointless without LS. But it also kinda negates LS, hence the "cheaty" comment. Perhaps it would be more reasonable with an expanded system to explore.

[PunkyFickle]

44 minutes ago, steve_v said:

Well yeah, it is pretty pointless without LS. But it also kinda negates LS, hence the "cheaty" comment. Perhaps it would be more reasonable with an expanded system to explore.

I'm not so knowledgeable about how balanced DeepFreeze is, but I guess that with enough constraints on your game (as religion compels), whether you have to freeze your Kerbonauts or not can become an actual choice you really have to think about. Let alone technological curbs (first trip to Duna will have to be kerbed in order to unlock the cryogenic technology for the next ones, for example).

[Fearless Son]

10 hours ago, PunkyFickle said:

Tell me more about your childhood.

They remind me of visiting the aquarium when I was a kid.  They would have large tanks for large aquatic creatures, with convex windows you could lean into and peer out into the water on multiple sides.  

The cupola modules feel like that.

[PunkyFickle]

2 minutes ago, Fearless Son said:

The cupola modules feel like that.

The "cupola modules" are not exactly what you referred to in your first post, thus my question. But your reference to those convex windows and your connection with water is VERY interesting too. Keep going, please.

[Geonovast]

10 hours ago, steve_v said:

Well yeah, it is pretty pointless without LS. But it also kinda negates LS, hence the "cheaty" comment. Perhaps it would be more reasonable with an expanded system to explore.

I think slipping in a chance of death during thawing would be a nice balance element.

[Xavven]

3 hours ago, PunkyFickle said:

The "cupola modules" are not exactly what you referred to in your first post, thus my question. But your reference to those convex windows and your connection with water is VERY interesting too. Keep going, please.

It was obviously an unfortunate typo and we don't need to explore the innuendo further.

This topic is about how to mitigate the negative health effects of space travel and I do appreciate your post about using a life support mod and the Kerbal Health mod. I'll have to try that. I'm curious if Kerbal Health accounts for artificial gravity or has parts for spinning stations or ships. I'll look into that after work.

[PunkyFickle]

I plead guilty of overdoing it to make myself understood.

@Xavven Kerbal Health indeed simulates damages done by microgravity, which you can alleviate with spinning modules. It also takes into account confinement, loneliness, radiations, random sickness, injuries, etc. Please, give it a peek and comply to the divine law.

3 hours ago, Geonovast said:

I think slipping in a chance of death during thawing would be a nice balance element.

I like the idea, but it's quite radical. It could be very nicely integrated into Kerbal Health, though. First, with a chance on thawing for the Kerbal to get wounded/killed/made a tourist (trick used by KH to render a Kerbal useless and stranded when in bad health condition rather than killing it straight away), second, with a mandatory health debuff on thawing. You would therefore have to invest even more on recuperation facilities, increasing further the cost of freezing your crew rather than bringing life support.

[Fearless Son]

2 hours ago, Xavven said:

It was obviously an unfortunate typo and we don't need to explore the innuendo further.

 

1 hour ago, PunkyFickle said:

I plead guilty of overdoing it to make myself understood.

 

In my admittedly weak defense, I didn't even notice the typo until just now.  Back to space travel!

I just like the idea of having lots of open-space on the interior of the craft as part of the quality-of-life of long-term habitation.  Since we don't have to contend with things like aerodynamic or aquadymanic considerations as we would for planet-bound vessels, we can make them as arbitrarily large volume as we want, assuming the overall mass is still reasonable.

[Aegolius13]

Kerbals are simply evolved waterbears.  Just ask @Snark.

[Mukita12]

On 1/15/2019 at 6:05 AM, bitzoid said:

Regarding "realism", I recently wondered why probe cores are so heavy. Incidently, I think the answer I got there, applies here as well ... perhaps.

One explanation that stuff in ksp is heavier than on Earth was that as Kerbin has the same gravity asl, but is much smaller in volume it must be denser. Denser alloys (containing e.g. lead) shield better against radiation. Because kerbkind has only access to heavy(er) metals than we do, they build heavy crafts but are much better shielded against radiation and such space-nonsense.

Regarding snacks: Some stock parts' internal view shows a generous supply of food, so they're fine.

I agree with @bitzoid's idea, but one thing that seriously makes me wonder is......

How the hell Kerbol is a sun when the size of it it's actually Jupiter Alike?! (I mean i know brown dwarf but come om yellow star?)

[Fraston]

Their food is contaminated with eternalyn from all those quickloads and flight reverts.

That’s why.

[Puddle Jumper]

On 2/24/2019 at 9:01 AM, Mukita12 said:

I agree with @bitzoid's idea, but one thing that seriously makes me wonder is......

How the hell Kerbol is a sun when the size of it it's actually Jupiter Alike?! (I mean i know brown dwarf but come om yellow star?)

Easy, turn up the gravitational constant a notch. I've seen many people wonder about the "pocket-scale" solar system of Kerbal Space Program. The idea and its implementation are not completely perfect, but most of what you see in behavior regarding physics in KSP is easily understood if you remember that (a) the real-life laws of physics apply but (b) the gravitational constant of the Kerbol system is higher than it is in our universe. Never did the calculations myself though, so I don't know the exact value of the gravitational constant. Nor do I know if the makers of the game intended it that way or if it is just a coincidence. Regardless, if you keep this fact in mind, it's likely not necessary to fantasize about a higher density of astronomical bodies.

If you want some fun read about a more extreme example of a universe with a higher gravitational constant: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Raft_(novel)

 

Edited March 4, 2019 by Puddle Jumper