Discussion about the biology and medicine technology of Kerbals

[Vini]

What do you guys think is a Kerbal's individual lifespan? Now, I don't think they only live 70 years on average like humans, considering they seemingly don't need food and can theoretically perform photosynthesis, are immune to space radiation, and can stay 70 years on a cramped space without mental or physical damage, so they seem to be a lot more "durable" than humans, but if you had to attach a value to a Kerbal's average lifespan, if they even are mortal at all and can't die only from explosions, how long would you say they live? A ""little"" bit more than humans, about 150 years? Thousands of years? Or have they discovered the secrets to anti-aging technology like humans hope to do in the future and are actually biologically immortal to diseases and aging, and can only die from serious life-threatening situations? Of course, all of this discussion is pointless, if I had to guess I'd say Kerbals don't age because of game design, game difficulty (making it easier instead of old Kerbals dying on a mission) and maybe limitations, and perhaps this could change and theoretically an individual Kerbal could have a biological age in KSP2, but it is still fun to discuss and guess the reason why this could happen in-game on KSP1, so what do you guys think? Share your opinion below if you feel like it!

[Beamer]

My guess would be they can only die from acute trauma and are otherwise immortal. I know people have timewarped thousands of years into the future but I haven't heard reports of Kerbals dying from old age.

Are you sure about the mental health thing though? Could you tell the difference between a sane and insane Kerbal?

I have killed very few Kerbals in my life, I always play in career mode so I do my best to keep them alive. I do know that extreme heat makes them explode in a puff of... something. I found that out when I took one on an EVA while being 99999 km from Kerbol. He was snugly behind my station's heat shield, but when you take a Kerbal on an EVA it effectively becomes its own 'vessel'. A vessel without active cooling. A vessel with a max skin temperature of 800K. Yeah... that didn't end well, it took less time to reach that temperature than it took for the 'grabbing the ladder' animation to finish playing Being a few meter from a 3200K inflatable heat shield is not healthy, doesn't really matter if you're on the shady side or not.

 

[Vini]

@Beamer Thanks for your comment! I do agree they seem to be biologically immortal, especially since they don't die no matter how much time passes, but i don't really think they become "insane" after long trips, i guess you could argue they are already insane by performing some of these missions, at least by our standards, or fearless, in other words, but i always see a Kerbal smiling after staying in a pod for 70 years around the sun, and there is a difference between a happy smile and an insane smile, i guess it makes sense they'd be happy in space, you'd probably be returning happy too if you're exploring new territory for your species and becoming a "hero" and have practically zero chance of dying in the mission as long as you are a good pilot, to someone who doesn't age 70 years would feel like 2 weeks, especially if they could hibernate for long periods, but even if they couldn't Kerbals just love space in general and are happy to be there lol, thanks for sharing your unfortunate but funny failure story, i can guarantee you're already better than me at the game, i never got too close to the sun because i suck at fuel management even with the stock delta-v update, the farthest i've gone up until now is Duna, thankfully i was able to return but i only did this successfully once, i really hope i can do this again soon, this time with scatterer installed for some nice atmospheric visuals on my mid-end potato pc lol

[Entropian]

On 2/12/2022 at 6:26 PM, Vini said:

What do you guys think is a Kerbal's individual lifespan?

I know for a fact it's at least 1200 kerbal years... (don't ask questions you don't want the answers to)

[Beamer]

11 hours ago, Vini said:

@Beamer Thanks for your comment! I do agree they seem to be biologically immortal, especially since they don't die no matter how much time passes, but i don't really think they become "insane" after long trips, i guess you could argue they are already insane by performing some of these missions, at least by our standards, or fearless, in other words, but i always see a Kerbal smiling after staying in a pod for 70 years around the sun, and there is a difference between a happy smile and an insane smile, i guess it makes sense they'd be happy in space, you'd probably be returning happy too if you're exploring new territory for your species and becoming a "hero" and have practically zero chance of dying in the mission as long as you are a good pilot, to someone who doesn't age 70 years would feel like 2 weeks, especially if they could hibernate for long periods, but even if they couldn't Kerbals just love space in general and are happy to be there lol, thanks for sharing your unfortunate but funny failure story, i can guarantee you're already better than me at the game, i never got too close to the sun because i suck at fuel management even with the stock delta-v update, the farthest i've gone up until now is Duna, thankfully i was able to return but i only did this successfully once, i really hope i can do this again soon, this time with scatterer installed for some nice atmospheric visuals on my mid-end potato pc lol

Good point, if you can live for thousands of years, a few decades probably seems like a short vacation I used 19 Ion engines (and 28 large Xenon tanks) to power my Kerbol station. It doesn't make for a very nimble craft but it has enough deltaV to get down to Kerbol's surface twice and still make it back to Kerbin. It was definitely worth the views:

Spoiler

 

 

[Vini]

@Beamer Wow, that craft looks pretty nice! The blue "neon" lights make it look futuristic but possible at the same time! I don't know if those parts are all stock since i haven't even seen all stock parts yet because i always create a new save and i have not finished the entire tech tree yet, but either way, good job! Also, if me tagging you makes you annoyed, please tell me, i have a bad habit of tagging people in order to ensure they'll get a notif, but some people don't like being mentioned in a topic too many times, so you, and anyone else of course, are free to tell me i am being annoying and then i won't tag you again lol

Edited February 14, 2022 by Vini
typo

[Beamer]

54 minutes ago, Vini said:

@Beamer Wow, that craft looks pretty nice! The blue "neon" lights make it look futuristic but possible at the same time! I don't know if those parts are all stock since i haven't even seen all stock parts yet because i always create a new save and i have not finished the entire tech tree yet, but either way, good job! Also, if me tagging you makes you annoyed, please tell me, i have a bad habit of tagging people in order to ensure they'll get a notif, but some people don't like being mentioned in a topic too many times, so you, and anyone else of course, are free to tell me i am being annoying and then i won't tag you again lol

Thanks! I used exclusively blue and green lights on the craft to make sure that I would notice anything red as soon as it showed up (I have significantly diminished red/green colour vision and for a star-diver, it's rather important to see those temp gauges quickly :D). The craft is entirely stock (as is everything I build really) but I think you need to max out some science trees for the Ion engines and the Thermoelectric Generators it gets its electricity from when near its periapsis. This close to the sun, anything I stick out from behind that shield will instantly evaporate so it can't run on solar. Of course it has solar panels for orbital adjustments when it's further from Kerbol, those Ion engines slurp a lot of electricity. This is what it looks like when it's 'unfolded', the cooling radiators are all on hinges so they can fold in behind the shield but are moved out of the way when I need the solar panels:

Spoiler

Tagging me is no problem

 

Edited February 14, 2022 by Beamer

[Davi SDF]

I think Kerbals can't die of old age or scarcity of food, I don't really know how their biology is though...

But i do know that, although they can't die of aging or hunger, they canonically can die of shock (see RoverMax Model XL3 for an example of this. The HubMax too is a great one).

But why though? They are resilient to falls, hunger, radiation, insanity, aging... but a surprise birthday party can kill them?

[Admiral Fluffy]

16 hours ago, Davi SDF said:

But i do know that, although they can't die of aging or hunger, they canonically can die of shock (see RoverMax Model XL3 for an example of this. The HubMax too is a great one).

Yep.

Quote

The RoveMax Model 3 was developed in total secrecy by Kerbal Motion's R&D team over the course of a year and a half. When it was finally revealed to the company's chairman, he stared in shock, screamed 'WHY', and subsequently dropped dead on the spot.

Quote

When it was unveiled at the 3rd annual Rockets & Explosions festival, the HubMax Multi-Point Connector caused several patrons to die of shock on the spot. 'All my life I thought rocket parts could be placed one way - up! But Rockomax today has shattered that notion' said one survivor, who asked to remain anonymous. Needless to say, this part may very well herald a revolution in construction technologies. Docking ports sold separately.

Where is the birthday party though?

[Lyraea]

I've never considered the "puff of smoke" death before... When this is taken in combination with the common fanon that Kerbals are biologically immortal plant-based beings that photosynthesize (although they also like Snacks,) and are perfectly happy with sitting still for centuries at a time; it raises some questions about their internal biology. Perhaps they're literally just green all the way down, and when exposed to extreme impacts, high temperatures, or apparently shock; the bonds holding them together break and they are reduced into a grey, ashy vapor? This could explain how they're capable of surviving a Kraken attack, if there's no internal structure to destroy via Kraken nonsense and the only prerequisite for survival is that none of the established causes of death are met.