The ethics of Space

[Pontiac]

I've got two saved games. One is where I just test mods out, and see how they work. If they work, great, I keep it around and maybe introduce them to my main save. Its called "Just screw'n around". The other is my "Space Station" save, which I'm attempting to build space stations around each planet and moon (So far, one station acting as a fuel dump around Kerbin), and only one Kerbal on it but with room for 6. My current goal is to get maps of the terrain on each of the planets. So far, Kerbin and its moons are done, however, I'm having a HELL of a time trying to get probes up...

From this:

To this:

... As you can probably imagine, I don't have a lot of Kerbals lining up at my door to go into space........

[dharak1]

I make an abort stage. But oh no, this isn't for launch. Its so if they get stuck the get in the pod and kill themselves by throttling max pointing down firing abort stage with sepratrons at apoaps.

[Polecat Industries]

I... I don't think that I've ever designed a rocket to come back from farther than Minmus, and even then they blew up when they arrived, because I didn't add parachutes.

It wasn't supposed to come back.

[Strategia]

For me, it depends, but usually I honestly don't really care. Hell, my first dozen or so designs were mostly just a joke, massive launchers that went straight up and kept going until they were outside of Kerbin's SoI, and were then left stranded in deep space. (I got two of 'em on highly eccentric, multi-year orbits. I considered them my comets.) These days, I don't do that anymore, but I still don't really care too much about my Kerbals. They die in droves. I like to think that being an astronaut in my space programme isn't really a vocation, but more like mental illness, or maybe a criminal sentence.

[magnemoe]

I seem to remember Harvester saying they don't want to implement food and stuff like that because it will turn the game into a micromanagement sim etc. Making sure all your Kerbals have enough food / water for the 2 year voyage to another planet would be... 'fun', hehe.

I think its much more likely to be that, later down the line, you will hire a Kerbal, pay for his training, and THAT is what will stop you wanting to leave Kerbals everywhere - you COULD pay $1000's training Jeb up, but its a waste of money just to leave him on Eve, right? Unless he is working on a mining rig or something.

Maybe they will incorporate a boredom aspect or something - maybe a Kerbal that spends years & years away from home wont work as efficiently?

I dunno, we shall have to wait and see. Im sure Squad has a few ideas

One downside with life support is the serialized way we tend to do missions, you send an crew to duna and drive around in an rover, then the launch window for Eeloo come up and you do an Eeloo trip while they wait in the rover.

Life support would work nice if we had an infinite life support module for larger bases and ships, say 10-20 ton for 3 kerbals, then an say three ton for an year mission support weighting 3 ton, with one ton resource packs to extend this, just an pod would perhaps last an week and an landing can an month. The huge module also provide life support resources if undermanned.

Might divide this in air and food, the huge module provides both, the medium uses power to break co2 to o2, recycle water and store canned food, rockets use oxidizer to provide air and water from fuel+oxidizer if you add an small life support module like an sas module.

This let you set up long term bases, it also provides some realism and extra fun, imagine dropping food to kerbals stranded on Tylo while the rescue lander is underway.

For me I always use an rescue system, usually this is only eject and parachutes, huge, unique or test launches is always unmanned. I typically launch an space station in one piece and the crew in an SSTO afterwards.

[Gamespud]

I try to add parachutes and stuff to keep them alive if possible but they often end up like the animals in the soviet space programs... it is my kerbals greatest ambition to become own planet! =D

[AmpsterMan]

I haven't lost a kerbal since 0.16. I don't abandon Kerbals ans I make sure they always return home.

[Shadow86]

I've come to develop a sense of responsibility towards my kerbonauts, and so far I've done my darnedest to get them all home. I test rocket prototypes with unmanned command modules, but once the official mission comes, kerbals lead it. And I seldom reload (generally only when I make an exceedingly stupid mistake), so a dead kerbonaut is a dead kerbonaut.

And so far I've lost approximately 6 kerbals, 4 of which died testing a rescue rocket to pickup the pilot of the failed munar orbiter, Kerbus XVII. The spacecraft had run out of fuel on its return to Kerbin, and ended up in a high, very eccentric orbit. After two failed rescue attempts, the Mun got in the way grabbed the stranded rocket and flung it off into a Kerbol orbit.

The plaque at the crash-landing site of the later Munar 1 spacecraft honours that brave kerbonaut: "In memory of Jebediah Kerman. May the stars return you one day."

The Kerbus XVII might indeed return one day, as it ended up in a month-long orbit similar to Kerbin's. We'll see!

And by the way, while I love the idea of the Eterno-Rest 2000, I can't bring myself to use it since there's a major logic flaw in its design. Most kerbal deaths come from vaporizations or happen in such a way that the kerbonaut's body is presumed to be unrecoverable. So always having a visible kerbal body makes little sense. Is it some kind of macabre doll? Did the government kill a random bum to play the part? A closed coffin would be dull, so I'd suggest (if I knew whom to suggest to) using instead a space suit with an opaque visor, which may or may not be assumed to contain the fallen kerbonaut inside.

[Deadweasel]

I tend to waver on both sides of the fence. When I get an idea for a design, I'm hell-bent to see the thing work. I am a cold and heartless taskmaster to my Kerbal slaves- err... employees during testing rounds.

But then an interesting thing starts happening afterward.

I did a lot of (failed) tests with slapping ridiculously-large thrust packages on a small SSTO before I arrived at a configuration that had the thing fairly screaming out of the atmosphere without even touching the main engines. Once I got to that point, I started putting it to work.

The first "official" flight was to get the ship docked with its drive section, in preparation for an exploratory mission to Duna. The single seater made the rendezvous without issues, but at the very moment it docked, the thing exploded in a fatal hail of broken parts. The poor pilot never even knew what hit him.

Suddenly I was actually pissed. Not for the wasted time of the mission, but for the fact that I'd been planning a whole automated shuttle flight to return the pilot home, and now there was no reason to bother. I could've shrugged and sent up another drive section and SSTO, but instead I took the time to roll back the persistent file. I still had to go through those flights all over again, but I felt somewhat mollified that I'd helped him cheat an unfair death at the hands of a malicious random bug.

I guess in my eyes, Kerbals that go out in a blaze of glory under legitimate circumstances (those being my ineptitude with ship designs from scratch) go out as heroes in pursuit of things much bigger than themselves.

Or maybe, I can't stand not having been the one to pull the trigger...

Great, now I can't tell if I'm sadistic or just weird.

/maybe both?

[stikfigz]

As long as the mission completes its primary objective, like LANDING on the Mün, I'm happy.

[magnemoe]

As long as the mission completes its primary objective, like LANDING on the Mün, I'm happy.

An landing require an kerbal or probe on surface at least in my book. My 6.000 m/s landing attempt on Moho does not qualify as successful.

[NASAFanboy]

To me, the Kerbals are human beings. I testt craft unmanned, and go through each and every possible disaster scenario. I test launch escape systems, and create a Plan "B". I always include parachutes on all my rockets. I test and check on everything.

I follow the OSHA guidance rules.

[dimovski]

Havent lost a Kerbal since 0.17, still havent been much in 0.20 cause of the SRB bug, and Im waiting for a NK-33 engine to be finished so that real fun can begin...

But yes, I do test my crafts EXTENSIVELY, each pod MUST have a LES tower AND a docking port so nothing can go wrong...

Before I man-rate a rocket (make the pod a primary) Im doing some abort sequences: a)at launchpad

b)just after liftoff, T+5-10s

c)5s before stage I separation (highest TWR usually)

d)5s before stage II separation

At 30km Im firing my LES and decoupling it so I dont carry too much wait, which means that the pod is left on its own...shouldnt be a problem tho, if the engine fails,youre still just on a sub-orbit trajectory, and if it fails in orbit, you can always rendezvous with these rockets.

Most of the failures (tho for me a "failure" is essentially even if the rocket is moving slightly out of its supposed path, or is rolling heavily...I want perfect launches) happen in the development phase of the launchers, always with probe cores, as Im in fact adapting unmanned rockets for sending kerbals into space, not the other way around...

[Xeldrak]

Ah, well....let's just say, that my Space Mirror Memorial looks more like the Vietnam Veterans Memorial

[biggles1]

They're still there

This was one of the .18 updates I think.

I don't go out of my way to kill Kerbals, and adding a launch escape system is always cool, but I won't be missing any sleep over 'accidents' AKA research!

[Windchild]

I haven't killed any Kerbals, and all Kerbals going to any body other than Mun, Kerbin or Laythe must be returned to one of them after a few months. (as soon as there is an available transfer window)

Nobody dies, nobody left behind...

[jocax188723]

Personally, I do my best to keep them alive-ie: a tried and tested abort button, parachutes on every stage, probe test launches, etc.

But accidents do happen and I've lost a fair dozen myself. I console myself with the fat that they went out doing what the did best.

[Imaginer1]

Sometimes I'm like "Oh, man, I'm gonna have this guy slam into the Munar surface so hard he dies!" But then, then he looks scared... And I have to stop.

From now on, Kerbal safety is top priority.

[KSK]

Count me in on the 'No Kerbal left behind' team. Which is probably why I do so many unmanned flights.

[The Jedi Master]

I love how their all like, "we're here... crap..."

[JimWesterfield]

One of the things I am trying to figure out is how to do flight test. Right now when I design a manned (or is that Kerballed) mission, it is a matter of holding my breath to see if they make it. If anyone has figured out how to send empty units up until they are "Kerbal" rated I would appreciate the ideas.

[bonyetty]

One of the things I am trying to figure out is how to do flight test. Right now when I design a manned (or is that Kerballed) mission, it is a matter of holding my breath to see if they make it. If anyone has figured out how to send empty units up until they are "Kerbal" rated I would appreciate the ideas.

Stick a prob on ya ships. Under the chutes is a good spot. EVA ya Kerbals on the pad, end their flights, back to the pad. Good to go with an empty rocket.

[biggles1]

I love how their all like, "we're here... crap..."

Yeah, the landing was pretty much 'Where'd the other half of my lander go? Why is the ground rushing up so fast? Why am I stuck?'

[PwnedDuck]

I don't ever let that happen. Every mission has at least 1000 delta-v to spare, every colonised planet has a station in orbit over it, every station has a carrier docked to it (a 3 man capsule, rcs, big orange tank and nuclear engine, with something like 9000 delta-v with full fuel), and every base a vehicle capable of getting into a stable orbit and back.

Vehicle development is quite another thing...

[Stelith61]

I usually try to make sure I keep everyone alive. The only death I've had during an actual mission so far (excluding the early days of KSP-ing, where many brave Kerbonauts died) has been when I was over-exited with the jetpack on Gilly, and slammed poor Calbro into the ground.

Any mission where I might lack the required fuel to do it, I quicksave after gaining escape velocity from Kerbin, so I could abort if I fail later. Simulations, all simulations. Did this yesterday with yet another failed Dres mission. Sent em to the Mun.

I also have an abort protocol for my launcher. Abort key disbles the engines, and because staging is screwy, I then have to decouple the pod manually. Rise to AP then hit chutes. Kerbals saved.