Kerbin is gone. But what about your kerbonauts?

[halocon720]

All flights in progress operated by the Alkhavan Celestial Exploration Bureau (ACEB) are unmanned, spelling doom as of now. However, let's say that the first rock was destroyed by some sort of cannon, smashed into shards too small to cause real damage. Then another one is spotted, but won't hit for a while. Manned flight would be kicked into overdrive (which I plan to do) and orbital colonies would be launched, as well as smaller craft that would be sent to other planets.

[Bloodbunny]

In .21, my guys would be fine. Had over 20 Kerbals spread across 3 Minmus bases (one with Kethane + Extraplanetary Pad, and one with Ore + Extraplanetary Pad), plus a Minmus orbital construction base with capacity to make pretty much any kind of ship on the spot. Also had a huge station in LKO with 40 man capacity if needed.

22? Adios amigos

[Demon_82]

In my sandbox game, Kerbalkind could survive, by a slim margin. I have three Kerbals in Laythe and six in Eve, with life support systems in place, but without any ship capable of moving them off their worlds.

In my career game... they would have a hard time. Only one Kerbal by now in Eve, in a lander capsule unable to take off, with life support, only survivor of a crew of three that ran out of oxygen a little too soon.

[Arsonik]

As far as I can tell, Kerbalkind doesn't extend past Kerbal Space Center anyways. And I think I can duct-tape...rrrrrrrr I mean weld enough crap together to build a vessel large enough to escape all the KSC employees from certain doom. Kerbalkind lives on

[Madrias]

I'm fairly sure my impromptu Minmus Colony of Wrecked Ships would help keep the Kerbals from going extinct. Also Mun Base 1 and Mun Base 2, and Jool Station Alpha, and LKO Station Alpha would probably be renamed to Kerbal Spirit just to be picky like that.

[cesarcurado]

If that happens my kerbonauts are gone too.

I always sacrifice any stranded kerbal, put them out of their suffering.

[Joe8]

Now that this has been brought up...

I'll make an Ark- ahuge, empty, 100-Kerbal interstellar craft with hibernation chambers, landing/exploration vehicles, and food for all of them.

*begins furiously scribbling designs on a notepad*

[Gojira]

I have Jeb stranded on Laythe in my Alternis game, so there's that.

[Tuareg]

I have 17 kerbals in space atm. 3 on mun with 2 rovers and 2 returncrafts (sadly both has only 1 space but i dont plan to return them /1 crashed at landing/) the rest are on an interplanetary mothership with 2 landers 2 rovers and 2 science stations. didnt decide yet where to go with them...

[The Jedi Master]

Yup, kerbalkind is dead in all my saves. I do plan to try a Mun base after my Ike mission, though, so there's that.

[Thomas988]

On Career: No survivors.

On Sandbox: Maybe between 6-12 survivors. There a good seven or so on my VLKO space station, and a bit more on other space stations.

[alacrity]

Career mode is a little sparce, just have bill, bob, and jeb in a Kerbin Station. They have a rescue lander, but three kerbins might not have the genetic level needed to support repopulation. Also the return craft is a single shot, so if Kerbin Burned, I would get a single landing with no return to space.

Sandbox, well, full disclosure I do use Mods, like KAS and EPL so I have a broader range of capabilities. Bases on Mun and Duna both have mining and Kethane processing, and launch capabilities. Stations around Kerbin, Mun, Minmus, Eve, Tylo, and Duna. Total astral population around 45 I think, celestials with a total of 2 launch sites, 3 mining, and 6 kethane facilities. Total of 4 interplanetary vehicles in space already, with tugs or lunar hoppers on all the stations. Survivability is much higher with the ability for growth.

Alacrity

[Skyler4856]

I am currently building a colony ship for 43 kerbals to fly to laythe. I am about to launch my mining infastructure then a solar array

[annallia]

Depending on how Kerbin is gone the three big guys should be ok... For a while.

Jeb is currently orbiting Mun, Bill and Bob are down on the surface collecting samples along with another whos name I forget. Other than that my Kerbals are screwed, haven't had the time to play much lately and my new career mode is progressing slowly.

[Clockwork_werewolf]

In my career mode I have 9 Kerbals in three separate science lab stations about Kerbin Minmus and the Mun. Each station is over engineered and I never bothered to drop their tanks (they make good fuel storage for refuelling ships) or engines. So all the labs can meet up and dock. My only hope is 9 kerbals plus labs can come up with a way to clone Kerbals up there. I even added escape pods to every station and capable of returning 3 Kerbals each. So if they can get the cloning machine in a capsule with them they can bring it down to Kerbin. If not, someone will be stuck up there forever in order to make room on the pod for the machine. Brave Kerbal we salute you!

[Commissioner Tadpole]

In my first save file, I have a trio(Bill, Mitkin and Mallan) on Duna(with rovers and an extraplanetary launch pad!), and on my third save file, I have Bill and Jeb on a large trailer on the Mün.

I have Jeb stranded on Laythe in my Alternis game, so there's that.

Wait, Alternis Kerbol was released, or by Alternis you mean something else?

[celem]

The Kerbals are doomed, no matter what. I recently started the Apocolypse Challenge which focuses very much on this kind of scenario. Getting as many off Kerbin before D-Day as possible.

I dont know if anyone else has noticed this... but our Kerbals are all male (assuming they even have a gender system similar to that of humans). Yeah...thats not gonna work.

[Duke23]

I'd be pretty screwed... As of right now, Jeb is the only Kerbal off-world and he's sitting in a lander can with a rover docked to my orbital tanker station at ~125km awaiting the rest of the parts to his ship. Best case scenario is he takes control of the whole station since it's currently "symmetrical enough" to fly and hops over to another planet with an atmosphere to live out his days as the last Kerbal.

[Clockwork_werewolf]

I don't know if anyone else has noticed this... but our Kerbals are all male (assuming they even have a gender system similar to that of humans). Yeah...that's not gonna work.

That's why I suggested cloning. If the Kerbals do have two genders then the cloning should keep them going up till their genetic science increases. If they have an XY structure like humans then it should be possible (in theory) to create a DNA profile using two X chromosomes to create a Female child from the Kerbals DNA. The bigger problem is the genetic diversity certainly in my game of 9 Kerbals. This is all made more complex when you add in the two chromosomes. I have to assume two of the same X chromosomes given to a female would cause a problem so they need to be from different parents this means if I had only 3 Kerbals the combinations would be X1,X2 X1,X3 and X2,X3. The males however could be X1,Y2 AND X2 Y1 as the X and Y chromosomes are different. However the difference between X1,Y2 and X1,Y3 would mean nothing to an X1,X3 girl so we can assume the breeding combinations are the same as for the females.

Despite the complexity of this the number of generations until there is inbreeding is easy to calculate it the power of 2 of the number. 2 (2^1) Kerbals can only create 1 generation as can 3. 4 (2^2) Kerbals can create 2 generations but so can 5-7 Kerbals. 8 Kerbals (2^3) can create 3 generation before there is inbreeding. Gen ones (siblings) share 50% of their genes with each other. Gen twos (First Cousins) Share 25% of their genes with each other. Gen Threes (Second cousins?) Share 12.5% of their genes with each other on average. The big question is how low must the % shared be fore you don't get genetic problems.

Probably my Kerbals are in trouble... but then what's new?

[Dooz]

The laythe base with 12 kerbals is fine!

[TheGeoninja]

I think around 12 kerbals would survive and orbit Minmus forever and one guy would be stuck on duna.

[XeroCoolUSN]

Done, My next goal is to set up a base with enough kerbals to be housed with family to survive an ELE (Extinction Level Event)

[SkyHook]

The kerbals quickly discovered that the planets that they have gazed at since 2011 are simply virtual meshes, and have since lost motivation to go anywhere. They cite "no resources" as the cause of their lethargy.

[jfull]

Well, I have 6 Kerbals in a (probably) self sustaining Kethane base on Minmus

[daniel_stephen]

I have 16 In my Star ship