What Does POL Mean?

[Geschosskopf]

I'd always thought "Pol" was named for some minor Kerbal deity, or perhaps it was just a collective term because they couldn't decide which of the KSP's political sponsors to name it after. But then I went there and decided that the proper spelling is "P.O.L." or "POL" because it's obviously an acronym.

The question thus becomes, "What do the letters stand for?" I have several theories:

When I got into orbit and saw it up close for the first time, I was struck by its hideous shape and nauseating color. Hence, I figured POL must stand for either Positively Overly Lumpy or Puked-Out Lunch.

Then I started my descent. Eventually, the ground scatter kicked in. Up until this point, I'd had faith in my rather new, rather top-end computer and had all the graphics settings on full. But on Pol, there's a superabundance of scatter objects. In fact, at 100% scatter, I don't think there's a square inch of actual dirt visible there, just a solid carpet of these things that look like gumdrops you sucked on until they were half gone, decided after all you didn't like the flavor, and spit them out. Them and their countless overlapping shadows. So a new meaning for POL immediately suggested itself: Pain Over Lag. Nothing for it but to back out of the game and reduce scatter to 50% and also cut way back on shadows.

That done, I picked up where I'd left off and continued my descent. All was going well until I was only about 1500m up. Then there was a muffled boom, a cloud of Kerbaldust appeared around my ship (even though it was a probe), and the controls went dead. Huh? I hit F3 and saw that I'd "crashed into Pol" despite my ship being 1500m up and still descending. Only dead. And it continued on down to the visible surface, where it smashed to pieces, despite supposedly having crashed long before.

Well, that's why they made F5/F9, so I picked a different spot and tried again. And this time I reached the visible ground without encountering invisible ground higher up, somewhat to my surprise. So that suggested yet another meaning: Pray On Landing.

Anyway, those are my theories on the meaning of POL. Anybody got better ones?

[panfish5]

Pol looks like a giant pollen grain according to kerbal astronomers.

[The Destroyer]

One user on the IRC chat or live-stream, IIRC said it loked like a grain of pollen. So that's how it was named.

[jwenting]

POL is a military acronym for Petroleum, Oils, and Lubricants.

[Whirligig Girl]

Pol is named from Pollen due to the fact that it is an oversized grain of pollen.

[TheBadAstronomer]

For some reason i seem to have kraken attacks on Pol, so I call it Pollen Of Lethality.

[Geschosskopf]

Pollen of Lethality. Nice .

Anyway, most of you all are missing the point. I know about the pollen grain thing. But this is supposed to be a fun use of your imagination. You're supposed to be thinking up meanings for the acronym POL that fit the moon

[vexx32]

Pan-dimensional Orbiting Lithosphere.

[sporkafife]

Pol a Pretty Oversized Lump of uselessness

[Commissioner Tadpole]

Pol a Pretty Oversized Lump of uselessness

Then it would be POLU.

[shinyarceus4]

Planet-Orbiting Lump?

[Starwhip]

Producing Over-the-top Lag.

[M5000]

Pack Oreos, Larry.

[Wjolcz]

actually it was skunky who came up with the name for it on one of the old old streams.

he said it looked like pollon grain

[czokletmuss]

Pol-andball?

[Brotoro]

The moons of Jool are named after people who had associations with Jool, the king of the gods. Laythe, Vall, and Tylo were all maidens whom Jool used trickery to seduce by turning into (respectively) a shower of gold dust, a beautiful swan, and a battery-operated sex toy (then, as now, Tylo was a tough nut to crack). Bop was named after the court jester of the gods whom Jool always hit on the head when he told a bad joke. And Pol was named after the janitor of the gods who never got to attend their parties but always had to sweep up afterwards.

[Guest]

"Put on lederhosen". And try the schnitzel.

[AmpsterMan]

It stands for "Power of Love"