Reading: Kerbal Space Program Wiki
“
If you can get your ship into orbit, you’re halfway to anywhere. — Robert Heinlein, quoted on page 194 of A Step Farther Out by Jerry Pournelle
”
In-game description
“
A unique world, Kerbin has flat plains, soaring mountains and wide, blue oceans. Home to the Kerbals, it has just the right conditions to support a vast, seemingly undepletable population of the eager green creatures.
Reaching a stable orbit around Kerbin is one of the first things budding space programs strive for. It is said that he who can get his ship into orbit is halfway to anywhere. — Kerbal Astronomical Society
”
topography
topographical representation of Kerbin ‘s airfoil as of 0.18.2. Click for high settlement. by Zeroignite
Kerbal at Kerbin ‘s highest flower Kerbin has a roughly equal distribution of surface fluent water and firm land, with arctic icecaps and disperse deserts. Some of its mountains exceed 6 km in altitude, with the tallest vertex being 6764 megabyte in altitude at the coordinates 46.3° E 61.6° N. The lowest point is about 1.4 kilometer deep and about 313° southwest of the Kerbal Space Center .
Craters
Terrain exemplary centered on one of Kerbin ‘s most pronounce craters Unlike other bodies in its system, Kerbin has few visible craters because its environment would erode craters from the few meteors that avoid the graveness or surface of its big moonlight and survive introduction. Nevertheless, some geological formations indicate that bodies have violently collided with Kerbin : two planetal features appear to be impact craters that are coincidentally separated by closely 180 degrees. The least eroded, and consequently presumably youngest, of the two ( both are in overindulgence of 100 km diameter ) lies along the coastline. The uplift is well visible as a series of islands, and the feature has a central point that pokes up through the body of water ( besides known as a bounce bill. ) The other, and older of the two, is near the prime acme in the northerly hemisphere and is more easily missed, but its upheaval rims are visible, and it has a central rebound top out .
Biomes
The biomes on Kerbin Before 0.90 Kerbin was one of the few bodies with multiple biomes, Kerbin was second only to the Mun in number of biomes it has. Following the 0.90 update all celestial bodies have biomes. science experiments can be performed at all biomes, though Kerbin ‘s broken multipliers result in less impressive results than more distant worlds. Kerbin ‘s biomes show a idle correlation with Earth ‘s biomes and geographic features. uniquely, Kerbin has 33 location biomes at KSC, these are comprised of each construct and their props, the crawlerway, the flag, and KSC itself ; these give a jumpstart to gathering Science points in Career modality .
global biome tilt
Kerbin biome map as of 0.90.0
- Ice Caps
- Tundra
- Highlands
- Mountains
- Grasslands
- Deserts
- Badlands
- Shores
- Water
KSC location biome number
- KSC
- Administration
- Astronaut Complex
- Crawlerway
- Flag Pole
- LaunchPad
- Mission Control
- R&D
- R&D Central Building
- R&D Corner Lab
- R&D Main Building
- R&D Observatory
- R&D Side Lab
- R&D Small Lab
- R&D Tanks
- R&D Wind Tunnel
- Runway
- SPH
- SPH Main Building (Roof)
- SPH Round Tank
- SPH Tanks
- SPH Water Tower
- Tracking Station
- Tracking Station Dish East
- Tracking Station Dish North
- Tracking Station Dish South
- Tracking Station Hub
- VAB
- VAB Main Building (Roof)
- VAB Pod Memorial
- VAB Round Tank
- VAB Tanks
atmosphere
Kerbin ‘s atmosphere contains oxygen and extends to approximately 69,078 meters. Its atmosphere exponentially rarefies with altitude with a scale stature of 5 kilometer. [ 3 ] The atmospheric press on Kerbin at an elevation expressed in meters, broadly is :
- p kilobyte = 1 asynchronous transfer mode ⋅ e − a liter thyroxine i t uranium five hundred e 5000 { \displaystyle p_ { thousand } =1 { \text { standard atmosphere } } \cdot e^ { \frac { -altitude } { 5000 } } }
The thickness of Kerbin ‘s atmosphere makes it suitable for aerobraking and using parachutes to save fuel during reentry and landing. Since version 0.19, harmless supersonic and shock heating/reentry effects have been applied to objects flying above certain velocities. Debris flying in the lower atmosphere disappears once 2 kilometer from an active craft, but above approx. 23 kilometer ( where atmospheric pressure is less than 0.01 cash machine ) debris persists. Spent stages may continue in a static eye socket even if they are going through thick atmosphere that would destabilize the eye socket of an active voice craft [ outdated ]. The following table gives approximation of terminal velocities at different Kerbin altitudes, which are besides the velocities at which a ship should travel for a fuel-optimal erect rise from Kerbin, given the game ‘s mannequin of atmospheric drag. [ 4 ] The optimum speed after a gravity turn has been started is less than the equate value in the board. [ 5 ]
Terminal Velocity Table
Altitude (m)
Velocity (m/s)
75
100.8
1000
109.3
2000
119.3
3000
130.2
4000
142.2
5000
155.2
6000
169.4
7000
184.9
8000
201.8
9000
220.3
10000
240.5
12500
299.4
15000
372.8
20000
577.9
32000
1655.1
Orbits
A Stayputnik MK2 satellite A synchronous orbit is achieved with a semi-major axis of 3 463.33 kilometer. Kerbisynchronous Equatorial Orbit ( KEO ) has a circularly uniform altitude of 2 863.33 kilometer and a accelerate of 1 009.81 m/s. From a 70 kilometer depleted equatorial orbit, the periapsis steer requires 676.5 m/s and the apoapsis maneuver requires 434.9 m/s. A syncronous Tundra sphere with eccentricity of 0.2864 and tilt of 63 degrees is achieved at 3799.7/1937.7 kilometer. Inclination correlates with eccentricity : higher incline orbits need to be more character, while equatorial scope may be circular, basically KEO. A semi-synchronous scope with an orbital period of ½ of Kerbin ‘s rotation menstruation ( 2 h 59 megabyte 34.7 second or 10774.7 seconds ) is achieved at an altitude of 1 581.76 kilometer with an orbital speed of 1 272.28 m/s. A semi-syncronous Molniya scope with eccentricity of 0.742 [ 6 ] and inclination of 63 degrees can not be achieved, because the periapsis would be 36 kilometer below the background. The highest eccentricity of a semi-synchronous orbit with a periapsis of 70 kilometer is 0.693 with an apoapsis of 3100.36 km. The Hill sphere ( the spoke around the planet at which moons are gravitationally stable ) of Kerbin is 136 185 kilometer, or roughly 227 Kerbin radius .
Interplanetary Travel
From the lowest stable sphere around Kerbin ( 70 kilometer ), the sum of delta-V needed to reach the orbits of other celestials is :
Body
Delta-V
Mun
~860 m/s
Minmus
~930 m/s
Eve
~1033 m/s
Duna
~1060 m/s
Moho
~1676 m/s
Jool
~1915 m/s
Eeloo
~2100 m/s
Kerbol escape
~2740 m/s
For comparison, the Δv required to reach geostationary Kerbin orbit from LKO is 1.12 km/s
reference Frames
Time warp
Minimum Altitude
1×
Any
5×
70 000 m (above the atmosphere)
10×
70 000
m (above the atmosphere)
50×
70 000 m (above the atmosphere)
100×
120 000 m
1 000×
240 000 m
10 000×
480 000 m
100 000×
600 000 m
gallery
topographical function of Kerbin as of version 0.21
A projection map of Kerbin, as of 0.14.1 and before ( including the honest-to-god demonstration ) .
An accurate full-colour project map of Kerbin as of 0.14.2 to 0.17.1
A map displaying the delta V needed from/to Kerbin
Kerbin, Mün and Minmus .
Kerbin with its two natural satellites, the Mun and Minmus, seen from KEO. Minmus can be seen equitable above the horizon of Kerbin on the left side of the video .
A topographical heightmap of Kerbin made with the ISA MapSat plugin
Kerbin and the Mun, scantily visible from ~500,550,000m
topographical image of Kerbin from 0.17.1. The terrain is slenderly different in the latest adaptation. [ 7 ]
An unman probe on scat trajectory, flying past Kerbin, Mün and Minmus
Kerbin ‘s North Pole
A solar eclipse from low Kerbin scope ( LKO ) .
Kerbin as seen from munar eye socket .
Kerbin modified with some texture mods .
Spoiler: Spoiler images
The second plunge site ( presently unused ) .
Kerbin from above with the Runway Easter Egg
Changes
- Added biomes
- Biomes added.
- Terrain revised to produce more detailed and interesting landforms.
- Fixed ladders on the fuel tanks near the launchpad.
- New mesh for the launchpad and area (no launchtower anymore).
- New mesh for the runway, with lights and sloping edges for rovers.
- Terrain overhaul: Entire planet redo. Deserts, darker and greener grass, islands, darker ocean/water, snow capped mountains. Looks more realistic.
- Several Easter Eggs added.
- Airport added to island off of KSC coastline. (Not a launching point)
- Improved atmosphere visuals.
- Much more varied and taller terrain added. Prior to this, some mountain ranges exceeded 600 m in height, but the tallest point was at an altitude of approximately 900 m.
- Terrain overhaul, oceans became wet.
- Atmosphere extended from ~34,500 m to ~69,000 m.
- Initial Release
triviality
Kerbin ‘s continents are derived from libnoise, [ 8 ] a coherent noise generating library, though they have been increasingly modified with time .