From Kerbal Space Program Wiki

For the species of Kerbin, see Kerbal

Kerbonaut with helmet removed (promo image)

A kerbonaut is a Kerbal that has been trained as an astronaut. Kerbonauts are capable of operating assorted vehicles, can perform science experiments, and have a limited ability to perform repairs.

The term kerbonaut is a fan-made term that was created by replacing the root astro- or cosmo- from astronaut or cosmonaut with kerbo-, and is not seen in-game; rather, they are referred to as astronauts; however, the Experiment Storage Unit's description uses the term "kerbalnaut", and Harvester used the term kerbonaut in a developer's note.[1] The commonality of its use by fans mirrors the real-world prevalence of nation-specific terms for space travelers.

Abilities

A kerbonaut on EVA

EVA/IVA

Kerbonauts can be directly controlled when on EVA, where they wear a spacesuit and can collect EVA reports and surface samples. The spacesuit includes an RCS jetpack, which allows tri-axial maneuvering while in space, and flight on planets with low gravity. Kerbonauts on EVA can be killed by hitting objects at a high velocity.[2]. As of 1.6 Kerbals may now remove helmets and neck rings on planets with a breathable atmosphere though by doing so the Kerbal will be more susceptible to damage and will also die if oxygen is deprived. In addition, even when the 'Ignore Max Temperature' cheat is enabled, removing a Kerbonaut's helmet, while they are in the immediate vicinity of the blast of any engine that produces significant heat (most often rocket engines), will near-instantly kill them; that is, assuming that they are also in an EAS-1 External Command Seat with the 'Unbreakable Joints' cheat enabled as well. If not, they will probably be thrown out of the blast zone by the engine itself before they die.

When inside of a crewable part, [3] kerbonauts can perform crew reports.

Level 1 kerbals (or level 0 pilots) can use a personal parachute to land safely by themselves on atmospheric bodies.

Kerbals with and without helmets

Experience and skill

→ Main article: Experience

Kerbonauts each have one of three specializations and can gain experience in them by going on missions. The skills include pilots, who can provide better SAS control, scientists, who can restore experiments and process additional science, and engineers, who can fix or restore certain parts and increase the efficiency of resource harvesters and converters.

Science container

Any kerbal can store experiments while in EVA. The two only restrictions are that only a scientist can perform experiments during an EVA (and reset modules such as the mystery goo and the science Jr.), and a kerbal cannot store twice the same experiment/situation/biome triplet.

The science is transfered to any command pod they enter, so don't forget to right-click on a command pod to retrieve stored expriments when going to EVA to another ship for example.

Management

The Astronaut Complex provides centralized status listing of all hired crew and the hiring of new kerbonauts. The surname of every kerbonaut, and of every known Kerbal, is "Kerman". Aside from the orange suits, each kerbonaut has a random first name. Each kerbonaut also has randomized personality traits.

Personality

Personality traits determine how a kerbonaut behaves in various flight conditions. Each kerbonaut has a random value of two personality attributes—Courage and Stupidity—that are displayed in-game. These traits affect the displayed facial expressions and gestures seen in IVA portraits and EVA, and range from delight to fear. These emotions have no effect on flight performance or Science results[outdated], and serve purely as flavor. There is a 10% chance they may also have the hidden "BadS" (an abbreviation of "badass") flag, which imposes total ignorance of both Courage and Stupidity and forces delight in nearly all situations excluding nearby explosions.

There is a bug regarding Courage (but not Stupidity) in version 0.23.5, where courage values in the info screen in both the Tracking Station and Orbital Map are inverted from those displayed in the Astronaut Complex.

Experiments in version 0.23 using non-badass kerbonauts modified to the four possible combinations of extreme Courage and Stupidity ([1, 1], [1, 0], [0, 0], [0, 1]) revealed that Courage does not control fearful behavior. Both of the Stupid kerbonauts were blissfully ignorant in the face of danger. Meanwhile, the non-Stupid ones both displayed equal fear of accelerating in any rocket built by KSC engineers, and displayed this at exactly the same time despite having opposite levels of Courage from each other. Subsequent tests with 0.75/0.25 combinations showed an uptick in fear in the more Stupid subjects, indicating that the natural outcome of awareness is dread.

The badS flag, however, negates all fear regardless of Courage or Stupidity, pushing the kerbonaut toward a happy state which only the most blatantly impending catastrophe can dim.

"Orange Suited Kerbonauts"

Every new game begins with four kerbonauts on the roster in the following order; Jebediah Kerman, Bill Kerman, Bob Kerman, and Valentina Kerman. While all other kerbonauts have randomly generated names and stats, these four remain persistent through all save games. Their presence at the top of the list means that, when available, they have a much greater likelihood of being aboard any given vessel than any other kerbonaut.

These are the only “veteran” kerbonauts in Kerbal Space Program, designated by orange IVA suits and icons in crew interfaces; everything else is visually identical to all kerbonauts. In some of the game's loading screens, three orange suited kerbonauts (presumably Jeb, Bill, and Bob) have helmets with orange stripes though no such helmet is seen in-game – IVA helmets have grey stripes and EVA have red.

They are, arguably, the "faces" of Kerbal Space Program.

Naming

The term kerbonaut is a fan-made term and is not used in-game. The in-game building for hiring crew is named the Astronaut Complex and is presumably the official term, with only one known instance of a developer using kerbonaut[1], and the Experiment Storage Unit referring to them as Kerbalnauts.

The commonality of the term kerbonaut by fans mirrors the real-world prevalence of nation-specific terms for space travelers. For example, "astronaut" and "cosmonaut" refer principally to American and Russian space travelers, respectively.