The Kerbal Player's Guide

Chapter 5. The Worlds of Kerbal Space Program

The universe of Kerbal Space Program is large and filled with planets. It also has a few people in it. In this chapter, we’ll introduce you to both.

Meet the Kerbals

The heroes and heroines of your space program, the Kerbals, are googly-eyed little green people who will soon be off and about, exploring, mining, and researching their way across the solar system.

Each Kerbal (or Kerbonaut) you recruit has a few different attributes: a name to help you tell them apart, a specialization to give them a role, and two different personality values—courage and stupidity.

Your brave Kerbonauts can have one of three different specializations, which can give you some direction about how you might want use them:

Pilots

As the name implies, these are the Kerbonauts who pilot your ships. If you don’t have a pilot on board, your craft will rely on the ship’s communications system in order to fly (refer back to “Communications” for more information).

Engineers

These Kerbals are the fixers; your engineers can fix damage on your ships, fold up parachutes for reuse, and improve how much ore you get from mining operations.

Scientists

Scientist Kerbals will help you get the most out of your research endeavors. Sending a scientist along for the ride ensures you will be able to get more science points from your experiments.

Tip

If your spacecraft does not have a pilot aboard, and it does not have a communications link back to the Kerbal Space Center, ...