Jeb didn't "land" at that earlier part, Martin literally said "what happens if I leave the spacecraft" and the Kerbal was incinerated. And with the rail gun thing he was *only* recording when the Kerbals hit the ground, so it still works.
If she hasn't yet (I say she because i don't want to butcher spelling her name...) she really should watch Martin's main KSP series. It's very entertaining and surprisingly educational.
9:13 Actually, he didn't hit the ground. That puff of smoke you saw? That was his Kerbal disintegrating from being unprotected from the atmosphere at such speeds.
it took me a while to realize this, but Martin actually beat the land speed record pretty early in this video. the irl record might be 1227 kph, but KSP clocks it's speed in meters per second. 1227kph = 341m/s, meaning that yeag v3 was the first craft that beat it, with over 500m/s.
There are three modes in the game: Sandbox, Science, and Career. In Sandbox and Science (Martin is likely playing Sandbox here) Kerbal deaths do not matter as they are simply replaced by new Kerbonauts. It's only in Career mode that Kerbal deaths really matter, as Kerbals have a specialty and can gain XP in their specialty that allows them more abilities related to their job.
Having never played the game, I think the addition of a short tailfin would have gone a long way towards keeping most of those craft going straight, or at least not pinwheeling quite so early and often.
That was his exact issue. Notice that even the jet was unstable because he removed its tail wings, whereas his most successful craft had stabilizing fins on its sides.
Sure, the real good speeds are speeds achieved while the Kerbal wasn't on the ground, but the vehicle was still touching the ground and that's what the rules say.
Depending on the settings if a kerbal dies they are dead for good, and another randomly generated kerbal becomes avaliable for hire. Generally speaking they are expendable though depending on how sadistic you are.
