[minor] Why is Minmus Frozen?

[Commander Zoom]

Considering the irregularity of its surface, its distance from Kerbin, and the tilt of its orbit, I\'m inclined (heh) like others to suspect that Minmus is a captured body from the outer system - a comet head or icy asteroid. Probably relatively recent, in geologic time if not in Kerbal time - heck, if HarvesteR and/or Silisko choose to write it this way, maybe that\'s why it didn\'t show up until version 15.

What this means is that, in its current orbit in the habitable zone, it probably is melting, sublimating and/or outgassing, but may take a while to form even a trace atmosphere - especially since most of that atmosphere will almost immediately escape its weak gravity.

[Misterspork]

Not really an issue, even in the slightest. It\'s out in deep space, and tiny as all get out. It\'s frozen, so there ya go.

Well, actually Damion, it\'s not really in deep space. The distance from Kerbin to Minmus is minute compared to the distance from say, Kerbin to a Pluto analog.

It pretty much can be considered the same distance from Kerbol as Kerbin, because the variation from its orbit is negligible.

Size shouldn\'t matter as well, at least not much really.

I have to say though, those ice-lakes are really convenient even if they\'re hard to explain .

[Khrissetti]

I believe this works if you have access to a say 40ft deep drilled well that you can stand in the bottom of. The idea being that its narrow and tall enough that the refracted light can\'t reach your eyes at the bottom of the hole, so you only see the light sources that are in direct line of sight. Obviously would work a lot better when the sun is closer to the horizon.

Not sure if you can actually see stars doing this, but it is supposed to turn the sky black.

http://www.snopes.com/science/well.asp

That\'s not the real photo, by the way. That has been edited...

Google any of the Apollo landings, or indeed any space picture which has a source of glare (The Sun, Earth, the Moon) in it and you\'ll see the same effects. for the camera to be sensitive enough to pick out the stars, all the glare sources would be, at best washed out, at worst they would simply make the photo white.

KSP seems to be simulating this effect.

Also, I like Cmmr Zoom\'s answer to the Minmus quandry.