Minmus

[Ironwatsas]

Yes everyone knows that, but is it 100% mint icecream? Or is it just a delecious icy creamy crust surrounding a dark, spicy, crispy core of madness?

[rodion_herrera]

Minmus is clearly a scoop of delicious mint ice-cream dropped by The Creator at the dawn of time. Honestly, you people and your crackpot theories...

That's what a friend said, that it looked like a scoop of ice cream Personally I think it looks like it's made out of blue-green styrofoam

[Tangle]

While it does look quite a bit like ice cream, I would suggest that it is a huge glob of SCP-447 (see here: http://scp-wiki.wikidot.com/scp-447 ). Don't let dead kerbals touch it.

[Themohawkninja]

Minmus is actually quite logical. It's a large ball of frozen methane and rock. Due to it's small mass, and therefore lack of atmosphere, it's basically Titan but much smaller.

[Sapphire]

So Minmus hides a giant monster? Someone call up Bruce Willis and Aerosmith and get them into a rocket!

[Brotoro]

Minmus is actually quite logical. It's a large ball of frozen methane and rock. Due to it's small mass, and therefore lack of atmosphere, it's basically Titan but much smaller.

It would be nowhere near cold enough around Kerbin for methane to be frozen.

Even water ice is a bit iffy because Minmus lacks an atmosphere. The equilibrium temperature at Kerbin's distance from its sun is probably below the freezing point of water (assuming Kerbin's atmosphere provides it with a greenhouse effect similar to Earth's), and the equilibrium for Minmus will be even lower because all that ice gives it a very high albedo. But it's still close enough to the freezing point of water that the sublimation rate should be pretty high in a vacuum. The Magratheans could fix this, of course.

[mellojoe]

I fully subscribe to the Mint-Crystal idea.

[Themohawkninja]

It would be nowhere near cold enough around Kerbin for methane to be frozen.

Even water ice is a bit iffy because Minmus lacks an atmosphere. The equilibrium temperature at Kerbin's distance from its sun is probably below the freezing point of water (assuming Kerbin's atmosphere provides it with a greenhouse effect similar to Earth's), and the equilibrium for Minmus will be even lower because all that ice gives it a very high albedo. But it's still close enough to the freezing point of water that the sublimation rate should be pretty high in a vacuum. The Magratheans could fix this, of course.

Well, I was quoting the dev that explained Minmus when it came out, and they (I think Harv) said solid methane lakes.

I just looked up the freezing point of methane, and it's -182 C, and the Moon can get to -181 C, so while the lakes would melt, they can also freeze (it's farther out, and therefore less tidal heating, so the lakes may be capable of freezing).

[nitevision92]

Ahh, skeptics~, if it were made of Salt, where is the giant potato chip or french fry planet orbiting it?

There's overwhelming evidence in favor of Minmus being the seed of the harbinger of madness and doom to us all. I mean, it's taught in Kerbin Elementary School!

Anyhow, the prevailing theory of my engineering staff has been "Drill for Kethane NOW!", so once my space stations and orbital probes are re-built from the 0.20 update. I'll begin landing an expedition to Minmus once the rest is out of the way (flag on the mun, rebuilt space station, settlement suits from the rain of spent boosters landing in residential areas, etc).

Also, we should mandate keeping a fleet of

in orbit at all times. Just in case.

Hang on- do updates wipe all your progress? Sorry for OT, just had to ask.

[TheCanadianVendingMachine]

Hang on- do updates wipe all your progress? Sorry for OT, just had to ask.

Not all of them, some do though

[Merinsan]

It would be nowhere near cold enough around Kerbin for methane to be frozen.

Even water ice is a bit iffy because Minmus lacks an atmosphere. The equilibrium temperature at Kerbin's distance from its sun is probably below the freezing point of water (assuming Kerbin's atmosphere provides it with a greenhouse effect similar to Earth's), and the equilibrium for Minmus will be even lower because all that ice gives it a very high albedo. But it's still close enough to the freezing point of water that the sublimation rate should be pretty high in a vacuum. The Magratheans could fix this, of course.

I always thought the lakes of Minmus might be some form of glass - that way they wouldn't evaporate.

Perhaps it was an asteroid with a high silicon content that flew too close to the Sun, before being captured by Kerbin? The silicon melted to form lakes, which then solidified in the troughs, leaving the hills of blue/green stuff (copper and/or something else?) exposed.

I'm currently waiting for the Devs to implement a new action for Kerbals when you right click them:

- Plant Flag

- Lick surface

Once that is done, I shall test the theory of whether or not it is mint icecream or salt.

[SuperWeegee4000]

Was it Scott Manley who theorized Minmus was salt?

[Flixxbeatz]

TVTropes said it better:

[M5000]

I like the thought of Minmus having heavy Copper deposits on the surface. Maybe at one point in the distant past, it had a medium-thick atmosphere of Oxygen and possibly high humidity levels. The Copper reacted with the air to give the color, while at the same time sucking the atmosphere dry, as it would then act as a desiccant. It could possibly be a captured body from closer in, where long ago when the system was being formed, the higher gravity near the middle allowed for the formation of heavy elements like Copper. If Eve and the Kerbin system were to align just right, plus the power of Jool behind them, it could easily be captured around any one of them as it's pulled out of the center of the early Kerbol system, though it happened to be Kerbin that captured Minmus.

Edited June 21, 2013 by M5000

[Astrobug]

-snip-

- Plant Flag

- Lick surface

Once that is done, I shall test the theory of whether or not it is mint icecream or salt.

Tread carefully here, were dealing with an unknown substance.

Who's to say it isn't wasabi paste?

[Odo]

It's made of mint icecream. Everyone knows that.

[Echostatic]

all that ice gives it a very high albedo.

How is it that the very first time I run across this word is today, when playing Sim Earth for the first time, only to immediately afterwards run into it again here?

[Hedd]

Roll your sanity check. /1d20

[_Aramchek_]

Roll your sanity check. /1d20

OT, but a former friend of mine and I survived a p&p CoC campaign, our two characters out of ten initially...I was so proud to have done it. Thing go bad so quickly in that game. :lol

[KSK]

I always thought the lakes of Minmus might be some form of glass - that way they wouldn't evaporate.

Perhaps it was an asteroid with a high silicon content that flew too close to the Sun, before being captured by Kerbin? The silicon melted to form lakes, which then solidified in the troughs, leaving the hills of blue/green stuff (copper and/or something else?)

The Blue Lagoon in Iceland is rich in silica minerals apparently and can have a very Minmus like colouring (do an image search for it). So silica content is my preferred boring explanation. I'm secretly hoping that its actually an egg of Great A'Tuin and that one day (possibly to mark a significant KSP anniversary or milestone) it will hatch and the Kerbol system will include a cute little star turtle complete with proto Discworld to explore.

[_Aramchek_]

My boring explanation is that it's a game and that "fun" takes precedence over absolute realism.

[Brotoro]

Different people have fun in different ways.

[Scotius]

For the purpose of giving my emerging space empire a nice, early boost i presume Minmus is an ice body. In the future it will look like an industrial Death Star - covered in mines, refineries, warehouses and factories cranking out spaceships, parts and fuel on demand

[Akalaël]

Tread carefully here, were dealing with an unknown substance.

Who's to say it isn't wasabi paste?

True, Minmus definitively could be a giant peanut covered of wasabi !

[The Jedi Master]

I always believed that Minmus was a comet that strayed into Kerbin's SOI and was captured. It's the most logical explanation, I think. It happened to Mars, I'm sure it can happen to Earth-like planets.