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What is Minmus made of?


robocop

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Deimos has a nearly perfectly circular orbit, and Deimos isn't far off either. My guess is that the orbit gradually circularizes over time.

The inclination of Minmus certainly suggests captured comet, but there aren't any real world materials that would make any sense. Water ice would be long gone before the orbit had a chance to circularize, which it evidently has (so Minmus has to have been there a good long while, it's not like a second moon just suddenly appeared in the sky and sparked the Kerbal's obsession with space exploration).

It's also far too small to have ever possessed any sort of an atmosphere, let alone one that could support life.

The seas are a bit of a mystery. Maybe it's some sort of silica material with various trace minerals in fairly high abundance? That could give it a green color. Silica is a fairly common material and found in many bodies, and can form glass when heated. Maybe Minmus passed quite close to Kerbol a number of times, leaving several large portions that were facing Kerbol melted to a smooth glassy surface?

Edited by Enorats
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My idea is that it's a ball of mint ice cream that partially melted (forming the lake beds) and freeze-dried from the vacuum. The surface doesn't taste good because of *mumble mumble* solar radiation *mumble mumble*.

It doesn't matter what it's made of though, that doesn't stop it from being my favorite celestial body!

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Like all rocky bodies in KSP, it has oxygen, hydrogen, and possibly (but unlikely) some carbon or nitrogen. It also has some sort of dark matter core. We know this because of the ISRU system and the density of kerbal planets. Seems to suggest that every rocky body, not just Minmus, has water in some form under its surface. The reason for this is a mystery.

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I think that it may be a type of mint ice cream, with the plains and the hills representing different variations of the flavor. However, the ice cream is super-chilled to the point where it is rock hard and will need to be thawed before eating. This would also explain why you can't dent the surface while crashing into it. This particular variety of mint ice cream is edible in raw form, but also can be purified into inedible rocket fuel, explaining why you can mine it and use it for fuel.

If Minmus actually is mint ice cream, then if life support is added, Minmus should provide plenty of food, but maybe Kerbals who ate a lot of it would walk slower, or something.

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I think Minmus is an irregular shaped moon orbiting Kerbin, it is made of oxygen, hydrogen and nitrogen which makes the ice and the snow from the Big Bang's leftovers - {snow and ice}. It stays cold because it's always on the dark side of Kerbin. Even though I told the kerbals Minmus is made of ice-cream.

Edited by KerbalSpace
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10 hours ago, Skorpychan said:

I like the Microcline theory, but that's because Dwarf Fortress has drilled the idea into me that microcline = cyan.

Otherwise, it's a ball of chewing gum.

It's adamantine, silly! Don't tell me you don't see the connection between the Kraken and HFS. :-P
 

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22 hours ago, KerbalSpace said:

I think Minmus is an irregular shaped moon orbiting Kerbin, it is made of oxygen, hydrogen and nitrogen which makes the ice and the snow from the Big Bang's leftovers - {snow and ice}. It stays cold because it's always on the dark side of Kerbin. Even though I told the kerbals Minmus is made of ice-cream.

That's not possible, it's not in a Langarage point orbit.

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Actually giant captured comet is entirely feasible, the albedo of the surface makes its temperature -50 so it's going to be predominantly water ice with some small amounts of salts to give it that minty blue color and slow any sublimation that might still exist.

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Ok it's mint ice-cream but, why haven't they sent a mission to collect it and bring it to Kerbin. Then Señor Fatso (Mr. Ftopånclom Dåpt) can eat it while he works in mission control.

 

 

Edited by KerbalSpace
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  • 2 weeks later...

Since my captured comet theory is incorrect, I will just assume that Minmus is in fact made out of mint astronaut ice cream!

I've sent a mission where I would have Jeb collect some samples of Minmus' regolith and taste test it. So, I was essentially letting Jeb slack off as part of his job for this mission. And I told him, "NO BUZZING THE TOWER UPON RETURNING THE ROCKET!!!"

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You see, samples of Minmus revealed a mixture of water, salts, and compounds never before observed in a lab. Scientists believe Minmus was created in an undiscovered region of space, far beyond the fourth wall, that they have dubbed "SQUAD".

According to Werhner Von Kerman, "In SQUAD, zhey also added zhe minty flavor so ve vould have a reason to explore zhere." When asked who "they" were, Werhner screamed and ran out of the R&D building. He hasn't been seen since.

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2 minutes ago, Choctofliatrio2.0 said:

Ah, yes. My mistake. As animal life is limited on Kerbin, the Kerbals have little experience with dairy. Their snacks are made from plants and rocket fuel.

The definition of animal life can be stretched.

As a middleaged person with vegetarian and vegan offspring the concept of microbial life involved in stuff like cheese and beer can lead to heated discussions ...

 

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1 minute ago, Curveball Anders said:

The definition of animal life can be stretched.

As a middleaged person with vegetarian and vegan offspring the concept of microbial life involved in stuff like cheese and beer can lead to heated discussions ...

 

Oh man... I never even thought of microorganisms XD

I'm betting the Kerbals don't eat the birds around the KSC, because they're scary and Kerbals don't understand how they can fly without rocket fuel.

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1 minute ago, Choctofliatrio2.0 said:

Oh man... I never even thought of microorganisms XD

I'm betting the Kerbals don't eat the birds around the KSC, because they're scary and Kerbals don't understand how they can fly without rocket fuel.

Birds, and bird droppings, can be metabolised to combustional carbohydrates (by microorganisms).

So yes, dead birds, and their droppings, can be used as rocket fuel, in a green way :wink:

 

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