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Do you land on The Mun or do you land on Mun?


SiliconPyro

Do you land on The Mun or do you land on Mun?  

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  1. 1. Do you land on The Mun or do you land on Mun?

    • I land on The Mun.
      170
    • I land on Mun.
      46
    • I use them interchangeably.
      36
    • I just crash into things.
      28


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Grammatically speaking, you would land on Mun. Mun is a moon of Kerbin. This point is highlighted by the fact that Kerbin has more than one moon. I mean, you wouldn't land on "The Kerbin" so why would you land on "The Mun?"

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Grammatically speaking, you would land on Mun. Mun is a moon of Kerbin. This point is highlighted by the fact that Kerbin has more than one moon. I mean, you wouldn't land on "The Kerbin" so why would you land on "The Mun?"

Same reason as we land on The Moon, not Moon, it's the official name. (http://www.fromquarkstoquasars.com/the-moons-real-name-and-others-too/) This was the name even when it's appeared that Earth has more than one moon (note capitalisation, or rather lack thereof, for generic moons).

So in the Kerbal universe the Mun's name may well be 'The Mun', and so Jeb and co. land on the Mun but can also perform Mun landings. All correct grammatically with the assumption Kerbin's naming conventions mirror Earths :)

Of course it matters not one jot really, anyone of us could happily refer to the Mun as, oh let's be silly, 'Jeff', and that works fine for them. "Kerbin, we have landed on the surface of the Jeff."

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Grammatically speaking, you would land on Mun. Mun is a moon of Kerbin. This point is highlighted by the fact that Kerbin has more than one moon. I mean, you wouldn't land on "The Kerbin" so why would you land on "The Mun?"

In the same way that you wouldn't go to the UK in the same way you wouldn't go to the France?

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In the same way that you wouldn't go to the UK in the same way you wouldn't go to the France?

Yeah I'm not sure this argument really works. I mean there were many kingdoms on earth, some of them united and some independent. The only reason you use the definite article in the case of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, is to distinguish it from all the other ones, and the same applies in my opinion to earth's moon. The fact that the IAU made a definite article part of a proper name is fine, but really whether you capitalise "Moon" or not, adding "the" in front of it makes it clear that you're talking about a particular moon. I'm almost positive that if Earth had two natural satellites, clearly visible with the naked eye from the beginning of civilisation, then no one would use definite articles in front of the names. The whole deal with "The Moon" is just an etymological curiosity because our moon is the only one orbiting us, much in the same way that we're orbiting the only star in our system.

For this reason I land on Mun.

I also say "moonar" instead of "lunar" when referring to all moons and I say "Munar", when referring to Mun, and Minar when referring to Minmus.

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Just crash into it... It's all the same..

If we can nominate "That's what a Kerbal would say" quotes... I nominate this one.

Anyway, I just say "Mun". Its what the Kerbals calls it, so that's what I'll call it. Mun (the fancy ü requires too much intervention to use on a regular basis)... "Alt + 0252" for those that don't know.

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Grammatically speaking, you would land on Mun. Mun is a moon of Kerbin. This point is highlighted by the fact that Kerbin has more than one moon. I mean, you wouldn't land on "The Kerbin" so why would you land on "The Mun?"

Exactly. Mun is not the Moon. It doesn't deserve an article.

I even pronounce it with short U to distinguish it from the Moon.

Long live grammar! :)

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You can't really call it "the Mun" because - assuming "mun" is a generic name for a moon in Kerbese - Mun is not the only mun of Kerbin. So you'd have to call it "A mun" or "The grey mun" or "The bigger mun" or whatnot.

Or just call it "Mun" and be done with it :)

(Note, as a Human from Earth who has grown up saying "the moon" I call it "the Mun" as well. But I still think it's not the way a Kerbal would say it if they spoke English)

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You can't really call it "the Mun" because - assuming "mun" is a generic name for a moon in Kerbese - Mun is not the only mun of Kerbin. So you'd have to call it "A mun" or "The grey mun" or "The bigger mun" or whatnot.

Or just call it "Mun" and be done with it :)

(Note, as a Human from Earth who has grown up saying "the moon" I call it "the Mun" as well. But I still think it's not the way a Kerbal would say it if they spoke English)

Ahh - but Minmus is pretty small and far away. It probably took kerbal astronomers a while to find it. In the meantime they only knew about the one mun (around Kerbin at least), hence they just called it "the Mun".

[/handwave]

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I'm almost positive that if Earth had two natural satellites, clearly visible with the naked eye from the beginning of civilisation, then no one would use definite articles in front of the names. The whole deal with "The Moon" is just an etymological curiosity because our moon is the only one orbiting us, much in the same way that we're orbiting the only star in our system.
If they were like the Mun and Minmus, I think we would. The Moon from Earth, and the Mun from Kerbin, both look unique in the pre-telescopic era. They get the definite article because there seems to only be one of them. Minmus, on the other hand, looks like a planet - a bright point of light that moves around compared to the stars.

If there was only one naked-eye star in the night sky, I expect we'd call it "the Star", even when we discovered other stars through our telescopes.

As for KSP, I say "the Mun" largely to be understandable by people who aren't familiar with the game. If I mention Minmus, I'll just say it's Kerbin's second moon.

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Since Mun is never refered to as The Mun in-game, I assume that the Kerbals use the word moon (i.e. Mun is a moon of Kerbin, Laythe is a moon of Jool).
I just noticed this is incorrect. The Tracking Station lists my ship as "Orbiting the Mun". In other situations, such as when you tab through the objects or check the Sphere of Influence in the Vessel info panel, it does just use "Mun", and of course the title screen features "Mün or bust" on the rocket.

12997433585_bc99c80ebe_b.jpg

I'd interpret this as meaning that at the moment, "the Mun" is grammatically correct in normal writing, with "Mun" used for brevity or colloquial speech.

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Minmus is 120km wide (60km radius) and 46,400km away when overhead (47,000km minus Kerbin's 600km radius), which means it'd be about 0.15 Degrees or about 9 arc minutes or between 1/3 and 1/4 the size of our "The Moon" in their sky.

I think they'd find that significant :)

Edited by 5thHorseman
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I just noticed this is incorrect. The Tracking Station lists my ship as "Orbiting the Mun". In other situations, such as when you tab through the objects or check the Sphere of Influence in the Vessel info panel, it does just use "Mun", and of course the title screen features "Mün or bust" on the rocket.

http://farm4.staticflickr.com/3228/12997433585_bc99c80ebe_b.jpg

I'd interpret this as meaning that at the moment, "the Mun" is grammatically correct in normal writing, with "Mun" used for brevity or colloquial speech.

It seems the devs can't make up their mind which way it should be, either! :D

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I refer to it as "the Mun", and like to think that "moon" in Kerbal is just "mun". And, similarly to how the proper name of "the Moon" is "Luna" (among others), I like to think that the proper name of the Mun is "Loona".

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Minmus is 120km wide (60km radius) and 46,400km away when overhead (47,000km minus Kerbin's 600km radius), which means it'd be about 0.15 Degrees or about 9 arc minutes or between 1/3 and 1/4 the size of our "The Moon" in their sky.

I think they'd find that significant :)

Fair point. Although the Mun appears 1.9 degrees across from Kerbin, making Minmus comparatively smaller, Minmus would still be definitely non-stellar. Jool, by contrast, would be 47 arc seconds across max, compartable to Jupiter from Earth.

Making me wonder why Minmus just a dot in the game when you're on Kerbin. Is it the "real" Minmus being rendered, or is it "faked".

(On a sidenote, the Mun from Kerbin appears the same size as the Earth from the Moon.)

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Fair point. Although the Mun appears 1.9 degrees across from Kerbin, making Minmus comparatively smaller, Minmus would still be definitely non-stellar. Jool, by contrast, would be 47 arc seconds across max, compartable to Jupiter from Earth.

Making me wonder why Minmus just a dot in the game when you're on Kerbin. Is it the "real" Minmus being rendered, or is it "faked".

(On a sidenote, the Mun from Kerbin appears the same size as the Earth from the Moon.)

Based on a picture I found on the internet, Mun appears to be 30ish pixels in a 1280x800 picture which is about 720p. 1080p would be 45 pixels.

1.9 degrees for 45 pixels is .042 degrees per pixel. So on a 1080p monitor Minmus should be .15 degrees or 3.5 pixels wide. I think you could argue that that "dot" you see, which is actually not a single pixle, is an accurate representation of the moon.

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