MinimalMinmus

Arguably, as the four little guys indeed look like kerbals, maybe the precursors were kerbals too? 'Cause I can pretty much distinguish a big head with big eyes on the 3rd one.

Remember: the unofficial motto of this game is "Mod it 'till it crashes". Edit: This is where I got my 100th rep point! w00t!

They are possibly recent: if Eve has one asteroid mun, how about two?

Moho Moho (from Moh –scorching-) is the first planet of the Kerbolar system, and the smallest not to be considered to be dwarf, hence excluding Dres and Plock / Karen. Discovery: While Moho was observed accidentally on numerous occasions during the classical era, its irregular orbit prevented its unambiguous identification as a planet and not as another type of celestial body, such as a small meteor or a comet, by classical astronomers. Indeed, Moho is almost completely invisible to the naked eye while close to Kerbol (at perikerbion), and is difficult to observe even at akerbion. It wasn’t until the year 201 that Lyptome catalogued Moho’s motion in the sky, and was able to predict its next appearance. As a result, Moho was originally referred to as Lyptome’s planet before the name gradually fell into disuse in favour of a more formal one. The next breakthrough in Moho’s exploration was made by the probes Osmium I and II, both launched in 1769. Originally, the Moho program would only contain Osmium I, but it was discovered once in Kerbian orbit that one of the main hydrogen tanks of the probe’s transfer stage was leaking and was therefore unusable. To save the probe with a reduced delta-V budget, mission control was forced to ditch its rover and its communication microsatellites before braking into Moho’s orbit. As the transfer window wasn’t over when the leak was discovered, Osmium I’s sister probe was immediately launched, after being stripped of some of its redundant sensors, and immediately sent towards Moho. The transfer was successful, but even then the delta-V budget came short. Famously, when the rocket-propelled rover reached the surface, less than 1% of its fuel was remaining, enough for an estimated 16 ms-1 delta-V. The rover, called Pyrite, proceeded to navigate Moho south to north over the course of eight years, making it exceptionally long lived for a rover. It finally shut down in 1778 due to a radiation failure linked to Kerbolar high energy ultraviolet rays. Observation: Moho is considered to be very hard to spot in the sky. Its moment of visibility come typically right after dusk or right before dawn, during which it appears as a pale beige spot with a magnitude of typically +1, under good conditions. While it can reach magnitudes of up to -0.5, this occurs whilst Moho is behind Kerbol, making it impossible to observe. The ideal parameters for an observation of Moho are: 1. Moho is as close to akerbion as possible 2. Kerbin is neither close to Kerbol nor Moho Transits: Sometimes, when Kerbin, Moho and Kerbol are well aligned, a transit occurs. A transit can be up to four hours long and during it, Moho appears on Kerbol as a small black dot. The observed diameter of Moho can vary by up to 100% depending on its orbital position. Transits of Moho are relatively frequent, despite the planet’s elliptical orbit not being coplanar with Kerbin’s, due to Moho’s short “year”. Approximately, one transit is observed every nine years. The last one happened on the 45th day of the year 1806, and the next one will take place on the 174th day of the year 1815. Transits of Moho are visible from every planet of the Kerbolar system. However, they become rarer and rarer the further from Kerbol the “observing” planet is: from Eve, a transit is seen every five years, but from Neidon, they are more than a millenium apart. Surface features: Moho has four large impact basins, or “Lowlands”. They were formed by various collisions with comets coming close to Kerbol. Their age varies from 900 million years approximately for the youngest, the South Eastern Lowlands, to 3 billion years for the oldest, the Central lowlands. Several non-meteoritic craters exist on Moho. They are thought to be the calderas of old Mohovian volcanoes. The collapse of the magmatic chamber of such volcanoes can create sinkholes, some several kilometers deep. The best-known of these sinkholes, as well as largest and first discovered, is the “Northern Sinkhole”, or “Mohole”, on the North Pole. Its origin probably traces from an ancient supervolcano, or possibly a core flare back to the time Moho still had a partially fluid mantle. The sinkhole itself is four kilometers deep, and seems to be carved into a basalt-like rock. Its ridges are surprisingly jagged, suggesting that some of the hole collapsed recently. Contrary to popular belief until the arrival of the Osmium probes, Moho isn’t tidally locked with Kerbol: instead it very slowly spins in a 3/2 motion, causing the Mohovian day to be longer than its year. As such Moho has the highest temperature gradient of the whole Kerbolar system: Daytime can reach as high as 700 K, whilst nighttime temperatures plummet as low as 100K. In popular culture: Moho is sometimes seen in science-fiction, yet not as commonly as most other planets. Among others, Moho is where the first novel of the Robot Cycle takes place. Exploration: Moho is considered a very unlikely target for kerballed exploration, as the fuel budget needed for a round trip to Moho and back is too high without using, at the very least, a gravity assist from Eve, which makes the mission only possible at very specific times. An unkerballed mission is however considered possible. The main difficulty comes from Moho’s proximity to Kerbol, the resulting temperatures and radiation levels being capable of frying some of the more fragile electronics. For this reason, it has been proposed to only explore Moho’s night side. In effect a roving vehicle would track Moho’s rotation thus slowly covering as much of the planet’s surface as possible before failing.

AFAIK, Iapetus has two colors not because of a collision, but because of the uneven destruction of its ice between the dark Cassini regio, on which it sublimates quickly, and the light Ronceveaux Terra, in which it sublimates much less. Here, this is not the case, because unlike Iapetus, Dres has a fast rotation period (It's 45 days versus 36 hours)

Yes, I am late... Ike know, right? Ike Ike (from Ikel -goddess of friendship, and Dun’s consort-) is Duna’s only natural satellite. Discovery: While not a “classical planet” due to being a mun, Ike has been known for as long as Duna. The presence of two visibly linked but errant bodies in the sky strongly affected kerbal mythology in the past, with Duna and Ike often being portrayed as a pair of brothers, a couple, or as rivals. Ike’s features or even appearance were largely unknown until Pelkre Kerman undertook an in-depth observation of its surface features in 1598, revealing its mountain ranges. The exploration of Ike was the principal objective of the Rubidium II probe, which was equipped with an Ike lander in addition to a rover for Duna. Unfortunately the probe was lost due to a miscalculation during its braking fly-by of Ike, causing it to crash into the mun. However, the much more successful Rubidium IV reached Ike in 1779, and was able to land the rover Galena. Galena explored the surface of Ike for more than ten years, transmitting a wealth of scientific data in the process, before progressively shutting down due to electronic failures. In the summer of the year 1796, an asteroid named A-Y1795-D145-N1 briefly entered a polar orbit around Ike, and was given the nickname “magic boulder”. However, the asteroid’s orbit was repeatedly perturbed by by Duna’s gravitational field and it eventually crashed into Ike. A-Y1795-D145-N1 is nevertheless the only other example, save for Wal’s mun Tal, of a natural subsatellite. Observation: When Ike is visible, preferably when the angle between Kerbin, Duna and Ike is 90°, it appears as a dim spot with a magnitude of +1. Over the course of its 3 day rotational period, Ike progressively dims as it approaches the much brighter Duna. The luminosity of the Duna-Ike system constantly varies due to the unevenness of Ike’s albedo, but over the course of one period, four large drops in luminosity are observed: 1: When Ike’s umbra sweeps Duna, a Dunian / Kerbolar eclipse occurs, causing Duna to appear dimmer due to its partially obstructed surface. With a telescope, Ike’s umbra becomes visible. 2: When Ike passes between Kerbin and Duna, a Dunian / Kerbian eclipse occurs. During the eclipse, Duna gets very noticeably dimmer as Ike reflects much less light than Duna. The two bodies can only be distinguished by telescope. 3. When Ike enters Duna’s umbra, an Ikal / Kerbolar eclipse occurs, causing Ike to rapidly become almost invisible. With a telescope, it is possible to see Ike reddening before turning completely red, an effect similar to a Munar eclipse. 4. Finally, when Ike passes behind Duna, an Ikal / Kerbian eclipse occurs. Origins: Just like Kerbin and the Mun, Duna and Ike were formed together at the dawn of the Kerbolar system. Unlike the Kerbin-Mun system however, Duna and Ike are tidally locked. It has been estimated that Ike became locked with Duna approximately 3 billion years ago and Duna with Ike approximately 500 million years ago. Ike’s surface’s origin is mostly basaltic: it appears that Ike suffered at least one massive impact in it’s youth, with an asteroid at least the size of Hale. The impact caused a large part of Ike’s surface to melt, forming the basalt plains we know today. Then, over the years, Ike was impacted by several hundred minor asteroids. It has been theorized that these were ejected from the thinning Drerian Belt, 3.8 billion years ago. Unlike Duna, Ike has no way to remove the older impacts, and because it was already geologically dead at the time of the impacts, the resulting craters have stayed unaltered since then. Exploration: Thanks to its small size and gravity, as well as richness in metals, Ike is a seriously considered side-target for a Duna mission: While a Dunian base would be able to get the water Ike lacks, an Ikal base would be able to send materials to interplanetary space with little effort. However, such a base wouldn’t be without drawbacks: most notably, Duna’s magnetosphere offers almost no protection to Ike against harmful Kerbolar particles. This means an Ikal base would need a way to shield itself, for example by being built partially buried in Ike’s regolith.

Being a big fan of unnecessary complexity, I sent one probe with 6 microsats for both at once.

To me, Ike is still clear for a microsat-with-RA2 commnet, so no big deal. I set up one on Duna and Ike without difficulty. Because Dunastationnary orbit (which is almost exactly Ike's) hasn't many purposes, does it?

Dun-Dun-Dun(a)! Duna Duna (from Dun –god of boldness-) is the fourth planet of the Kerbolar system, and the sixth in size, not counting the muns Tylo, Laythe, Slate and Wal, making it the thirteenth biggest object in the Kerbolar system. Discovery: Duna, along with Eve, Jool, and Sarnus, is one of the four classical planets. Its mun Ike has also been known since the classical period, making it the first mun outside of the Mun and Minmus to have been discovered with the naked eye. Duna’s thin atmosphere was discovered in 1763 by the probe Rubidium I. Its sweep of the “red planet” gave the first high-quality picture of Duna, as well as the first landing on Duna by Cinnabar I, its lander. After Rubidium II was lost due to a trajectory miscalculation during its planned Ike fly-by, Rubidium III’s mission resulted in the first landing of a rover on Duna, known as “Hematite”. Hematite stayed online for five Dunian years before failing due to a dust storm covering its solar panels. Atmosphere: Duna has a thin but noticeable atmosphere, with a sea level pressure 0,068 times that of Kerbin’s. It seems to be almost entirely be made of carbon dioxide, with some significant traces of methane. Dunian clouds are rare, and the preeminent atmospheric features of Duna are its frequent dust storms. Those storms generally form around the equator before rising to higher latitudes, and are known for having winds in excess of than 50 m/s, or 180 km/h. Famously, because of the significant amount of surface regolith and dust these storms carry, one was able to cover the solar panels of the rover Hematite, dooming it to shut down after the batteries ran out six days later. Observation: Duna’s apparent magnitude can go up to -3, tying it with Eve for the fourth brightest object in the sky. On clear nights, it appears as a red dot with a distinctive hue. With a telescope, more features appear, most notably the two white poles of Duna. As Duna orbits Kerbol more slowly than Kerbin, the latter sometimes overtakes Duna on its orbit. Observations, and eventual predictions, of Duna’s retrograde motion across the sky were key to establishing the kerbolcentric model of cosmology and marked the beginning of the end for the Kerbicentric model, which eventually fell into disuse around the year 300. Magnetosphere: Duna has been confirmed by Rubidium III to have a vestigial magnetic field, with a surface strength of 7-8 microteslas. It is thought to be generated by Duna’s core; it would be entirely solidified, having cooled entirely due to Duna’s small size, but could still generate a weak magnetic field. This magnetic field isn’t powerful enough to fully protect Duna’s surface from cosmic rays, forcing any possible expeditions on Duna to bring extra shielding against Kerbolar radiation. Kerbiformation: Duna is one of the preferred targets for a possible Kerbiformation, the other being Laythe. The first step for such an endeavor would be to add powerful greenhouse gases to Duna’s atmosphere. This could be done by mining fluorite –Duna seems to be rather rich in fluorite- and transforming the fluorite into tetrafluoromethane, a potent but non-toxic greenhouse gas. This would cause Duna to heat up, and its poles to partially melt. Some additional process to thicken the atmosphere will also be required. If Dunian geology is rich in carbonates, then these could be heated to release carbon dioxide. Once Duna’s surface temperature is high enough to support plant life, biosphere construction can begin. Hardy cyanobacteria are likely to be the living organisms to be introduced, followed successively by algae, grasses and then higher plants, once sufficient surface water is present. Photosynthetic conversion of carbon dioxide to oxygen will then eventually produce a thin but breathable atmosphere for animal life and colonists. It has been estimated such a process would take approximately a millennium starting from a near-future technological base. Surface features: The best known of Duna’s features is the “Midland Sea”. The Midland Sea is a gigantic canyons and valleys complex stretching around Duna’s equator for almost 10,000 kilometers. It has a varying width, ranging from 50 km to 1,000 km, and a depth of around five kilometers. The Midland Sea branches near its ends into several smaller plains and canyons. It is believed to be a gigantic fault caused by Duna’s cooling: As its crust cooled faster than its core, the former became too small to cover the whole surface of the planet, causing it to break and tear apart, forming the Sea. Duna is also known for its two large, white poles. Because of Duna’s low temperatures, they aren’t composed solely of water ice: during the Dunian winter, the temperature at the poles drops so low that carbon dioxide in the atmosphere freezes out, creating carbonic ice. When the temperature climbs during the spring, the carbonic ice sublimes ,releasing carbon dioxide back to the atmosphere. In addition to the aforementioned polar water ice, there is strong geological and geographical evidence that Duna occasionally experiences liquid water floods, making it one of the three bodies of the Kerbolar system to house liquid water, along with Kerbin and Laythe. Indeed, the rover Hematite II, launched in 1786, found clear traces of a water flow, with a pattern reminiscent of a river bank. Such a structure cannot be older than about a million years, as it would have otherwise been destroyed by the Dunian weather. Hence, Duna is thought to house the occasional pocket of salted water. When such a pocket is breached, it bursts and starts flowing, creating temporary rivers, before eventually evaporating or freezing. In popular culture: Along with Eve, Duna in fiction has been often depicted as housing an extraterrestrial species, whose intentions towards Kerbin varies from a medium to another. In the movie Duna attacks! , Dunians are hostile, but the eponymous E.K. the Extrakerbial, who has been confirmed by the author to be Dunian, is nice and helps the young kerbal who rescued him. More recently, the famous book The Dunian narrates the plight of a stranded kerbal on Duna, millions of kilometers away from home. Exploration: Because of its similarities with Kerbin, and the still present myth surrounding the hypothetical Dunians, Duna has always been a prime target for probes and rovers. Furthermore, Duna is considered a serious target for crewed exploration, thanks to the possible gravitational help from Ike, as well the relatively accessible raw materials on both bodies. However, such an expedition remains very difficult and would push the necessary technology to its limits. The need for a partial closed-cycle life support, the massive fuel needs of a conventional Kerbin to Duna and Duna to Kerbin transfer stage, and the harsh psychological conditions for the kerbal volunteers, who’ll have to spend several years of their life within a small space with practically no intimacy, are only a few of the many challenges to be overcome.

Eeloo should really be called "Euroladus": From Europa, Eeloo has the brown stripes and the large ice crust, as well as the approximate size. From Enceladus, Eeloo has the position (It would have been planned to orbit GP2; OPM makes it a mun of Sarnus), the general appearance (very, very white), and the valleys, that are called "tiger stripes" on Enceladus. So, it would be safe to say those stripes are faults, cf Europa, as it has a complex plate tectonics system just like Earth.

Just to ask, as I have CKAN with OPM: Can I install this cool mod without causing a deathwing-esque cataclysm?

Basically, you need to make a hinge (it's possible in the stock game, there is a trick with the spider engine for it), powerful reaction wheels on the "rotor" side, and of course 8 fins in a curved fashion to be the "blades". If done correctly, such a contraption can give thrust with no fuel at all.

My guess would be strock propellor + solar panel planes

Itty teenie munie Gilly Gilly Gilly (from guilly, prince) is the only natural satellite of Eve. Discovery: Gilly was discovered in 1685, on day 261 by the astronomer Meilu Kerman, during observations of the planet Eve. This landmark discovery was made using a 20cm reflecting telescope, the most powerful telescope of its day. Despite the almost ideal observation conditions, Meilu noticed a persistent shiny, brown spot nearby, slowly moving away from Eve. Thinking he’d discovered a small comet, Meilu decided to track the spot. Three days later, the object started slowing, and eventually on day four after his first observation it stopped and started moving toward Eve. Then, after passing by Eve, the object started to slow again and eventually came back to its original position, over the course of a week. Seeing this, Meilu Kerman transmitted his data to the Kerbin Astronomical Society, which acknowledged the object as a mun and named it Gilly. Gilly remained almost unknown until the probe Iodine III entered orbit around it in 1767, and dropped a simple lander onto the surface. Observations: Because of its small size, observing Gilly is very difficult without a relatively powerful telescope. Furthermore, its faint light can be obscured by Eve: indeed, Gilly reflects 150,000 times less light than its mother planet, for a total magnitude of up to +10 in the best case, putting it out of range of observation by binoculars. The few surface features on Gilly are generally not observable without specialised instrumentation, whether orbital or ground-based. Origins: From its orbit and eccentricity, Gilly is thought to be a captured asteroid. The time of the capture is not clear, but it is thought to have been orbiting Eve for at least two billion years. Gilly itself is believed to have formed along with the rest of the asteroids 4.5 billion years ago. Surface features: Gilly is too small to be differentiated, and from surface tests it seems to be a large “loose conglomerate”, a large pile of rocks held together by gravity. However, Gilly’s surface appears to be looser at it’s “highlands” or regions of relatively higher terrain. Gilly’s surface rocks are mostly made of basalt and iron oxides, giving it a grey-brown appearance. However, it seems to also contain several organic compounds that stayed unaltered for several billion years, potentially offering new insights into the origins of Kerbian life. Bringing samples of these materials back to Kerbin for further study has been a long-standing objective of the kerbal scientific community. In popular culture: Gilly has featured prominently in kerbal science fiction. Most notably, Gilly is the asteroid home of the eponymous Petit Prince in the Krench novel. Exploration: Unlike Eve, Gilly is considered a serious objective for a future mission outside of Kerbin’s SOI, thanks to its tiny gravity well, far outside of Eve’s. It would be very easy to transfer materials from Gilly to other places for the same reasons, and the possibility of organic materials within Gilly has further reinforced interest in possible colonization.

I have recently had a kraken moment I was unable to reproduce: when I came back to an evian probe, I found out it had entirely splitted into a good hundred of debris! Further, some of them were propelled at a quite staggering speed, I've seen on that had already left the kerbolar system (and I mean, PLOCK's orbit) a few seconds after its creation.

In the future, be careful of typos. I mean, "vassel", "Luckly" "are running out and become more rare"...

Nice pictures, but all I can see is a close-up of the surface of Eeloo... Maybe you showed the wrong pictures?

Being a SpaceY guy, I feel very little use for the puff: it has a teeny thrust, and such I prefer the Dibamus from SpaceY, or even no engine but the thruster blocks, when I need a monoprop engine because reasons.

Another possibly very fun, but challenging thing: how about a secret apollo mission to Minmus?

Next in line: a small article for a smaller mun. Eve Eve (From Hevi – Ancient god of royalty -) is the second planet of the Kerbolar system, as well as the largest rocky planet. It is the sixth biggest object of the system, being smaller than Neidon, but bigger than Kerbin. Discovery: Eve is one of the classical planets, along with Kerbin, Duna, Jool and Sarnus, that have been known since the classical era. However, because Eve is perpetually shrouded in a thick layer of clouds, almost every single one of its features remained unknown for centuries. For those reasons, as its extreme surface conditions weren’t known, it was assumed before the discovery of its surfaces features that Eve was very similar to Kerbin, complete with a lush, purple flora. Many authors before this made Eve the home of extrakerbials, the classical type being “little purple kerbals” that would blend with their home world. Eve remained seemingly munless until the year 1685, when, during one of Eve’s period of maximal visibility, the astronomer Meilu Kerman discovered a small mun on an elliptical orbit, which was named “Gilly”. Finally, in the year 1762, the probe Iodine II arrived in polar orbit around Eve, and partially mapped the planet. Then, it detached its lander, which plunged into the atmosphere and revealed the hellish conditions on the surface of the purple planet before contact was lost, probably due to a nearby storm or because of an electronic failure. Atmosphere: The atmosphere of Eve is thick. At sea level, its pressure is slightly more than five bars, or five times that of Kerbin’s atmosphere at sea level. It seems to be mostly made of carbon dioxide (around 90%), nitrogen (around 5%) and more unidentified gases, including the hydrocarbons responsible for its purple haze. From space, the atmosphere makes the Evian surface almost impossible to see. The thickness of the atmosphere came as a surprise for the first missions to Eve. The first probe of the Iodine series was lost due to Mission Control underestimating the danger of aerobraking around Eve, causing Iodine I to be disintegrated by its atmosphere. During the day, the sea partially evaporates, creating clouds and, eventually, rain. Sometimes those clouds break into violent thunderstorms, with speeds sometimes exceeding 210 km/h (130 mph, 65 m/s) Observation: Eve ties with Duna as the fourth brightest object in the sky, with a magnitude of -3. In the night sky, it can be seen as a vibrant purple dot. Eve is one of the first objects to be seen after dusk, and can even be seen before it, if one knows where to look. Just like the Mun and Minmus, Eve has noticeable phases when seen with a telescope. However, as Eve can only be full while in opposition to Kerbol, it is actually most visible in it’s crescent phase. Transits: Approximately every 31 years, a transit of Eve occurs. During the transit, an observer on Kerbin can see the planet obscuring a fraction of Kerbol’s disk. The transit can be as short as an hour if Eve only grazes Kerbol, and as long as a day if it is perfectly centered. Extremely rarely, a transit of Eve happens at the same time as a transit of Moho. These double transits generally happen once every hundred millennia. The last one was on the day 165 of the year 63874 B.C.E and the next will be on the day 31 of the year 43854 C.E Additionally, on the year 21,543,289, a triple transit will occur, with Moho, Eve and Minmus covering Kerbol at the same time. Magnetosphere: Eve is surrounded a powerful magnetic field. Its surface strength is about 100 to 150 microtesla, or 1 to 1.5 gauss. This would imply that Eve has a fully liquid and large core, without an inner core, unlike Kerbin. Eve’s magnetic field also plays a key role in maintaining surface hydrogen so close to Kerbol, and preventing it from escaping to space. Surface features: After a number of uncrewed landings on Eve, and a systematic mapping of the Evian surface by Iodine II and IV, several features were discovered on Eve. The “Explodium Sea” is the unofficial nickname for the large sea on Eve. It seems to be composed mostly of non-volatile hydrocarbons, hydrogen peroxide and other, longer chain, alcohols. As the former is fairly unstable on Kerbin, some process on Eve must be responsible for replenishing them and it has been suggested that their formation are catalyzed by various chemicals on Eve able to convert water to H2O2. The coasts of the Explodium Sea are very jagged, with a lot of isthmuses, lakes, straights, islands and fjords. This extreme topography is thought to be due to aggressive coastal erosion by the Explodium Sea. As the materials constituting the coast are very uneven, the looser rocks are eroded much more easily than the igneous rocks, creating the patterns we observe today. A series of isthmuses peaks and craters form the “Imperial Peninsula” on the eastern hemisphere of Eve. The peninsula appears to be mostly volcanic in origins, as the surrounding region seems to be a large hot spot. Most of the local craters aren’t meteoritic but volcanic in origin, and should therefore be called calderas rather than craters. Several impact craters are present on Eve, most notably the Regal Crater, which has often been compared to Kerbin’s impact crater. It was created about 30 million years ago by a meteor with a diameter of around 25 kilometers, making it the most recent large impact crater in the Kerbolar system. Its bottom was eventually filled by the constant rains. For those reasons the “crater sea” contains much purer peroxides, due to this natural distillation process. The large landmass of Eve, the “Meilu Pangaea” stretches across the western hemisphere of Eve from pole to pole. It incorporates two large inland seas, and is mainly constituted of plateaus and plains, along with the occasional mountain range. The rocks on the surface seem to be mainly igneous intrusive and extrusive, but as Evian lava is hotter than Kerbian lava; it emerges mostly as an altered form of peridotite and komatiite (peridotite’s extrusive form). Exploration: A kerballed exploration of Eve is unthinkable with current technology. High sea-level atmospheric pressure severely reduces the efficiency of current rocket engine designs which, combined with Eve’s high gravity, would make an ascent to orbit extremely challenging. The high gravity would also require a substantially more robust lander than was used for the Sarnus programme, as well as posing a number of questions about the viability of surface extra-vehicular activities and astronaut safety in general. This may change, however, if plans to exploit Eve’s mun Gilly are realised. Gilly’s low gravity would greatly facilitate transfer of materiel, whether that be fuel or spaceship parts, to Eve orbit. Remote exploration of Eve by rover has been suggested, although as yet no rover has been created that can withstand Evian atmospheric conditions and the 150 °C daytime temperatures.

... and, adding to this thread, how 'bout some FASTER transfer? I mean, when you try to transfer from a tank to another, it is rather slow, there should be an option to make it substantially, at least 5 times faster.

The "friendly" that became "firendly" is quite an awkward typo, isn't it?

Added text are bold 1) To me, this is by far the most probable hypothesis, because Ike's orbit is round -this has nothing to do with stability, mind you: Gilly's orbit is elliptical and stable- and Ike and Duna are close to each other. Ike is probably very similar to the Mun and Dres in composition, meaning rocks, metals, blah, blah... 2) Much less probable, this one doesn't explain how regular is Ike's orbit (just look at the Moon) 3) Okay, I didn't understand anything in this one... What do you mean? Why would Ike be extremely light, not as dense as it is IG? It's not in Duna's roche limit at all! Why would materials escape? Why isn't Duna black, then? 4) Volcanoes on Earth definitely don't blow anything in space, and especially not a body half as big as the Moon, weighting a few 10^21 g. Last but not least: please refrain against using a thread for every single theories you have, you should group them into a single thread.

In addition of the whole "Asteroids form anywhere, yadda yadda", why is Gilly the core of a planetoid specifically? If Eve prevented something to form, either it formed, but it stayed very small (a.k.a an asteroid, and most asteroids don't have a core to begin with) or it didn't form, period. As of "Cores of planets are full of different materials", there are several problems with this sentence: 1. "Full of different materials" => sure, like everything made of matter, I guess? This sentence is tautological... 2. Implies: Precious stuff => Why so? A planet's core isn't made of precious stuff only! The Earth's core is mainly made of a ton of iron and some nickel. Sure, it has some value, but is it really "precious"? Nope.

While the general idea is good, keep in mind for the olympus mons: it is as big as France... and so, past the large cliffs at its base, there is almost no change in the elevation but a looooooooooow slope for the rest of the ascension.