Minmus is icy after all?

[joratto]

Slight spoilers for minmus biome names ahead.

Since visiting minmus in For Science!, I’ve noticed that most of the biomes are named after different kinds of ice and snow (e.g. “Arctic Ice”, “Snowdrifts”). However, I recall an ancient dev video that discussed the debate over the composition of minmus. Originally, the devs wanted it to be icy, but they found out that no amount of doped water could freeze minmus at kerbin’s distance from its sun. In the end, they decided minmus should be a “ceramic” planet (incidentally, I haven’t found any information online explaining how a ceramic planet would work irl; lots of volcanic glass, I guess?).

So what gives? Have the devs changed their minds and made minmus icy again? Are the icy names just physically inaccurate labels that the kerbals came up with? Is it all just a reference to the ice cream memes?

Edited December 21, 2023 by joratto

[Minmus Taster]

49 minutes ago, joratto said:

Slight spoilers for minmus biome names ahead.

Since visiting minmus in For Science!, I’ve noticed that most of the biomes are named after different kinds of ice and snow (e.g. “Arctic Ice”, “Snowdrifts”). However, I recall an ancient dev video that discussed the debate over the composition of minmus. Originally, the devs wanted it to be icy, but they found out that no amount of doped water could freeze minmus at kerbin’s distance from its sun. In the end, they decided minmus should be a “ceramic” planet (incidentally, I haven’t found any information online explaining how a ceramic planet would work irl; lots of volcanic glass, I guess?).

So what gives? Have the devs changed their minds and made minmus icy again? Are the icy names just physically inaccurate labels that the kerbals came up with? Is it all just a reference to the ice cream memes?

I've always thought of Minmus as a sort of melting dwarf planet that was captured early on around kerbin. It's possible that there are some remnants here and there even though most of the moon has been turned to glass.

[rjbvre]

Don't want to spoil anything, but I recommend landing and doing some science.

[joratto]

19 hours ago, rjbvre said:

Don't want to spoil anything, but I recommend landing and doing some science.

Already did. Is there any way to check previously collected surface science flavour text?

[rjbvre]

4 hours ago, joratto said:

Already did. Is there any way to check previously collected surface science flavour text?

It doesn't look like there is yet

Spoiler

I don't remember exactly, but in the Arctic Ice and Ice Field biomes surface sample text I think it said it was actually quartz.  

 

[gutza1]

I did want to say, without having done in-game science, that Minmus could still be primarily composed of ice as long as its surface was made of something else. I'm pretty sure that Ceres is partially made up of ice and orbits within the ice line but is protected by a rocky carbonate surface. Perhaps Minmus is something similar - a Ceres-like asteroid that was gravitationally captured by Kerbin soon after formation.

[ArmchairGravy]

Sheet Ice, Artice Ice, Snowdrift, Crater.  Yeah, it's officially ice. Maybe the precursors built a big freezer then left the door open.

[rjbvre]

57 minutes ago, ArmchairGravy said:

Sheet Ice, Artice Ice, Snowdrift, Crater.  Yeah, it's officially ice. Maybe the precursors built a big freezer then left the door open.

It's not ice

[ArmchairGravy]

1 hour ago, rjbvre said:

It's not ice

I'm going back to the original: Dessert Topping. 

[rjbvre]

12 hours ago, ArmchairGravy said:

I'm going back to the original: Dessert Topping. 

Haha, there's definitely been a change in tone from 1 to 2