What is Minmus made of?

[Godot]

Water ice, coloured with mint coloured food colouring ... it was a secret marketing gag by a mint ice producing company on Kerbin, done several decades before the establishment of the manned Kerbal Space Program and was meant to increase said companies sales in mint flavoured ice.
Unfortunately they didn´t take into account that Minmus was too small and far away to be seen in colour from Kerbin, without the help of strong telescopes and therefore it only increased mint ice sales in astronomer circles. 

Furthermore the company (along with other food producing companies) went broke durfing the food crisis a few years before the establishment of the Kerbal Space Program ... when Kerbals discovered that they are photosynthetic and don´t need to consume any food. Only a few snack producing companies survived this crisis (because eating snacks is known to relieve stress and therefore eating didn´t go out of fashion with certain high risk jobs)

Edited April 20, 2016 by Godot

[John Nowak]

On 4/4/2016 at 0:03 AM, fredinno said:

Any comet would have long lost its icy layer, so the "ice" on top is not ice at all.

 

When was Minmus captured?

Edited April 27, 2016 by John Nowak

[Jeb1969]

50% Ice 

50% Creme de Menthe syrup.  (Green Mint Syrup) 

[AeroGav]

After trying to land on it,   I'm going for the ice cream theory, given the complete lack of traction

 

[suicidejunkie]

Minmus is made of Hopes and Dreams.

And here at Bill's Drill Emporium, we dig them up and burn them in rockets to take you to wherever you want to go!

(Warning: Minmus Flavor Hopes and Dreams may contain trace amounts of rocket parts.  Not for use by Engineers or Scientists.  Exceeding recommended allowance may result in escape velocity)

[Blunderbuss]

I'm not certain of Minmus' composition, but I *am* pretty sure of one thing:

Women are made from sand.  

[Luke Skycrawler]

On 6/29/2013 at 11:42 PM, robocop said:

Many people have theories of what the surface of Minmus is made up of. What is yours? Show your work.

Same thing the Mun is made of. It's cheese of course, quite tasty too from what Wallace tells me.

[teag2]

6 hours ago, suicidejunkie said:

Minmus is made of Hopes and Dreams.

And here at Bill's Drill Emporium, we dig them up and burn them in rockets to take you to wherever you want to go!

(Warning: Minmus Flavor Hopes and Dreams may contain trace amounts of rocket parts.  Not for use by Engineers or Scientists.  Exceeding recommended allowance may result in escape velocity)

Wrong! It's made from sugar and spices.

...or mint ice cream 

[NotaKlutz-42516]

Might be an inedible mint chocolate ice cream asteroid (if that's even possible in KSP).

Edited May 14, 2016 by NotaKlutz-42516

[Fireheart318]

On April 4, 2016 at 11:03 PM, fredinno said:

Any comet would have long lost its icy layer, so the "ice" on top is not ice at all.

lolwut

Good luck getting your boots burned when you step on Minnmus soil...

"That's one small step for a Kerbal, one giant leap for Kerbalkind... does anyone smell something toasting? My feet are feeling hot all of a sudden..."

Chlorite? Why would a comet have that?

If it was outgassing, it would likely have gone dead long ago, and the minty-looking surface is just salt or minerals left over.

 

Minnmus is too small for any atmosphere anyways. Also, mint- ice cream would likely lose its water via outgassing until it was pretty much freeze-dried. So you'd be eating astronaut ice cream instead

 

 

Astronaut ice cream wasn't actually a thing. Space bacon was.

[FirstSecondThird]

Comet's don't have to be made of ice to be cyan, I postulate that it's a captured comet made of frozen Methane (the gas that makes up most of farts) plus another chemical that has properties like being cyan colored. Although, keep in mind that it's still viable for Minmus to be a ice comet, because of the fact that the vacuum surrounding it is extremely cold, thus allowing Minmus to grow ice back in case it evaporates because of occasional vacuum heating (Things like Black-body radiation explains what I am talking about there). But, ice comet or not, it's most likely to be a Methane + Cyan colored element comet IMO.

[fredinno]

On 2016-04-08 at 10:05 AM, Eveeloo said:

Well it isn't but it's Kerbal 

so?

On 2016-04-08 at 11:25 AM, nosirrbro said:

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.

Only problem is the vapor pressure makes the ice sublimate.

On 2016-04-20 at 7:03 AM, 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.

There were birds in KSP?

On 2016-04-20 at 11:57 AM, Xorth Tanovar said:

IT's a large chunk of topaz, most likely a rogue moon captured into the Kerbol system; that's my story and I 'm sticking to it!

 

INcredibly unlikely. Topaz needs flourine, which you rarely ever find. It is more reasonable than mint ice cream, however.

On 2016-04-27 at 6:19 PM, John Nowak said:

When was Minmus captured?

 

On 2016-05-13 at 3:14 PM, Blunderbuss said:

I'm not certain of Minmus' composition, but I *am* pretty sure of one thing:

Women are made from sand.  

"I don't like sand. It's course, rough, and irritating, and it gets everywhere..."

On 2016-05-15 at 7:33 PM, Fireheart318 said:

Astronaut ice cream wasn't actually a thing. Space bacon was.

Wait what? Source?

On 2016-05-15 at 2:22 PM, FirstSecondThird said:

Comet's don't have to be made of ice to be cyan, I postulate that it's a captured comet made of frozen Methane (the gas that makes up most of farts) plus another chemical that has properties like being cyan colored. Although, keep in mind that it's still viable for Minmus to be a ice comet, because of the fact that the vacuum surrounding it is extremely cold, thus allowing Minmus to grow ice back in case it evaporates because of occasional vacuum heating (Things like Black-body radiation explains what I am talking about there). But, ice comet or not, it's most likely to be a Methane + Cyan colored element comet IMO.

Methane would sublimate very quickly. And there is something called vapor pressure, which is why icey objects are only seen beyond Ceres.

[JeanHavoc]

The color of the surface of Minmus has always reminded me of the green patina that is associated with well weathered copper.  I'm not sure how you could get an entire planet covered in such a metallic overlayer, but it's more plausible than iced cream and or frosty treats I should think.  Perhaps the "lakes" represent molten copper that solidified over time.  I mean, why not?

[Eveeloo]

Minmus is ice-cream, wait, no, a Kerbal tried Minmus rock and was highly poisoned, and half an hour later he died.

 

[teag2]

21 hours ago, JeanHavoc said:

The color of the surface of Minmus has always reminded me of the green patina that is associated with well weathered copper.  I'm not sure how you could get an entire planet covered in such a metallic overlayer, but it's more plausible than iced cream and or frosty treats I should think.  Perhaps the "lakes" represent molten copper that solidified over time.  I mean, why not?

That actually makes a lot of sense. The whole moon could have been covered in some sort of ocean, which eventually froze. All the mountains used to be islands in the oceans.

Also, due to the total lack of craters on Minmus, it must either have some way of refreshing it's surface, or it is just very young.

Edited May 17, 2016 by teag2

[planet-creations]

On 5/13/2016 at 3:14 PM, Blunderbuss said:

I'm not certain of Minmus' composition, but I *am* pretty sure of one thing:

Women are made from sand.  

OH MY GOD!!!  

Jeb: I simply test my rockets actually in space. 

I think Minmus is made of a certain type of rock that can only be found in the Kerbol System and really distant parts of the universe, so it might be super rare.

[Tykylo]

Who knows? It could inedible mint ice cream....

[planet-creations]

 

10 minutes ago, Tykylo said:

Who knows? It could inedible mint ice cream....

Mint ice cream that isn't edible... It might be hardened by the temperature of outer space.

On 5/13/2016 at 3:26 PM, Luke Skycrawler said:

Same thing the Mun is made of. It's cheese of course, quite tasty too from what Wallace tells me.

The Mun isn't made out of cheese. 

On 5/17/2016 at 3:12 PM, teag2 said:

That actually makes a lot of sense. The whole moon could have been covered in some sort of ocean, which eventually froze. All the mountains used to be islands in the oceans.

Also, due to the total lack of craters on Minmus, it must either have some way of refreshing it's surface, or it is just very young.

I think your story might be true considering the fact that if it did happen, it probably happened due to a loss of atmosphere, so it hardened and cooled to near the temperature of space. 

On 5/13/2016 at 5:48 PM, NotaKlutz-42516 said:

Might be an inedible mint chocolate ice cream asteroid (if that's even possible in KSP).

If it's even possible? Why not look at Gilly? It's made out of nothing but ROCKS. ROCKS!

On 5/16/2016 at 5:29 PM, JeanHavoc said:

The color of the surface of Minmus has always reminded me of the green patina that is associated with well weathered copper.  I'm not sure how you could get an entire planet covered in such a metallic overlayer, but it's more plausible than iced cream and or frosty treats I should think.  Perhaps the "lakes" represent molten copper that solidified over time.  I mean, why not?

How would Minmus be made out of copper when you can see rocks on its surface?

Edited October 16, 2016 by planet-creations
Change in quote answer

[planet-creations]

On 5/13/2016 at 9:34 AM, suicidejunkie said:

Minmus is made of Hopes and Dreams.

And here at Bill's Drill Emporium, we dig them up and burn them in rockets to take you to wherever you want to go!

(Warning: Minmus Flavor Hopes and Dreams may contain trace amounts of rocket parts.  Not for use by Engineers or Scientists.  Exceeding recommended allowance may result in escape velocity)

How can it(Minmus) be made of HOPES AND DREAMS,

if you can be able to LAND on it?! 

(Minmus has rocket parts on it, but they have been wiped clean/terminated/recovered at 32 KD.)

On 4/20/2016 at 0:12 PM, Godot said:

Water ice, coloured with mint coloured food colouring ... it was a secret marketing gag by a mint ice producing company on Kerbin, done several decades before the establishment of the manned Kerbal Space Program and was meant to increase said companies sales in mint flavoured ice.
Unfortunately they didn´t take into account that Minmus was too small and far away to be seen in colour from Kerbin, without the help of strong telescopes and therefore it only increased mint ice sales in astronomer circles. 

Furthermore the company (along with other food producing companies) went broke durfing the food crisis a few years before the establishment of the Kerbal Space Program ... when Kerbals discovered that they are photosynthetic and don´t need to consume any food. Only a few snack producing companies survived this crisis (because eating snacks is known to relieve stress and therefore eating didn´t go out of fashion with certain high risk jobs)

Minmus is made out of ROCKS.

[I_Killed_Jeb]

minmus.. green mysterious substance. kerbals.. green mysterious substance.

 

!!!!!!!

 

The media doesn't want you to make this connection folks

[Tykylo]

42 minutes ago, I_Killed_Jeb said:

minmus.. green mysterious substance. kerbals.. green mysterious substance.

 

!!!!!!!

 

The media doesn't want you to make this connection folks

MINMUS IS MADE OF DEAD KERBALS MUSHED TOGETHER BY THE KRAKEN!!! ILLUMINATI!!!!! 

[Hans Dorn]

MINMUS IS PEOPLE!!11!!!

 

A bit more seriously, Minmus reminds me of this stuff:

 

 

Ammonium iron sulfate

Edited October 16, 2016 by Hans Dorn

[Clockwork13]

You want my work...?

Well a gallon of standard ice cream weights about 2 pounds. Minmus on Earth would weight precisely 9.973712741e+19 pounds. That means Minmus is made up of the equivalent of 49 quintillion boxes of store-bought ice cream.

Edited October 16, 2016 by Clockwork13

[NSEP]

Minmus looks like it has frozen oceans, there is nothing going underneath the oceans too, copper could be the awnser to its colour. But im sure life was not possible on Minmus.

[KerikBalm]

Its circular orbit rules out a recent capture

Its proximity to the sun rules out water ice and especially rules out methane or nitrogen ice.

***Minmus really shouldn't exist. Its there to give players a nice easy place to land without worry about tipping over like on the rought cratered higher grav terrain of Mun.***

That said, while liquid water in its past is out of the question, liquids could be involved in the formation of the flats. By liquid, I essentially mean lava.. Lunar Maria are flatter than the rest of the Moon, so maybe the flats of minmus are similar.

Perhaps Minmus was made in the same event that made Mun (assuming some sort of event analagous to the theia hypothesis for the Earth's Mun formation). In this case, it may have been entirely molten at one point perhaps convection was still active enough for mountain formation even as it was cooling, and some mountains formed while lava was still pooling making nice smooth flats.

This wouldn't explain the lack of cratering though...perhaps it formed much later... after a sort of "Late Heavy Bombardment" that would have heavily cratered Mun. A much later formation? stuff spun off from a collision with a kerbal-comet/something on an eccentric orbit from a sort of kerbal-kuiper belt (not that it would be that object, but the coalesced debris from a collision).

As for its composition? copper? ammonium iron sulfate? Its clearly different from Kerbin and Mun, so I'm going to say it wasn't formed at the same time as Mun, and its not material from Kerbin. So.... I'm going to say it formed elsewhere adn was captured through interactions with Mun.

If we go with a theia-like hypothesis, the impactor would become "well mixed" with kerbin/mun, but if it was sort of a binary planet/ had a moon, then perhaps its companion got captured without an impact, and thus without mixing... giving us minmus.

Maybe it was tidal heating during the circularization that heated ti up enough for lava flats to form... Perhaps it could have appeared at the same time as Mun, but if it was a companion of the impactor as opposed to the debris from the impactor (as I'll assume Mun is), then maybe it started in a much more eccentric orbit and was subject to greater heating, erasing the craters that Mun retains.

So its just a green mineral, craters were removed after the LHB by tidal heating that also caused the formation of lava flats.

That's my best attempt at a scientific explanation for it.