Give Minmus a very VERY thin atmosphere

[halosos]

I think These two planets need a thin atmosphere.

For Minmus, I think the atmosphere needs to be about 5Km in high, and the same colour of the ice lakes. So the mountains rise above it. In terms of how it would look, I think it would look a bit like a fog. It would just look nice, maybe even have it registrable by the pressure science module.

A bit of editing to give an idea what I think it should look like.

Edit: Kasuha gave a better description on what it should be, scientificly.

The graphical effect looks neat. I'd not call it atmosphere, though. Minmus has way too low gravity to keep an atmosphere. Maybe effects of cryovolcanism emanating from the ice?

Edited January 18, 2014 by halosos

[Captain Sierra]

I wouldnt mind seeing a thin atmosphere that sits so low that it's only on the flats. Then I'd ask, why? With an atmosphere that thin and low, what tangible benefit would it give? Like Mercury, Moho should have an atmosphere like this. Enough to be measurable but not enough to be of any benefit to spacecraft either for pressure or for parachute landing abilities. So why should we have this if it does nothing for us? Other than cool re-entry effects if we end up on a collision course with Minmus coming back from Eeloo (the only way to invoke them on such thin atmosphere ).

[Clockwork13]

I don't support, for 2 reasons:

1. Minmus isn't a sphere, so an atmosphere for Minmus isn't possible.

2. It would make the game a bit too easy, and might ruin the point of landers and make credits really easy in career mode.

[halosos]

No benefit, exept mabey some science, it just looks nice, makes Minmus more interesting. Something doesn't need a landing/flying benefit to be there.

[halosos]

I don't support, for 2 reasons:

1. Minmus isn't a sphere, so an atmosphere for Minmus isn't possible.

2. It would make the game a bit too easy, and might ruin the point of landers and make credits really easy in career mode.

While its not a sphere, the atmosphere would fill the flats, like a ghost of an ocean!

The atmosphere would be too thin for landing, making Minmus no less hard to land on

[tetryds]

What if Minmus had a thin atmosphere like the OP stated but really dense.

So it would have a purpose, could be avoidable and would still look neat.

Gases dense as water exist, so that is not very scientifically innacurate.

I like the idea, even if only for the greeny atmosphere view.

And yes it would have an use, RAPIER powered SSTOs would be able to run on atmosphere mode, saving a lot of fuel on the orbit back.

Edited January 18, 2014 by tetryds

[Kasuha]

The graphical effect looks neat. I'd not call it atmosphere, though. Minmus has way too low gravity to keep an atmosphere. Maybe effects of cryovolcanism emanating from the ice?

[jaredkzr]

I think it is a good idea just to have that effect there. As long as it is not enough of an atmosphere to affect landing and takeoff then I think it is a great idea.

[halosos]

What if Minmus had a thin atmosphere like the OP stated but really dense.

So it would have a purpose, could be avoidable and would still look neat.

Gases dense as water exist, so that is not very scientifically innacurate.

I like the idea, even if only for the greeny atmosphere view.

And yes it would have an use, RAPIER powered SSTOs would be abble to run on atmosphere mode, saving a lot of fuel on the orbit back.

If it had oxygen, which I don't think it should.

[halosos]

The graphical effect looks neat. I'd not call it atmosphere, though. Minmus has way too low gravity to keep an atmosphere. Maybe effects of cryovolcanism emanating from the ice?

Much better explanation! Editing my post...

[astropapi1]

It'd be kind of cool.

If you question the purpose of something like that, then you should also question the purpose of adding another planet.

[astropapi1]

It'd be kind of cool.

Well, our moon has an atmosphere, doesn't it?

EDIT: The hell? I edited my first post and it posted a second one...

[Captain Sierra]

I don't support, for 2 reasons:

1. Minmus isn't a sphere, so an atmosphere for Minmus isn't possible.

2. It would make the game a bit too easy, and might ruin the point of landers and make credits really easy in career mode.

Not necessarily on 1. Minmus isn't a sphere, so a lowlying tenuous atmospuere would only exist in teh plains. The highlands would be maybe a few hundred meters from the atmosphere's highest point. When atmosphere fog and clouds are added, it could look amazing.

And for 2, it's meant to be very thin, equivalent to a real world Mercury atmosphere, effectively non existent in terms of pressure. Not even enough to deploy parachutes.

[Captain Sierra]

It'd be kind of cool.

Well, our moon has an atmosphere, doesn't it?

EDIT: The hell? I edited my first post and it posted a second one...

#forumprobs

And does our moon have an atmospere? Isn't that what we have a multi-million dollar dust collector up theer orbiting it now for? to confirm or deny that? (haven't looked into the LADEE mission lately so have not heard about the results)

[Clockwork13]

While its not a sphere, the atmosphere would fill the flats, like a ghost of an ocean!

The atmosphere would be too thin for landing, making Minmus no less hard to land on

Well, an atmosphere at all would open the possibility of accidentally using your parachute, and either way, if there is an atmosphere, you can use a lot of parachutes anyway.

And it's actually impossible for non-sphere objects to have an atmosphere.

[Clockwork13]

It'd be kind of cool.

Well, our moon has an atmosphere, doesn't it?

EDIT: The hell? I edited my first post and it posted a second one...

Maybe an atmosphere of random dust. It's possible for the moon to have an atmosphere, but it just didn't create one.

[halosos]

Well, an atmosphere at all would open the possibility of accidentally using your parachute, and either way, if there is an atmosphere, you can use a lot of parachutes anyway.

And it's actually impossible for non-sphere objects to have an atmosphere.

Check the edit i made, Kasuha said it could be something like cryovolcanism emanating from the ice

[Themohawkninja]

I've though about thin atmospheres before, but there is a really bad side effect.

You would end up with a similar problem that Gilly has, whereby you can't exceed physical time warp speeds (on Gilly it's due to altitude, and in this case it's due to the atmosphere), and the gravitational acceleration (and in this case plus atmospheric drag) makes the landing take a very long time, especially with an open parachute.

[Themohawkninja]

It'd be kind of cool.

Well, our moon has an atmosphere, doesn't it?

Very tenuous. 10^-7 Pa during the day, and 10^-10 Pa at night.

[Mr_Brain]

You would end up with a similar problem that Gilly has, whereby you can't exceed physical time warp speeds (on Gilly it's due to altitude, and in this case it's due to the atmosphere), and the gravitational acceleration (and in this case plus atmospheric drag) makes the landing take a very long time, especially with an open parachute.

Below an altitude of 3 km normal timewarp can't be activated on Minmus anyway, so if the "atmosphere" would be 3 km high, there wouldn't be a difference.

[Themohawkninja]

Below an altitude of 3 km normal timewarp can't be activated on Minmus anyway, so if the "atmosphere" would be 3 km high, there wouldn't be a difference.

In that case, why put an atmosphere there at all? You can't make it thick (for the sake of realism), so it's going to be so thin that parachutes won't really do anything at all.

[lajoswinkler]

Minmus is a pile of some sort of translucent green gravel. It can not have an atmosphere. It's too small and too close to Kerbol.

It can't even be made out of water ice because it would sublime in a couple of thousands of years probably.

I see some of you are discussing pressures on Mercury and Moon. They do not have real atmospheres just like asteroids don't, or a suitcase which is tumbling between two galaxies (gas particles are present there, too). We can call them "atmospheres" for the sake of semantics, but they aren't proper atmospheres.

Atmospheres are stratified systems. Gas particles on these two bodies are created partially due to regolith spallation by cosmic rays and somewhat because of regular outgassing, but they readily and freely escape the surfaces.

Those aren't even whispy atmospheres as we'd expect on Pluto during the time when its nitrogen and methane ices aren't totally frozen. There is no flow.

This really does look cool, but no. It's too unrealistic even for KSP.

If any body needs a whispy, tenuous atmosphere, it's Eeloo. And perhaps Tylo because it's very massive and far from Kerbol.

[coolitic]

Other than eye candy (which I do love greatly), this wont help at all.

Of course you did say that it only sits on low parts of the planet so maybe. (i still want to orbit very low on minmus, so dont make it go too high)

[KvickFlygarn87]

(i still want to orbit very low on minmus, so dont make it go too high)

You are aware that it would take years of ingame time to actually get deorbited, right?

[KN_Namida]

I'm against it, mainly because it would be a bit too unrealistic for such a small body like Minmus. Tylo should have a tenuous atmosphere, Vall might... maybe even Eeloo if you stretch your imagination. But saying Minmus needs an atmosphere is like saying that Bop needs one. Clearly no, it would just look nice, but it would be of no practical use and, most importantly, would be too unrealistic for its own good :\