Give Minmus a very VERY thin atmosphere

[Rhyunix]

I would approve of a atmosphere of such little density that the effect of the ship is minimal or not real at all. Mainly for scientific benefit. Yes, I imagine that it would be illogical for a moon of that size to have an atmosphere and its shape disagrees with the principle, but nearly all the moons or planets with a decent size have a minute atmosphere of some sort

[Clockwork13]

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.

Minmus is also way too small.

[CaptainArchmage]

I think the effects would be great. If you take a look at photographs of the volcanic plume on Io it is huge and visible, but Io does not have a significant atmosphere. On the surface you would get some kind of haze in the distance.

When weather effects go in the game, this could be used to make the frozen lakes of Minmus covered in this thin cloud of dust that restricts visibility while not producing any significant atmospheric pressure. It would make landing more dangerous, and encourage landing on the highlands.

[coolitic]

It doesn't take that long to reach years with time warp.

[tetryds]

Frozen lakes made me think that if you landed too hard or with a too heavy ship, you would break the "Ice" and fall on the water.

But nah, that woulnt be as fun as I imagine it.

[DerpenWolf]

I would much rather see vall have a super thin atmosphere (would make a little more sense due to the higher gravity), it would also make the moon much more appealing

[KvickFlygarn87]

It doesn't take that long to reach years with time warp.

Well, it doesn't account for atmospheres outside of 2.5km.

[r4pt0r]

maybe only a visible slight fog, to represent sublimation. very faint, and dont let it effect gameplay at all. only graphicaly.

[thunderstar]

it would be better if they give back that tenous atmosphere to Moho

[Reason to all Kerbals]

the possibility of minmus sized objects having an atmosphere is not far from reality the body can actualy have an atmosphere that slowly decays but is sustaned by constant sublimation like a comet, and non spherical objects can have an atmoshpere if ther is a very low gravitational interferance>

 

 

[septemberWaves]

Actually a lot of non-atmospheric objects large enough to be in hydrostatic equilibrium do have an exosphere (due to sublimation or other processes) but the density of such an exosphere is so low that it might as well be a vacuum and there's no practical reason to simulate it in a game like KSP. A lot of low Earth orbits are within Earth's exosphere but they're still considered to be in space because the atmosphere has such a low density there that it might as well be a vacuum (it still causes small amounts of drag and gradual orbital decay but that's besides the point).

[mattinoz]

This would add to the idea Minmus is made of ice cream if it had fog in the valleys.

[KerikBalm]

A glow on the horizon wouldn't be too bad, from an exosphere, not an atmosphere:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Exosphere

All bodies will have some amount of particles hanging around them, but if they are so sparse, they essentially function like independent particles rather than a gas.

The point at which Earth's atmosphere becomes this thin is referred to as the exobase.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Exosphere#Lower_boundary

In fact if we use the exobase as the definition of the boundary between the atmosphere and space, then almost nobody has gone to space, only the astrounauts the went to the Moon.

Quote

The lower boundary of the exosphere is called the exobase. It is also called exopause and 'critical altitude' as this is the altitude where barometric conditions no longer apply. Atmospheric temperature becomes nearly a constant above this altitude.^[4] On Earth, the altitude of the exobase ranges from about 500 to 1,000 kilometres (310 to 620 mi) depending on solar activity.^[5]

The exobase can be defined in one of two ways:

If we define the exobase as the height at which upward-traveling molecules experience one collision on average, then at this position the mean free path of a molecule is equal to one pressure scale height. 

http://www.cs.trinity.edu/~mlewis/PlAtm/Exosphere.html

Quote

The exobase is the level in the atmosphere above which the mean free path of particles is longer than a scale height. The region above the exobase is referred to as the exosphere and it is from this region that particles can easily escape from the planet's atmosphere. At levels below the exobase the atmosphere is dense enough that even if a particle does have kinetic energy greater than its gravitational potential energy, it will lose that energy in collisions with other particles before it can escape.

Exospheres are ridiculously thin. The ISS orbits below the exosphere. Parachutes would not work on the ISS (although there is still drag, which is why the solar panels take a low drag orientation during the "night"). Engines get vacuum Isp for all conceivable practical purposes. You have to consider that the atmosphere that the ISS operates in is orders of magnitude denser than the exosphere of earth/the exosphere of the moon/the exosphere of Mercury.

There could be a visual glow low to the horizon, but there shouldn't be any gameplay effect - no atmospheric drag, no functioning of airbreathing engines, no parachutes, etc.

[CaptainTrebor]

Personally I'd rather see a tenuous atmosphere on Eeloo.

[NSEP]

This completely trashes the point of why i like Minmus im the first place. I usually see the flats as a huge low gravity, vacuum playground to test cool gizmos. Im sure im not alone and although a 'ghost ocean' would be cool and all, its not when you add an atmosphere.

Also, a fog like atmosphere is not possible without scatterer, so it would be better as a mod.

@SamBelanger made a mod that adds light atmosphers to non-atmospheric bodies. Fits with the topic.

[DeltaDizzy]

Heres the link if anyones interested:(still config based at the moment, i'm currently working on a fix)

 

[SamBelanger]

Have fun