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A moon with a thin troposphere and high mountains


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This would be a slightly Kerbin-like body, kind of like Laythe but not really all that similar. This moon would be between the size of Kerbin's Mün and Tylo, and would have oceans/lakes of water but mostly land coverage, with a moderate atmosphere but a low scale height, and very tall mountains. These mountains would very often poke well into the moon's thin stratosphere, which would give them a very distinct snow layer around midway up the mountain (the tropopause). The tallest mountains would poke up well past the stratopause and into the upper atmosphere, giving them two snow layers (tropopause and mesopause). The moon would be tidally locked to the sun but not its parent planet (unrealistic I know, but cool) and its day side would have a massive storm system creating constant currents which would be further shaped by the intricate system of valleys at low altitudes where the storm system is able to run. On the night side, there would be a very thick snow cover on everything from ices that had evaporated on the day side and ran to the night side where they froze permanently to the surface. This would give some of the tall mountains flat tops. Through the twilight ring would be lush valleys filled with microbes and algae-like life of an as-yet-to-be-determined color (howabout a bright teal-turquoise?), and running water systems with currents generated by the intense temperature differentials on the planet.

You could land on a tall peak and set up a fueling station where you might store a launch vehicle able to reach orbit (easily since there's almost no atmosphere at this height) which can link up with an orbiting station. From the mountain station you could take a small rocket plane launch it over the side of the mountain. Once it gets into thick enough air, the wings will generate lift and you can gently land in a deep valley next to a lake or small ocean, or fly the craft in the oxygen-rich air. To get back out, just fly into a rushing air current heading upwards and pick up speed, until you launch your aircraft into the upper atmosphere at high speed towards the mountain station, then use a small amount of rocket fuel to guide it in for a landing. Swap to the orbit launch vehicle and Bam! you're off!

Another way to get down is just to parachute in, and then you can take an all-terrain vehicle and drive up the mountain to a high point that lets you fire off with the rocket you brought. Alternatively, if you make a mid-altitude base, you can get parachutes to do most of the slowing for you and save fuel on the way down, without wasting much extra on the way up, kind of like Duna.

On the night side you can find flat-topped mountains with steep edges idea for jumping off of and parachuting or hang-gliding down to the surface. If you wait till the mother planet looms overhead, it'll help light the valleys and mountains for you so you can see beyond your portable lamps.

The mother planet could perhaps be another gas giant. If you're in the center of the day side of the moon, you'll always see the night side of the mother planet. If you're at the center of the night side, you'll always see day on the planet, and the moon will also eclipse the planet and cast a nice shadow against it. In the twilight ring, the mother planet will always have its twilight edge showing. Due to the libration of this moon, parts of the twilight will see the sun rise a bit and then set a little below the horizon. The shadows will shift throughout this cycle, and some areas will go from bright to dark and back to bright again over the course of one cycle.

On tall mountains midway between the ice layers would be a very hot zone. On the day side, not center but midway toward twilight (where the sun hits the mountainside very well) would be the hottest parts of the planet. Here your thermometer will read dangerously high temperatures and some parts will begin to glow.

So what do you guys think?

Edited by thereaverofdarkness
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