Earlier quoted context omitted.
Couldn't it just be pressurised hydrogen?
Pressurized by what, though?
The weight of all the water and ice on top of it, maybe?
Scientists discover evidence for a habitable region on Saturn’s moon Enceladus
31–40 of 77 posts
Re: Scientists discover evidence for a habitable region on Saturn’s moon Enceladus
#32bill gates on space.
http://www.businessinsider.com/bill-gates-on-space-explorati...
Re: Scientists discover evidence for a habitable region on Saturn’s moon Enceladus
#33Even if it was habitable, isn't most of the problem with going to Mars the fact that it takes a half of a year to get there - not a couple days like the moon? Saturn is YEARS away. Like 4-7 depending on where the planets are at.
Yeah, a Hohmann transfer to Saturn would take a very long time. The trip is long enough, though, that it would make a lot of sense to spend months accelerating under an electric drive in order to achieve a faster transfer. But it is 10 km/s even for Hohmann burn and once you get there you need to shed 4 km/s. In theory you could aerocapture but that isn't something we have the technology for right now. Well, we know how to aerocapture straight into a descent so you could go that route if you're headed to Titan but not anywhere else around Saturn.
Re: Scientists discover evidence for a habitable region on Saturn’s moon Enceladus
#34Just a thought for everyone discussing human settlement - habitable doesn't necessarily imply humans should go there, robots growing stuff far far away would be great as well. I'd say having farming planets (or in this case moons) is worth a sci-fi book at least.
Re: Scientists discover evidence for a habitable region on Saturn’s moon Enceladus
#35A lot of articles like this overlook a lot of physics that actually matter a lot. Not only would it be incredibly difficult to get humans up there, much more so than Mars, but even once we get there we have serious problems. Just like Mars, we can solve many problems with electricity. We can create water and many chemicals, provide shelter and even ways to grow food. On Mars you can get electricity vs solar, which is…
Nuclear reactors still work fine for producing electricity.
Re: Scientists discover evidence for a habitable region on Saturn’s moon Enceladus
#36Even if it was habitable, isn't most of the problem with going to Mars the fact that it takes a half of a year to get there - not a couple days like the moon? Saturn is YEARS away. Like 4-7 depending on where the planets are at.
I figure that until we build one of the various nuclear-powered boost options that have been proposed, we're not going very far in the solar system. Either we get over our fear of launching OMGNuclear!!!1! stuff, or perhaps we can loft a booster and figure out a way of launching the fuel in enough smaller launches that nobody freaks out at the idea of a few dozen pounds of uranium being dropped into several quadrillion gallons of ocean, or something.
Because the numbers just don't work for chemical rockets. The already-harsh rocket equations get even worse when you have to carry along the mass to feed, water, and breath, too.
Re: Scientists discover evidence for a habitable region on Saturn’s moon Enceladus
#37Even if it was habitable, isn't most of the problem with going to Mars the fact that it takes a half of a year to get there - not a couple days like the moon? Saturn is YEARS away. Like 4-7 depending on where the planets are at.
After we figure out Mars, Enceladus will probably still be there for the next step
Re: Scientists discover evidence for a habitable region on Saturn’s moon Enceladus
#38A lot of articles like this overlook a lot of physics that actually matter a lot. Not only would it be incredibly difficult to get humans up there, much more so than Mars, but even once we get there we have serious problems. Just like Mars, we can solve many problems with electricity. We can create water and many chemicals, provide shelter and even ways to grow food. On Mars you can get electricity vs solar, which is…
Nuclear reactors still work fine for producing electricity.
I'm really sort of surprised that nobody is seriously discussing how to build a nuclear reactor in space yet. I just don't see how space civilization can get going without nuclear power. Fusion would be way cooler, but fission should do.
(Fusion would require not just that some small-city-sized installation works on Earth but that something small enough to usefully fit in other structures can generate power. We know we can put fission reactors in spaces small enough to run submarines, so that is almost certainly feasible.)
Re: Scientists discover evidence for a habitable region on Saturn’s moon Enceladus
#39Even if it was habitable, isn't most of the problem with going to Mars the fact that it takes a half of a year to get there - not a couple days like the moon? Saturn is YEARS away. Like 4-7 depending on where the planets are at.
Apollo missions took about three days to reach the moon. But the quickest trip to the moon was the New Horizons probe, which zipped past the moon in just 8 hours 35 minutes on its way to Pluto. However, the spacecraft didn't even slow down or approach lunar orbit.
Re: Scientists discover evidence for a habitable region on Saturn’s moon Enceladus
#40Earlier quoted context omitted.
Nuclear reactors still work fine for producing electricity.
I'm really sort of surprised that nobody is seriously discussing how to build a nuclear reactor in space yet. I just don't see how space civilization can get going without nuclear power. Fusion would be way cooler, but fission should do. (Fusion would require not just that some small-city-sized installation works on Earth but that something small enough to usefully fit in other structures can generate power. We know…
While not reactors technically, many of our long-range spacecraft use RTGs: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Radioisotope_thermoelectric_ge...