[Meta/RFC] ESA/JAXA station on Pan (Moon of Saturn) ?
02-01-2012, 12:04 AM
I am working on the second ESA/JAXA story at the moment, that will continue the story started with the Thor Heyerdahl.
Without spoiling too much, ESA/JAXA want to build up a station in close orbit around Saturn. At the moment I would put this station into the little moon Pan, a ~ 30km block of ice within the rings of Saturn. The ice would make a good shielding (and help to keep the supply of air and water), and its easy to "cut" without handwaved tools (at least as long as you have a fusion reactor for energy).
I know that the rings of Saturn are "tabu" for any kind of ice mining, but would this also prevent a station on this moon? Its not that they are planning to carry the water away, so it should be no danger for the rings.
Well, it is primarily a scientific station with the possibility of gas mining on Saturn isn't it?
I think it might just be possible.
Posts: 25,483
Threads: 2,060
Joined: Feb 2005
Reputation:
12
As long as pieces of the rings don't get removed, there's no problem with this.
(Which, of course, makes the Fen hypocrites. They have no problem with carting off pieces of Earth or Luna, but don't you dare move any part of those rings!)
--
Rob Kelk
"Governments have no right to question the loyalty of those who oppose
them. Adversaries remain citizens of the same state, common subjects of
the same sovereign, servants of the same law."
- Michael Ignatieff, addressing Stanford University in 2012
robkelk Wrote:As long as pieces of the rings don't get removed, there's no problem with this.
(Which, of course, makes the Fen hypocrites. They have no problem with carting off pieces of Earth or Luna, but don't you dare move any part of those rings!)
No, they don't come to steal the rings water. 
If no one else objects, I will place the station on Pan.
Posts: 8,933
Threads: 386
Joined: May 2006
Reputation:
3
I would have thought that Titan would have been more ideal. The atmosphere is mostly nitrogen with a bit of methane, and at bearable 1.45 standard atmospheres. Sure, it's chilly over there (-180°C - BRRRRR!) but there's also plenty of water-ice to be had as well.
... Wonder what'll happen if you aim a bunch of solar reflectors at Titan...
Posts: 25,483
Threads: 2,060
Joined: Feb 2005
Reputation:
12
blackaeronaut Wrote:... Wonder what'll happen if you aim a bunch of solar reflectors at Titan... I guess there's a reason I based Aria Company on Titan...
--
Rob Kelk
"Governments have no right to question the loyalty of those who oppose
them. Adversaries remain citizens of the same state, common subjects of
the same sovereign, servants of the same law."
- Michael Ignatieff, addressing Stanford University in 2012
Posts: 27,539
Threads: 2,267
Joined: Sep 2002
Reputation:
21
Why is icemining the Rings taboo? I mean, it's not like serious damage to the rings could be accomplished even over centuries with 'Waved equipment, there's just too much there. And there is a fan-acceptable precedent -- "The Martian Way" by Asimov.
-- Bob
---------
Then the horns kicked in...
...and my shoes began to squeak.
Bob Schroeck Wrote:Why is icemining the Rings taboo? I mean, it's not like serious damage to the rings could be accomplished even over centuries with 'Waved equipment, there's just too much there. And there is a fan-acceptable precedent -- "The Martian Way" by Asimov. If you start gathering ice for terraforming Mars and Venus, you need LOTS of it. And I think the Fen like the look of their ringed planet.
Posts: 1,427
Threads: 51
Joined: Sep 2003
Reputation:
1
I would suspect that, in all actuality, the restriction is meant to be exceptionally long-term preventative, so that people a couple of millennia hence don't look at historical records, and wonder at which point Saturn lost its rings...
Yes, there is an awful lot there, but on the gripping hand, it's so easily accessible (no real gravity well to contend with) that it would get used before literally any other source in the system.
--
"You know how parents tell you everything's going to fine, but you know they're lying to make you feel better? Everything's going to be fine." - The Doctor
Posts: 27,539
Threads: 2,267
Joined: Sep 2002
Reputation:
21
Then again, I suppose that with waved equipment, the Fen could mine the Kuyper belt with far less damage, and since it's beyond the Cochrane limit, the "big space-small objects" problem would be somewhat reduced.
-- Bob
---------
Then the horns kicked in...
...and my shoes began to squeak.
|
