Harvesting gases from planets

[Chipstone306]

I've been thinking about this for a while...has nasa or anyother organization that has or had made plans to harvest gases from planets like say saturn or uranus :huh:

 

[Bj]

I've been thinking about this for a while...has nasa or anyother organization that has or had made plans to harvest gases from planets like say saturn or uranus :huh:

not that i have seen, but lets think about it, that means that they will have to build a rocket big enough to get there, and get into the atmosphere of a biger planet, with higher gravity, and grab some gas, and return would mean that they would have to burn more fuel to get the fuel, all in all, not really efficiant

 

[Chipstone306]

what about moons that have frozen gases like europa or io? useful in the future i guess

 

[Bj]

what about moons that have frozen gases like europa or io? useful in the future i guess

but the problem is 'gettin' there and back, exept comming back with a hudge payload, true the moons have less gravity, but they still have to go and pick up gas, and come back,

and from earth to jupiter/saturn is a long trip
:lol:

 

[Lunar Pilot]

base

What about using it as a refueling station, like in 2010: A Space Odyssey (but without getting killed by creepy giant plant creatures?)

 

[SiberianTiger]

I've been thinking about this for a while...has nasa or anyother organization that has or had made plans to harvest gases from planets like say saturn or uranus :huh:

This might make sence in a more or less distant future when/if Earth's energy producing will rely on Helium-3 consuming fusion reactors. Uranus and Neptune are believed to be abundant (effectively limitless) reservoirs of this isotope. At a certain step in space technology development, it might become a good possibility that a long chain of fusion-powered gas tankers reaching for Uranus, diving into atmosphere, collecting and distilling the gas and then departing back for Earth will solve the humanity's energy problems.

 

[TSPenguin]

How feasable would it be to bring one of them in Earth orbit. And if not that into an orbit much easier to reach. As compared to sending hundreds of (automated) ships there?
It would be a long term solution and can easily be done while simultaniously harvesting it.
The idea would be to put a generator 'there' and have it power some engines.

 

[SiberianTiger]

How feasable would it be to bring one of them in Earth orbit.

To bring what?

 

[Urwumpe]

How feasable would it be to bring one of them in Earth orbit.

OK, do you know what a gas giant is? Can you imagine, what being close to "Jupiter" means? Or transporting Jupiter? It is easier to turn the moon into a interplanetary spacecraft, than to move Jupiter out of it's usual orbit.

 

[streb2001]

Read "Imperial Earth" by Arthur C Clarke where he describes orbiting ramscoops collecting hydrogen from Titan's upper atmosphere. This book also has his best-developed characters IMO.

 

[dutchpirate]

Strap a couple of boosters onto a CL-415 waterbomber and go for it!:speakcool:

Actually, it's a cool concept, just have to make it efficient.

 

[Chipstone306]

something of that nature would work ! or a space elevator type of system like a giant straw

 

[Zatnikitelman]

About the only two planets I can see this working on is the Moon and Mars, and the Moon isn't even a planet. Moon may have enough ice to refuel LOX/LH2 powered craft as well as water for a colony, or orbiting station. Mars may not only have the ice, but also has a CO2 rich atmosphere. And what do you get when you combine Carbon with Hydrogen? Methane! Granted, nowhere near as powerful as a LOX/LH2 engine, but there's just such a huge supply of Carbon on Mars it just might work.

 

[TSPenguin]

OK, do you know what a gas giant is? Can you imagine, what being close to "Jupiter" means? Or transporting Jupiter? It is easier to turn the moon into a interplanetary spacecraft, than to move Jupiter out of it's usual orbit.

Sorry for beeing so unclear. I wasn't at all refering to gas giants.
I was thinking of small moons or planetoids. Something much smaller than our moon.
Of course this would have to take place over hundreds of years.

 

[Lunar Pilot]

Funny

Oh, yeah, if it's such a good idea, why don't you figure out how to get a 33,000 mile wide planet in orbit around the Earth. It's more likely you'd turn the Earth into a Moon, and the Moon would get all weird.

 

[TSPenguin]

Oh, yeah, if it's such a good idea, why don't you figure out how to get a 33,000 mile wide planet in orbit around the Earth. It's more likely you'd turn the Earth into a Moon, and the Moon would get all weird.

Continouus thrust through an fusion powered engine ejecting the objects own matter and a few hundred years.

 

[thomasantony]

Continouus thrust through an fusion powered engine ejecting the objects own matter and a few hundred years.

A few problems there. You are off the mark on the time period there by QUITE a few orders of magnitude. Jupiter is just too freaking massive. It would be like an amoeba trying to push Mount everest ..

And another problem being , where do we "push"? No solid surface is present as its a GAS giant. The depth at which it is theorized to have metallic hydrogen is supposed to be at 10,000 K and have a pressure is 200 GPa .
The temperature is like 36000K at the core boundary.

~
Thomas

 

[ijuin]

To give you a sense of scale, Neptune is thirty times as massive as the Earth. If you had the ability to move Neptune significantly in its orbit, then you can move Earth's orbit far more easily.

Besides, moving Neptune just to have it closer to Earth while we dismantle it is rather like dragging an entire California Sequoia tree to the sawmill in one piece instead of cutting it into sections where you felled it--you don't actually gain a lot since you have to spend just as much overall energy.

 

[Eagle]

If we start ramscooping planets, I'd bet Earth would be first. Put a big enough ramscoop on ISS and you get free Air, water, and reaction mass(need a Nuclear or Electric propulsion system to use the relatively inert reaction mass).

Suddenly ISS's needs drop to MREs and clean underwear.

 

[SiberianTiger]

If we start ramscooping planets, I'd bet Earth would be first. Put a big enough ramscoop on ISS and you get free Air, water, and reaction mass(need a Nuclear or Electric propulsion system to use the relatively inert reaction mass).

Suddenly ISS's needs drop to MREs and clean underwear.

It would need to be outfitted with a fission reactor first.