- Aug 20, 2004
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the moon titan may have liquid methane rain. would it be possible in the distant future to "mine" this methane?
Originally posted by: amish
the moon titan may have liquid methane rain. would it be possible in the distant future to "mine" this methane?
Originally posted by: Gibsons
Originally posted by: amish
the moon titan may have liquid methane rain. would it be possible in the distant future to "mine" this methane?
If you want to burn the methane for energy, you're going to need oxygen too.
Strap a rocket on that puppy and we'll splash her down in the Pacific. Unless, of course, it's larger than Earth, which it probably is.Originally posted by: Matthias99
So drag it over to Io and get some ice and use electrolysis... jeez! Do we have to think of everything?
We'd have to be pretty desperate here on Earth to want to go halfway across the solar system for some LNG. I suspect that even if fossil fuels run dry, it'll still be easier/cheaper to switch to renewable alternatives (like hydrogen/fuel cells, or ethanol-based fuels) than to try to get fuel from Titan back to Earth.
Originally posted by: CycloWizard
Strap a rocket on that puppy and we'll splash her down in the Pacific. Unless, of course, it's larger than Earth, which it probably is.Originally posted by: Matthias99
So drag it over to Io and get some ice and use electrolysis... jeez! Do we have to think of everything?
We'd have to be pretty desperate here on Earth to want to go halfway across the solar system for some LNG. I suspect that even if fossil fuels run dry, it'll still be easier/cheaper to switch to renewable alternatives (like hydrogen/fuel cells, or ethanol-based fuels) than to try to get fuel from Titan back to Earth.![]()
Originally posted by: everman
If we ever got to the point where we were to colonize the system of moons around saturn, I would be leaning towards us having a better means of energy production than via chemicals like methane. Perhaps something like antimatter. (a long long long ways away)
Originally posted by: Gilby
Originally posted by: everman
If we ever got to the point where we were to colonize the system of moons around saturn, I would be leaning towards us having a better means of energy production than via chemicals like methane. Perhaps something like antimatter. (a long long long ways away)
Antimatter? Eventually solar power should provide us with all we need. It pumps out an amazing amount, we just need to effectively harness it. Solar cells in orbit somehow beaming the power to earth would be my guess.
Originally posted by: Skyclad1uhm1
Originally posted by: Gilby
Originally posted by: everman
If we ever got to the point where we were to colonize the system of moons around saturn, I would be leaning towards us having a better means of energy production than via chemicals like methane. Perhaps something like antimatter. (a long long long ways away)
Antimatter? Eventually solar power should provide us with all we need. It pumps out an amazing amount, we just need to effectively harness it. Solar cells in orbit somehow beaming the power to earth would be my guess.
The further you get away from the sun, the less solar power you have. If you want to ever get away from Earth (space exploration rings a bell?) you therefor will need a different source of power. We can create antimatter, the problem we are now facing is not only creating larger quantities of it, but also containing and storing it safely.
If we'd build a huge particle accelerator in space with a lot of solar panels the panels could power it, and allow the creation of anti-matter. You then need strong electromagnetic fields though to separate the matter from the anti-matter, and even stronger electromagnetic fields to keep the anti-matter under control. Note that if any of the fields would fail for whatever reason the anti-matter could come into contact with matter, and you'd suddenly need to build a new particle accelerator.
Another possibility is to try and harness the immense energy contained in small black holes, but that might prove even harder than containing anti-matter.
Originally posted by: everman
If we ever got to the point where we were to colonize the system of moons around saturn, I would be leaning towards us having a better means of energy production than via chemicals like methane. Perhaps something like antimatter. (a long long long ways away)
Originally posted by: Matthias99
Originally posted by: Gibsons
Originally posted by: amish
the moon titan may have liquid methane rain. would it be possible in the distant future to "mine" this methane?
If you want to burn the methane for energy, you're going to need oxygen too.
So drag it over to Io and get some ice and use electrolysis... jeez! Do we have to think of everything?
We'd have to be pretty desperate here on Earth to want to go halfway across the solar system for some LNG. I suspect that even if fossil fuels run dry, it'll still be easier/cheaper to switch to renewable alternatives (like hydrogen/fuel cells, or ethanol-based fuels) than to try to get fuel from Titan back to Earth.
There's been talk of being able to create tiny black holes within the next two decades. However, they would be so small that they'd disintegrate very rapidly. Anything too large, and you could have problems, like when the laboratory is sucked in and efficiently converted into a huge burst of X-rays.What we really need is to create our own miniature folded space, basically a black hole with controls. We could feed it tons of energy, then later use a technique that causes the fold to emit the energy. Basically a spacetime capacitor.
Originally posted by: Jeff7
Originally posted by: Matthias99
Originally posted by: Gibsons
Originally posted by: amish
the moon titan may have liquid methane rain. would it be possible in the distant future to "mine" this methane?
If you want to burn the methane for energy, you're going to need oxygen too.
So drag it over to Io and get some ice and use electrolysis... jeez! Do we have to think of everything?
We'd have to be pretty desperate here on Earth to want to go halfway across the solar system for some LNG. I suspect that even if fossil fuels run dry, it'll still be easier/cheaper to switch to renewable alternatives (like hydrogen/fuel cells, or ethanol-based fuels) than to try to get fuel from Titan back to Earth.
Europa is the one that's covered in ice. Io has lots of sulphur.
And heck with all this mining - just stick some rockets on the moon, and send the whole thing here and have it orbit opposite our own moon. Double the tidal forces at the same time, and harvest that energy too.
So there's the plan....let's get to it! Anyone? No? Anyone......hm.
Antimatter has been mentioned - it's little more than an energy storage medium, as are fossil fuels. Fossil fuels react (burn) to release their stored energy. Antimatter would be combined with matter to release its energy.
There's been talk of being able to create tiny black holes within the next two decades. However, they would be so small that they'd disintegrate very rapidly. Anything too large, and you could have problems, like when the laboratory is sucked in and efficiently converted into a huge burst of X-rays.What we really need is to create our own miniature folded space, basically a black hole with controls. We could feed it tons of energy, then later use a technique that causes the fold to emit the energy. Basically a spacetime capacitor.
Originally posted by: DrPizza
Originally posted by: Skyclad1uhm1
Originally posted by: Gilby
Originally posted by: everman
If we ever got to the point where we were to colonize the system of moons around saturn, I would be leaning towards us having a better means of energy production than via chemicals like methane. Perhaps something like antimatter. (a long long long ways away)
Antimatter? Eventually solar power should provide us with all we need. It pumps out an amazing amount, we just need to effectively harness it. Solar cells in orbit somehow beaming the power to earth would be my guess.
The further you get away from the sun, the less solar power you have. If you want to ever get away from Earth (space exploration rings a bell?) you therefor will need a different source of power. We can create antimatter, the problem we are now facing is not only creating larger quantities of it, but also containing and storing it safely.
If we'd build a huge particle accelerator in space with a lot of solar panels the panels could power it, and allow the creation of anti-matter. You then need strong electromagnetic fields though to separate the matter from the anti-matter, and even stronger electromagnetic fields to keep the anti-matter under control. Note that if any of the fields would fail for whatever reason the anti-matter could come into contact with matter, and you'd suddenly need to build a new particle accelerator.
Another possibility is to try and harness the immense energy contained in small black holes, but that might prove even harder than containing anti-matter.
And, if you think about it, the antimatter becomes just a way to transport energy. The energy really came from solar energy. Much the way people are touting hydrogen fueled cars are forgetting that the hydrogen is just merely a means to transport the energy... energy was used elsewhere to convert water to hydrogen (or some other process that yields hydrogen.) That energy either comes from solar, wind, hydroelectric, fossil fuels, or nuclear, [edit: or non-fossil fuels such as burning corn stalks]. AFAIK, these are the only available means for us to readily produce energy. Anything else is just a storage/transportation means for that energy.
btw, what small black holes are there for us to harness the energy from? I've heard we'll be creating a few on earth once the new particle accelerator in Europe is online.. but it's not yet, plus I think the energy out would be less than the energy in to create the black hole in the first place. (But, I'm not certain, since now we're talking about mass converting to energy)
A dyson sphere would be nice for doing that
Originally posted by: Skyclad1uhm1
It's not bigger than the Earth itself, but it is bigger than our own moon. If it came anywhere near Earth the gravitational forces would probably exterminate most life on Earth.
Originally posted by: Calin
Originally posted by: Skyclad1uhm1
It's not bigger than the Earth itself, but it is bigger than our own moon. If it came anywhere near Earth the gravitational forces would probably exterminate most life on Earth.
No, it will not. If it remains on Moon orbit or a more distant one, there won't be problems more important than higher tides and maybe some earthquakes.
Originally posted by: Calin
A ring would be much cheaper - see the Ring's trilogy (Ringworld, Ringworld's Engineers, Ringworld's Children, Protector)
The books were very entertaining, and quite interesting in most aspects
Calin
Originally posted by: Jeff7
A dyson sphere would be nice for doing that
Of course, I've read about how much material it would take to actually create a Dyson Sphere. 12,000 planets is the estimate for a 100m thick sphere. And it would have to be extremely strong stuff too.
But yes, solar energy is effectively limitless - and if you've got such long range goals that will require more than one solar lifetime, then we'll probably have technology by then that'll let us all move to another star system.