Can Jupiters Atmosphere be used as a potential source of fuel?

Discussion in 'Astronomy, Exobiology, & Cosmology' started by mushiman2, Dec 29, 2016.

  1. mushiman2 Registered Member

    Messages:
    8
    When ever i think about Jupiter, I think of it as a potential source of fuel for future space missions. It could be used as a "space" gas station, through lowering a reinforced pump into the upper layer of the atmosphere and pumping hydrogen out to refuel space crafts that can run on hydrogen. I think that this can be possible as it dosent involve space crafts having to to actually enter the Jovian atmosphere, which would take a lot of fuel and time to reach the required escape velocity of 59.5 km/s which would be a very huge inconvinience.. There could also be the same idea in theory for utilising Saturn. So can people please guide me to whether this idea is plausible or not.
     
  2. Google AdSense Guest Advertisement



    to hide all adverts.
  3. billvon Valued Senior Member

    Messages:
    21,635
    You still have to collect, pressurize and then accelerate the fuel to orbital speed to make it useful for spacecraft - and Jupiter is one of the deepest gravity wells in the system. So overall, not that useful a source.
     
    danshawen likes this.
  4. Google AdSense Guest Advertisement



    to hide all adverts.
  5. mushiman2 Registered Member

    Messages:
    8
    I do agree with what you have said, but all of these conditions could be dealt with with future progression in technologoical advancements
     
  6. Google AdSense Guest Advertisement



    to hide all adverts.
  7. billvon Valued Senior Member

    Messages:
    21,635
    Well, sure - but so could the lack of hydrogen for fuel. For example, ion engines greatly reduce the need for reaction mass.
     
  8. Janus58 Valued Senior Member

    Messages:
    2,394
    To lower a pump into the atmosphere, you would have to start in a jovi-stationary orbit ( otherwise, the receiving end and whatever was lowering it would be moving at a different speed than the atmosphere and would be subject to drag.) it would take ~977MJ per kg to move the hydrogen from the atmosphere to the altitude of the starting orbit. The energy content of hydrogen is only 142MJ per kg or ~1/7 the energy needed to extract it. If you had an energy supply that could power the pump in the first place, at that level of inefficiency, it would make better sense to just use electrolysis on the ice for one of the further moons or another icy body. That way you get the oxidizer included in the bargain.
     
  9. mushiman2 Registered Member

    Messages:
    8
    How about if a smaller gas giant is used instead?
     
  10. mushiman2 Registered Member

    Messages:
    8
    Our constant need for energy is in a less supply-more demand where we cannot continue living the way we are, which would mean research into extra-terrestrial sources of energy.
     
  11. mushiman2 Registered Member

    Messages:
    8
    This is where the kardashev scale, comes into play, where we as a species are currently lying on being a 0.7 civilisation, where we mainly rely on fossil fuels as a source of energy and are on the brink of becoming a type 1 civilisation in a century or less.
     
  12. mushiman2 Registered Member

    Messages:
    8
    Once we achieve type 1 civilisation, we would be able to satisfy our energy demands to a sufficent enough scale to where we can start building dyson spheres or a swarm of dyson satellites which would need a huge amount of resources, which we could get from terraforming planets and taking their resources to build these.
     
  13. mushiman2 Registered Member

    Messages:
    8
    As you may know, the planet Mercury has a large solid iron core, which could be utilised to start building the dyson swarm or mirror. Where the first dyson satellite could be used as a energy source to build the next dyson satellites and so on.
     
  14. timojin Valued Senior Member

    Messages:
    3,252
    Do you have to mash his pipe dream.
     
  15. Seattle Valued Senior Member

    Messages:
    8,857
    Too much fiction and not enough science. Earth has an iron core as well but we can't get to it and neither could we do so on Mars.
     
  16. mushiman2 Registered Member

    Messages:
    8
    Your such a simpleton, THE EARTHS CORE IS WHAT KEEPS US ALIVE! and Mars is not what i mentioned, I said MERCURY not MARS!
     
  17. origin Heading towards oblivion Valued Senior Member

    Messages:
    11,888
    8 posts and you are already calling people names? Are you a sockpuppet or something?
     
  18. billvon Valued Senior Member

    Messages:
    21,635
    A smaller gas giant would quickly lose its hydrogen.
    Fortunately we have an excellent source of extraterrestrial energy from nuclear fusion - the sun. It currently supplies far more energy than we could possibly use.
     

Share This Page