Image 1:This cutaway view of Saturn’s moon: Enceladus is an artist’s rendering that depicts possible hydrothermal activity that may be taking place on and under the seafloor of the moon’s subsurface ocean, based on results from NASA’s Cassini mission. Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech (ScitechDaily)
When we think small moons of distant gas giants like Jupiter and Saturn are a nice place for making space stations. We are wrong.
Those moons are not like our own Moon. There are deep oceans under the ice core of those moons. Their surface is always under strong tidal forces.
The reason why the moons that have a weak gravity have oceans is the ice core. Without that core, the water will escape to space. And that means the place of the lithosphere on those moons is water. The massive tidal forces are keeping their oceans melted.
The lava of those moons is water. And the icy core of the moons is breaking because of the massive tidal waves. The icequakes that are shaking the ice core are causing massive waves and that means that landing on those moons would be extremely dangerous. There is the possibility that inside those oceans would be built the station and the water would protect the crew against cosmic radiation.
The simplest version of artificial photosynthesis is that the solar panels will break water molecules into hydrogen and oxygen. At the distant gas giants, the nuclear reactors can deliver electricity to the electrolysis chambers that are breaking water molecules.
And in wild cosmo-biological visions of the extraterrestrial lifeforms, the alien (exoplanetary) organism could have similar electric organs with electric eel. And they could synthesize oxygen in their bodies. Who knows what kind of routes evolution chooses on other planets? But normally, scientists say that the sunlight is too weak at the distance of the moons like Enceladus. The volcanic temperature can also give energy to lifeforms. So that means the possibility of the extraterrestrial lifeforms is not closed away from those moons.
Image 2: A satellite image of the research study site on the Ross Ice Shelf in Antarctica (top). Shows two rifts in the ice from rising and falling tides. Similarly sized “tiger stripe fractures” crease the ice in Enceladus’ South Polar Terrain, in an image captured by the Cassini Imaging Team. From figure 1 of the new study. Credit: AGU/ JGR: Planets (Scitech daily/Icequakes Likely Rumble Along Geyser-Spitting Fractures on Saturn’s Icy Moon Enceladus)
But that thing would happen only in the distant future. The icy moons are interesting because that similar dwarf planet that looks like Enceladus can orbit many stars there are no observable planets. Also, there is a very small possibility that the oceans that exist under the ice core of those moons would swim tiny organisms like amoeba or even "fishes".
Those icy moons are causing problems for the space probes. Some of those ice moons are impossible to land. There is the possibility to benefit the water of those moons as rocket fuel. The electrolysis will split water molecules.
And hydrogen and oxygen will use in rocket engines. Conventional rocket engines are needed for small rockets that are getting samples from the moons and atmospheres of the gas giants. Then the larger nuclear-powered shuttles that use NERVA-type systems will bring those samples to Earth.
And especially in the futuristic missions to other planets. If some craft would land on those icy moons. There is the possibility that the ice will collapse under them. That thing can cause that the probe will drop into the ocean. Before manned spaceflight to other planets is started the unmanned AI-control systems are sent to those planets.
Their mission is to map the safe landing areas for manned spaceflight. Mission to the gas giants can take years. Then the samples must take to laboratories. For analyzing the possibility. Is there is some kind of organism under the ice cores of the icy moons of gas planets? Those kinds of things are not closed away before the research.
Images and sources:
https://scitechdaily.com/icequakes-likely-rumble-along-geyser-spitting-fractures-on-saturns-icy-moon-enceladus/
https://thoughtsaboutsuperpositions.blogspot.com/
Comments
Post a Comment