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Hydrogen Source

 Saturn is a big ball of hydrogen
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(+1, -2) 		  [vote for,
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It seems odd to me that with all this talk of hydrogen power, and no way to efficiently produce hydrogen, we should be rethinking all these trips to Jupitors icy moons. If we realy want to make our space program meaningfull and profitable at the same time, take all these stupid exploratory missions that accomplish nothing other than a minute advancement in our understanding of the solar sytem and merge them into one project, the Saturn Hydrogen Acquisition Mission. Or SHAM. Buid one large ship to travel to saturn with a nuclear power source until it returns with its first load of hydrogen, then it can be rebuilt to be powered by hydrogen, and then sent back for more. Saturns atmosphere is primarily composed of Hydrogen, and we don't have to kill any Saturnians for it either.
—TimD, Jun 12 2003

Hydrogen will have even worse impact on ozone holes http://www.nature.c...0609/030609-14.html
[TimD, Oct 04 2004, last modified Oct 06 2004]

[link]






       Issues: 1. Hydrogen alone doesn't burn - you need Oxygen.   

       2. Heat capacity of Oxygen/Hydrogen mixture. Do you realize the amount of energy you would need to move enough Oxygen from Earth / Hydrogen from Saturn to make this pay off? My guess is that it never will.   

       There are many others, but I won't waste my time until you solve 1 and 2.
—Worldgineer, Jun 12 2003
   

       The specifics are faulty, but the premise is sound (and has been done in SciFi).   

       Instead of a spaceship moving back and forth, make it an automated factory in Saturn/Jupiter/Neptune orbit. Nuclear power is fine, but solar and/or electromagnetic are, too - choose your favorite combination. Have the automated factory extract/process/package (in big balloons?) the gases desired, then send them on their way.   

       "Saturns atmosphere is primarily composed of Hydrogen, and we don't have to kill any Saturnians for it either."
Are you sure?
—phoenix, Jun 12 2003
   

       Wow... so completely without clue.
—waugsqueke, Jun 12 2003
   

       This is plain stupid. Why would anyone go all the way to Saturn to get hydrogen when there is a WHOLE LOT MORE right there in the sun. And it's white hot already, so you don't have to burn it.

I don't know about any Solarians. They could be a problem.
—pluterday, Jun 12 2003
   

       Nah, just go at night so they don't notice us. <insert rim shot here>
—krelnik, Jun 12 2003
   

       Forget about all this back and forth CRAP! Get one of those giant cables [Worldgineer] is going to string to a black hole, hollow it out into a tube, bring one end to Saturn, and use it to pump hydrogen directly from Saturn to the earth. It could be called Project SHT (Saturnalian Hydrogen Tube).
—bungston, Jun 12 2003
   

       Escaping either the sun or Saturn's gravity could become a problem. Good thing hydrogen is lighter than air...
—RayfordSteele, Jun 12 2003
   

       Judging by the acronym, I'm guessing this is another of those failed tongue-in-cheek entries. Perhaps we should just mfd this one out of its misery - scooping up hydrogen from gas giants for fuel is a sci fi staple.
—DrCurry, Jun 12 2003
   

       Just send one tiny little rocket to an asteroid. The rocket knocks the asteroid out of orbit so ...   

       ... the asteroid collides with one of Saturn's moons and knocks it out of orbit so ...   

       ... Saturn's moon collides with Mars and knocks it out of orbit so ...   

       ... Mars collides with Saturn and knocks it out of orbit so ...   

       ... Saturn collides with Earth and knocks it out of orbit so ...   

       ... Earth collides with the sun.   

       If we hold on to Saturn tightly after the collision we now have Hydrogen from Saturn and sun so we never have worry about Hydrogen again.   

       Now, that' a scientific challenge and useful project.
—kbecker, Jun 13 2003
   

       i think emmanuel velikovsky baked that.
—pjd, Jun 13 2003
   

       ... and no-one told me?
—PeterSilly, Jun 13 2003
   

       Didn't the Saturn IB have a mix of liquid hydrogen and liquid oxygen as propellant for second-stage in launches? Maybe you could get some of that propellant the old-fashioned way - by stealing it from old, forgotten, barnacle-encrusted boosters n stuff.
—thumbwax, Jun 13 2003
   

       Just to update, my intention was an unmanned vessel (phoenix) as the extra energy it would take to support a crew would be unnecessary with current navigation systems. Also, Worldgineer, If this is true, (needing O2)than we would just add it back on earth when the shipment arrives. Why the heck would we take it out there anyway? (O2) The ship is just a carrier, not a processing plant. Also, (RayforSteele) what age are you living in? A plutonium powered satelite is still heading for the outer reaches of our solar system. Escaping the gravity of planets and the sun has been going on since the fist satelite launch, and so on.
—TimD, Jun 13 2003
   

       pluterday - :) very funny, you can fly the first test craft into the sun to collect the white hot hydrogen... Deal?
—TimD, Jun 13 2003
   

       Yeah pluter.. what _were_ you thinkin'?   

       That's funny... this guy using scientific principles to shoot down someone else's joke. Heh.
—waugsqueke, Jun 13 2003
   

       Dr Curry - I have over 50 DVD's, and here are all the Sci-Fi ones (I dont watch TV otherwise)   

       Starwars - Attack of the clones, 2001: A space oddessy, Event Horizon, and all the Aliens accept the prison planet one, Dune, and Mission to Mars...   

       Obviously, Im not a sci-fi nut, and I don't remember seeing any movies where they took gas from gas giants. In fact, of all the movies I have seen, Matrix, Aliens, and so on, they use a nuclear power source. I am more intersted in Sci-NonFi, and I'll take credit for that new word :)...
—TimD, Jun 13 2003
   

       waugsqueke - I was being funny also... sorry you didn't pick that up
—TimD, Jun 13 2003
   

       Have ever even *tasted* hydrogen sauce? A decent bearnaise blows the doors off it.
—snarfyguy, Jun 13 2003
   

       snarfguy, I'll remember that the next time I make liver and onions... lol
—TimD, Jun 13 2003
   

       Well, so much for this idea,... see link
—TimD, Jun 13 2003
   

       timmyd, I think you may have missed a *fairly* major point about the Matrix.
—BunsenHoneydew, Feb 28 2004
   

       Uh, we got a great big fat ocean full of hydrogen right here on earth. Sounds more efficient to me just to use solar powered electrolysis to seperate out all the hydrogen you want from the worlds oceans. Am I missing something?
—Anarch, Apr 09 2004
   

       we know how to create hydrogen and anti hydrogen right here on earth. These to would be obviously kept in seperate chamber and combined would decimate each other and create energy. this requires no burning, oxygen, or other materials as fuel.   

       4. It might accidentally launch the Earth out of the solar system. 5. It would really hurt your cheeks.
—Worldgineer, Mar 06 2007
   

       I'm with pluterday.
—ldischler, Mar 06 2007
   

       1. OK 2. Only if we hire a bunch of sloths. 3. Steer tube out of the way by venting hydrogen. 4. Celestial crack-the-whip is only one of the fun games one can play with {World]'s indestructable cord. 5. Cheeks will toughen up, probably.
—bungston, Mar 07 2007
   
      
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