If we could live right below Saturns rings!? Please Register or Log in to view the hidden image! Seeing the sunset from Saturns clouds may be the, most spetacular and beautiful view in the universe! The rings would reflect the sunlight and it would be like a rainbow of ligtin the sky! So... how far away are we from that? Probably not on our lifetime, eh? Please Register or Log in to view the hidden image! What could we do to make it possible? I mean... what kind of deign for a space-station above clouds and ize and food and so on, considering that we will certainly have fuion poer by then... Any thoughts? Please Register or Log in to view the hidden image!
it would probably suck since there is like no heat or atmosphere to live on... And your house would be constantly bombarded by particles from Saturn's rings.. but the view? yeah, it would kick ass
I suppose balloon cities permanently floating in the upper atmospheres of the giant planets are a technical possibility for the far future. They'd have to be above the permanent cloud tops to escape the worst storms, and utilise solar energy. From some latitudes on Saturn, the Sun would be eclipsed by the ring system for a several Earth-years at a time. You'd have a multi-faceted refractive twilight all day... But hey - if we keep filling Earth's geosynchronous orbit with junk, eventually our own planet might have a visible ring!
Truthseeker: Oh god it makes my heart melt and panties wet just thinking of the beauty there. Saturn has always been tantalizing to me, the rings, the storms, the absurdity. We have a probe, named after the first man to actually see them not as "ears" as Galileo did but as rings (the Huygens probe), that is on its way to land on Titan this year- one of Sauturn's moons and most interesting of all the moons in our solar system other than Europe simply beucase its like a small prebiotic Earth. But considering a system to live in inside of Saturn, sounds impossible. Whirling about turbulent storms up to 2 thousand miles an hour with nothing save huge quantities of hydrogen and helium with small doses of methane and ammonia as atmosphere- fat. fucking. chance. I highly doubt we could bulid anyting that could keep us alive inside a turubulent gas planet. Standing on Titan and looking up at those gorgeous rings would be just as nice.
Look at how amazing earth is and some people are bored with it. Looking up at some lights in the sky from a desolate wasteland would surely get very boring very fast.
Lou: Earth is boring because of that blue blanket lying to us about the universe, we are left here in the ignorant calm of putting up with platitude. I doubt any of us would be bored whirling around 2 thousand miles a damn hour with about 1000 rings up there shifting every year or so with precession.
Unfortunately Titan's atmosphere is opaque to visible light, so standing on its surface looking upwards we would see not beautiful Saturn and her rings, but... smog. Shame.
Here's a great site that lets you keep up with the Saturn probe and new images from that probe that you will enjoy! http://saturn.jpl.nasa.gov/index.cfm
I'm very pleased that I wet the panties of a girl. Please Register or Log in to view the hidden image! Thanks. That was my life's dream. I thought I would realize it another way but... anyways... Please Register or Log in to view the hidden image! Care to post a picture of yourself? Just kidding Please Register or Log in to view the hidden image! Maybe somewhere between the clouds and the rings??
I'm bored here. But I'm bored because I work everyday in a city and don't get out of here very often. That's why it is boring. I feel like I'm in prison... :bugeye:
Sorry, but the rings will have to go. You can call me a Philistine but theyare a hazard to shipping; any ship coming out of Saturn's one gee gravity well has to accelerate past the rings without intercepting them- quite a costly manoevre. they also represent one of the biggest reservoirs of water in the solar system not located on the surface of a planet. Millions of spacecraft could use this water as reaction mass; the fraction of deuterium for fusion is low but useable; and of course water can be used for life support and in many manufacturing processes. Enjoy them while you can; they will soon be dismantled for resources once we get there. ------------- SF worldbuilding at http://www.orionsarm.com
Given the aesthetic appeal of the rings, it might be that public opinion would not allow such a thing. The low surface gravity of moons such as Tethys and Dione - which seem to composed of almost pure ice - would make them easy enough to mine for propellent. As for not being able to fly past them safely: they ARE limited to a single plane! Please Register or Log in to view the hidden image! The total thickness of the rings is probably less than 1 km. Launching from most places in Saturn's atmosphere, one would avoid the rings entirely.
Only if you go straight up... any trjectory that carries you past the rings has to climb 7000 km in less than half an orbit- quite a feat of acceleration.
If you grant the practicality of establishing launch sites and manned platforms so deep in Saturn's gravity well - existing stably inside the atmosphere - a nearly direct climb back out doesn't seem so fantastic by comparison.
Huummm... quite interesting discussion... Please Register or Log in to view the hidden image! gendanken, I didn't mean to scare you away... Please Register or Log in to view the hidden image! Please Register or Log in to view the hidden image!
I wouldn't worry , mate - it was her who mentioned panties first! Besides: Gendanken might not even be a girl...
I don't worry. It's just soooo funny! Please Register or Log in to view the hidden image! Please Register or Log in to view the hidden image! I could add more to that, but... better not. Please Register or Log in to view the hidden image!
In a future time of cheap interplanetary travel, Saturn's rings would be a popular tourist attraction (like DUH! - you must be thinking...); perhaps you could take someone like a lady forumite there in order to propose?
