I'm curious - what is being mined on Europa in your SF story?
Larry
At 10:16 AM 02/20/2001 -0800, Gail & Roberta wrote:
>Well, I guess that's the price of getting to the show after the curtain goes
>up. Sorry if I sounded like such a dunce, but I really did just get caught
>up in what's really being done. I am trying to start a sci fi story series
>based on the moons of Jupiter, and the idea of mining Europa for whatever is
>there intrigued me. To gain some semblance of credibility, I started
>searching the web for info, and found this site, plus the NASA site and
>several others. Got lots of interesting info, and hope to get more. These
>discussions show me how much I have to learn--as someone said long ago: "The
>more I learn, the more I realize how little I know." Please be patient with
>my ignorance--that can be cured!
>:-)
>----- Original Message -----
>From: Bruce Moomaw <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
>To: Icepick Europa Mailing List <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
>Sent: Monday, February 19, 2001 11:58 PM
>Subject: Re: OK, OK, OK, Enough!
>
>
>>
>>
>> -----Original Message-----
>> From: Gail & Roberta <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
>> To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
>> Date: Monday, February 19, 2001 8:49 PM
>> Subject: OK, OK, OK, Enough!
>>
>>
>> Haven't we milked this one dry already? What does all this have to do with
>> the possible exploration of one of Jupiter's moons anyhow? So Fox came up
>> with a stupid, but apparently entertaining show that no one in their right
>> minds would believe? Isn't sci-fi by it's very nature the same thing? OK,
>> forget I said that. I love sci-fi, I love to watch reruns of Star Trek in
>> all its permutations, even Babylon 5 is entertaining. But science? Naw,
>and
>> I don't even pretend it is.
>> So let's get back to discussing Europa.
>> When we land there, will we need flotation devices to float on the
>possibly
>> slushy ice? If we land on an ice island and want to drill through, will
>the
>> island drift so much that we'll lose our probes? Is there an atmosphere?
>How
>> hot is the core? Lots more interesting stuff to speculate about than some
>> crap served up on TV, don't you think?
>>
>>
>> The trouble is that this group has already long since chewed all that over
>> extremely thoroughly, throughout 1999 and 2000 (apparently before you got
>> here) -- and we're simply running out of specifically Europa-related stuff
>> to discuss. (Hopefully there will soon be some more of it, as I recently
>> noted.) That's precisely why many of us have moved over to Jason Perry's
>> "ISSDG" and "Jupiter List" chat groups, which deal with Solar System
>> exploration in general.
>>
>> Regarding your questions: Europa's crust is solid ice and anywhere from
>> several to several dozen km thick -- so we certainly don't need to worry
>> about floating on the surface or drifting on ice floes. It has an
>extremely
>> faint trace of atmosphere -- only a few hundred-millionths as dense as
>> Earth's -- and we have a good idea of most of the gases making it up. The
>> core may or may not be hot enough to provide any volcanic vents at all on
>> the floor of the subsurface ocean, but most of that floor is certainly
>near
>> 0 deg C, just like most of Earth's ocean floor. (Europa's tidal heating
>> from Jupiter is only about 1/10 of Io's.) This still leaves a tremendous
>> number of interesting questions about the place, of course -- with one of
>> the most lively recent subjects being an increased feeling among
>scientists
>> that Jupiter's radiation may produce a disproportionate concentration of
>> nutrients and other biologically useful chemicals in the TOP few meters of
>> Europa's ice, and that these may both be slowly transported down into the
>> underground ocean, or nourish microbes in local pockets of near-surface
>> water within the ice. (This, in turn, would mean that a productive search
>> for Europan life may not have to dig nearly as far down into the ice as
>the
>> originaly Cryobot would have -- but then, there was some feeling along
>those
>> lines anyway, since it's always seemed likely that long-dead but extremely
>> well-preserved Europan microbes may be preserved in the ice even near its
>> top.)
>>
>> Bruce Moomaw
>>
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