These may seem a very naive questions and if they are I apologize, but I am
interested in answers to several questions.
1. Can it be said that Europa's ice crust is floating on a liquid layer? I
assume Yes is the answer.
2. If it is floating and if the ice is several kilometers thick what is the
magnitude of the pressure on a submersible say 100 meters below the ice?
3. Is the amount of pressure the sum of the weight of ice directly above
plus the weight (in Europan gravity)of the 100 meters of water.
4. Or, does the icy crust weigh in at some higher value summing from all
directions? Since the ice is surrounding the moon and exerting immense
pressures everywhere. The water is nearly incompressable and my "high
school" memory of hydraulics says that pressure is exerted from all
directions.
5. Or is the weight of the ice negated because it's floating? Which doesn't
seem right.
Unrelated to pressure
6. Is there a "radiation wake" anywhere on Europa where, due to its motion,
or being tidally locked to jupiter, the effect of the Jovian Radiation belts
is lessened?
7. I have seen many chemicals suggested as being in solution, or lately, in
combination would have preciptiated out. Has anyone collected a list of
these "potential" chemicals? Seems like that would be the makings of a
decent science project to see what's left if they are/were all there an one
time.
Mickey Schmidt
-----Original Message-----
From: Bruce Moomaw [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]]
Sent: Tuesday, February 27, 2001 10:21 AM
To: Icepick Europa Mailing List
Subject: Re: Europa submersible hypothetical
-----Original Message-----
From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Date: Monday, February 26, 2001 7:10 PM
Subject: Re: Europa submersible hypothetical
>
>In a message dated 2/26/2001 6:13:18 AM Alaskan Standard Time,
>[EMAIL PROTECTED] writes:
>
>> >And on an unrelated note, speculation is that the ocean is extrememly
heavy
>> in salts and sulfuric acid, right? So what would Europan seawater smell
>like
>> if exposed to air? Sulphur stink? Ordinary saltwater? Or something else
>> entirely?
>> >
>>
>>
>> Well, it would probaly be pretty stinky -- although one thing made
>painfully
>> clear at the Ames "Europa Focus Group" I attended is that we have no
really
>> good data whatsoever about what kind of materials may be mixed with the
>> water. The only conclusion that could be reached is that there are a
lot
>of
>> sulfur compounds -- sulfuric acid, elemental sulfur and/or sulfate
salts.
>> In fact, Europa's water may well be so salty that the serious
possibility
>> was raised that a Europa Cryobot, in the process of melting its way
through
>> even a few meters of ice, would find itself solidly encased in
crystallized
>> salts -- making a mechanical drill in the nose an equal necessity.
>
>Bruce, or any industrialist out there... what can you DO with all that
>sulfur? Can it be used for fuel, of any variety?
>
Well, I ain't an industrialist -- and my knowledge of chemistry is minimal,
as you learned yesterday when I thought sulfur was water-soluble -- but I
imagine all that sulfur (and the organics likely to be floating around in
Europa's water-ice layer) would surely have at least local uses. But keep
in mind that mining Jupiter's moons for resources for a Solar System-wide
society would be wildly impractical: you have that huge gravity well that
you have to propel any substances you mine out of, and mining in that
super-intense radiation environment would be a very dangerous pain in the
neck. The only conceivable reason would be if there was something on
Jupiter's moons that can't be found or made anywhere else -- and I can't
think of any such substance.
As for burning sulfur for fuel: keep in mind that you have to burn it WITH
something, and Europa is singularly short on free oxygen (although it does
have a little, thanks to the breakdown of water ice by Jupiter's radiation).
I don't know what happens when you react sulfur with hydrogen peroxide
(which Europa does have in considerable amounts).
Bruce Moomaw
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