3 ms·
I say we send a robotic craft to Saturn's rings, lasso a gigantic chunk of ice, and haul it back to earth orbit. Solved. And if that works, grab another billi
by blisterpeanuts 11y ago
I say we send a robotic craft to Saturn's rings, lasso a gigantic chunk of ice, and haul it back to earth orbit. Solved.
And if that works, grab another billion ton chunk and send it crashing into southern California, to solve the drought.
- LeifCarrotson 11y agoThat (with the exception that they're taking the water to water-impoverished Mars, rather than Earth orbit or California) is basically the plot of The Martian Way by Asimov. Unfortunately, it doesn't work that way in real life, because Saturn's rings are more like diffuse snow flurries than mountain-sized ice chunks, as cool as that would be. And coupling your little interplanetary probe to an ice mountain really cuts into your delta-V numbers.
- blisterpeanuts 11y agoHm, you're right, largest chunks are said to be several meters in diameter. They'd probably have to drag the rings with a ginormous net to achieve the same volumes. For propulsion, I would go with a solar sail. Use it to get the craft to the rings, then it becomes a net to scoop up the water ice, and the craft could harvest the water for fuel to get home. You could get a whole army of these things flying back and forth, and within a century or so, Mars could, as you suggest, become terraformed.