8th Grade Science Project; Colonization on Europa

[kewlioto]

Hey there. I am a 14 year old doing an exit science fair project on the colonization of europa. I came across this site from google, and I sasw how knowledgable and educated the people on this site were, so I decided to make a post. I am looking for maily sources, like good inetrnet sites or books, to sue for my project. General info is greatly appreciated also. Thank you!

 

[adzel_3000]

<br />I have very little interest or background in the area of space colonization but here are (perhaps) three helpful links.<br /><br />One is a discussion among Space.com forum members….<br /><br />http://uplink.space.com/showflat.php?Cat=&Board=sciastro&Number=136283&page=10&view=collapsed&sb=5&o=0&fpart=<br /><br />And this other is a site with a plethora of resources and related sites:<br /><br />http://www.absoluteastronomy.com/encyclopedia/s/sp/space_colonization.htm<br /><br />And at http://www.asi.org/ the Artemis Project apparently had a side study looking in to this topic.<br /><br />In future, I would also strongly encourage you to first turn to your parents, teachers, or folks in a local astronomy club for help gathering any type of information.<br /><br />Very best regards & best of luck on your project!!<br /><br />--A3K<br />

 

[aaron38]

What's wrong with helping the kid out a bit?<br /><br />Actually Europa would not be a good candidate for colonization.<br /><br />As a potential home for life, the moon would be quaranteened, off limit to the contamination of a colony.<br /><br />Also, being close to Jupiter, the moon lies within the radiation belt. Not as bad as Io, but radiation levels on the surface are too high.<br /><br />Ganymede and Calisto are the moons of choice for colonization in the Jovian system. For a book with a good layman's description please check out Robert Zubrin's 'Entering Space'.

 

[arobie]

Hi Kewlioto!<br /><br />First, I'de like to welcome you to Space.com. Great place and smart people. I've learned alot. <img src="/images/icons/laugh.gif" /><br /><br />Second, I'de just like to say; Adzel_3000, don't be so mean. Whats wrong with asking for help? I ask for help here also, like in my Rocket Design Help thread. People know what their talking about and if they are willing to help, they will. I don't know where else I can find such experts on anything from broad space colonization to simple rocket science.<br /><br />Third, about your project. Could you give us more information about your project? Are you trying to work out a plan for colonization? Are you trying to decide if it's possible? <br /><br />Also what kind of information are you looking for? General Europa information, like Europa statistics and conditions? Studies about colonizing Europa?<br /><br />This thread: Mars Settlement precursor thread and this thread: Let's Design a Settlement for Mars! are not exactly about colonizing Europa, actually about Mars, but you might get some idea's. Still the same basic concept, colonization.<br /><br />Well, please give us some more information, and I wish you luck.

 

[mental_avenger]

Europa does not lend itself to colonization for several reasons. But, it your project MUST be on colonizing Europa, there are a few factors you should be aware of.<br /><br />The radiation level on Europa is very high, and would kill exposed humans in minutes. We currently do not have transportable shielding that would protect us on the surface, so under the ice would be the only place that would be safe. Just getting down to the surface and then getting far enough down to be protected may not be feasible.<br /><br />It is theorized that there is a liquid water ocean below all that ice. The planet no doubt has a rocky core, and it is highly probable that the constant gravitational tidal forces have kept that core warm. It is probable that there are heated vents at the bottom of the Euopan ocean, similar to the ones in the deep oceans of Earth. Those vents could provide enough heat to keep the water from freezing.<br /><br />However, the ocean depths would be too deep and too inaccessible to be colonized. In addition, the basic elements necessary for life, such as carbon, nitrogen, iron, etc., may not be obtainable from the ocean bottom. Even if they were, processing them would be extremely difficult and expensive.<br /><br />Bottom line, there really is no practical way to colonize Europa.<br /> <div class="Discussion_UserSignature"> <p style="margin-top:0in;margin-left:0in;margin-right:0in" class="MsoNormal"><font face="Times New Roman" size="2" color="#ff0000"><strong>Our Solar System must be passing through a Non Sequitur area of space.</strong></font></p> </div>

 

[mental_avenger]

Aaron38 says: <font color="yellow"> As a potential home for life, the moon would be quaranteened[sic], off limit to the contamination of a colony. </font><br /><br />That would never happen. Any organization or government that goes out to the planets will do what they want, and there will be no one to stop them. Not only is there no body on Earth that has the authority to tell others where they can or cannot colonize, there would be no way to enforce such a policy. Colonists will make and enforce their own laws.<br /> <div class="Discussion_UserSignature"> <p style="margin-top:0in;margin-left:0in;margin-right:0in" class="MsoNormal"><font face="Times New Roman" size="2" color="#ff0000"><strong>Our Solar System must be passing through a Non Sequitur area of space.</strong></font></p> </div>

 

[meteo]

540 rem/day on Europa.<br /><br />Assuming your space ship had no radiation sheilding. These calculations assume instantaneous exposures the time for the various effects to set in would actually be longer (how much longer I don't know).<br /><br />http://www.ag.ohio-state.edu/~rer/rerhtml/rer_24.html<br /><br />1 hour. Blood changes<br />2 hour. Temporary sterility males<br />5-9 hour Vomiting, diarrhea<br />9-13 hour Serious radiation sickness, nausea<br />13-18 hour Intestine and bone marrow desturction, females permanatly sterile.<br />4 days All crew members dead, again this assumes an instant dose ( />2000rem). How long would they acually last? A week, two weeks; I'll try and update this when I can find some longer exposure time effects.<br /><br />With moderate sheliding, treatment, and protecting some part of your body (reduces effects) you might last a month.<br /><br />The radiation would increase steadily as you approached Europa (Jupiter); the time it would take to land and quickly burry yourself in ice, the radiation would make colinization of Europa pretty much impossible.<br /><br />Ganymede at 8rem/day is also way to high. You would succome to radiation poisoning pretty quickly.<br /><br />"75-200 rem within 30 days:<br /> Body can't repair cell damage fast enough.<br /> Radiation sickness (vomiting, fatigue, hair loss; <br /> birth defects in later children, cancer in later life.)"<br /><br />http://zimmer.csufresno.edu/~fringwal/w08a.jup.txt<br /><br />Callisto at 0.01rem/day is within what a nuclear power plant worker is allowed to be exposed to on average. Much more atractive for colonization.<br /><br />However, federal guidelines currently perhibit unborn childeren from being exposed to those levels of radiation. All of these radiation levels don't take into account sheilding covering the colony with a layer of

 

[kewlioto]

Wow. Thanks for the great resposnes.<br />In light of all the things I've learned from this post, I think I'll focus my project more on why Europa isn't colonizable. Oh well, it'll stick make a good report.<br />Oh and Meteo....I'll be sure to sue the graphicness in describing radiation poisoning....teachers give extra points for gross outs. <img src="/images/icons/smile.gif" /><br />Thanks for all the help!

 

[chew_on_this]

It would seem everyone thinks radiation sheilding is next to impossible. It's not. Also, once on Europa, you'll have all the sheilding you'll ever need - ice. There's also plenty of scenarios for sheilding around the spacecraft to get you there. I wouldn't give up on it so easily.

 

[meteo]

But what's the point, Europa has no benefit over the other ice moons? You have the nearly radiation free Callisto and the completely radiation free small outer moons.<br /><br />It won't be practical to use the ocean on Europa for anything if it is 10 miles down.<br /><br />Edited: Sorry, didn't read that.

 

[chew_on_this]

<font color="yellow">You would have to fly in with sheilding also because your also being cooked flying into the Jupiter system.</font><br /><br />I thought I said that.

 

[toymaker]

I gave this already in mentioned thread.<br />http://www.space.com/missionlaunches/missions/europa_colonies_010606-1.html<br /><br />Basically the radiation isn't that big problem due to ice being able to shield from it, but it seems that extraction of valuable materials and resources(and associated diffeculties) makes Europa not so valuable as colony.

 

[meteo]

Possibly the source for that space.com article. Which cited 6 feet of ice as the neccesary sheilding on Europa, that makes colonization pretty impracial. The difficulty of having everything containing people covered in 6 feet of ice can't be stressed enough. Moving from place to place, construction, repairs would be next to impossible. All robotics would need about a cm of metal sheilding which is what was on Gallileo's intruments.<br /><br />http://www.lunar-reclamation.org/papers/europa_outpost_paper.htm#off_ice<br /><br />In terms of resources the biggest problem is getting a hold of metals. For metals at the surface a better bet may be Callisto with it's much older surface. For strucutal contruction you may be able to find enough carbon and other light elements to make some composities. Water mixed with something could be used as a concrete equivalent. Maybe, you'll get lucky and find some metallic asteroids embeded in the ice. Otherwise you're left to the task of melting down the ice for metals. Permanant self-sustaining colonies would need heavy metals and all the different elements we take for granted on earth; colonizing ice planets may not be duable. Makes you appreciate what prime real estate Mars is. <br /><br />The small outer moons of Jupiter have densities up to 3.3g/cm (same as our moon) and are likely uniformly mixed so the at least rock would seem to be pretty common, maybe metals.