Around Jupiter, the analogue to Hyperion 255 x 163 x 137 km 5.6e+18 kg is Amáltheia 250 × 146 × 128 km 2.08e+18 kg. For whatever reason we've Anglicised this to Amalthea rather than true Latin Amalthia although the pronunciation is about the same.
Where Hyperion is out between Titan and Iapetus, Amáltheia is inward of Io. Hyperion's rotation is chaotic whilst Amáltheia is locked. Also Hyperion is white ice and cratered where Amáltheia is red (from Io) and a rubble-pile.
One more thing: Amáltheia is certainly going to precede Io as a shattered source of Jovian rings. I've recommended disassembling Phobos before Mars loses it, starting with for a radiation-shield. What can we do with Jupiter's doomed moon?
This one will be difficult. The radiation down there is awful. It has been so bad that we don't have any good photographs: the Galileo lost too many electronics on its way past, and the Juno isn't even bothering (UPDATE 12/23 although there's a shadow, and oh yeah it is indeed hard for Juno too). Also this far in Jupiter's well what exactly can a miner do?
The least-energy idea is to raise as much rubble as we can to an Io capture - assuming the Jacobi Integral still holds for a Laplacian system. Around Io one might work this rubble into an orbital ring as to shield that moon. If this works then Io is clear for human or at least electronic mining-operations, and can work with the rest of the Jovian system as desired.
As for its remaining billion-ish megatonnes, er. A habitable Io might not (anymore) need any of it. I am unsure about export outward to Europa and beyond; they might be happy pulling in the outer rocks or other asteroids.
UPDATE 12/26 Jacobi! Amaltheia's is -42.491, trying to get to the usual three (3). UPDATE 10/22/23: Thebe orbits further out, albeit a tenth the volume, so... start with that?
No comments:
Post a Comment