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   Winchell Chung ⚛🚀 (nyrath@spacey.space)'s status on Thursday, 01-Aug-2024 01:49:16 JST Winchell Chung ⚛🚀

   Hard science fiction writers are annoyed that travel times in the solar system using realistic rocket propulsion are measured in years.

   Hollister David points out that more exciting transit times can be found within the moon systems of Jupiter and Saturn. They are practically miniature solar systems.

   http://hopsblog-hop.blogspot.com/2013/01/mini-solar-systems.html?m=1

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     Isaac Ji Kuo (isaackuo@spacey.space)'s status on Thursday, 01-Aug-2024 01:49:24 JST Isaac Ji Kuo

     in reply to

     @nyrath

     Bear in mind that the delta-v requirements for getting around the Jupiter or Saturn systems can be pretty annoying - the large moons don't give much Oberth Effect bonus, but still have enough gravity to make launching and landing a pain. And with the exception of Titan, no option to aerobrake or aerocapture.

     Limited solar power makes solar electric more sluggish, of course.

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     Thomas Sturm (tsturm@famichiki.jp)'s status on Thursday, 01-Aug-2024 01:49:27 JST Thomas Sturm

     in reply to

     • Isaac Ji Kuo

     @isaackuo @nyrath Learned that the hard way playing Kerbal. The Jupiter-equivalent there has challenging delta-v requirements all over the place.

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     Floaty Birb (floatybirb@mastodon.social)'s status on Thursday, 01-Aug-2024 01:49:28 JST Floaty Birb

     in reply to

     @nyrath a downside is most of the destinations are gonna be "icy moons that are kind of similar to each other", unless you develop each of those icy moons in a different direction to make it into a more memorable destination.

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     Isaac Ji Kuo (isaackuo@spacey.space)'s status on Thursday, 01-Aug-2024 01:49:34 JST Isaac Ji Kuo

     in reply to

     • Floaty Birb

     @floatybirb @nyrath

     Well, I've looked at various moons looking for good resources to utilize, and the more you look at them the more different they look!

     For example, Iapetus is the ONLY moon out there which combines a near pure ice _surface_ with a slow rotation rate (suitable for ice prism solar concentrators).

     And even just the orbital positions and gravity levels have a huge impact on utility.

     Terrain is also extremely different - compare Hyperion with Mimas.

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