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comment by am_Unition
am_Unition  ·  3168 days ago  ·  link  ·    ·  parent  ·  post: Voyager I approaches Jupiter - animated gif

I was musing about it last night, and I've decided that the safest place to build a permanent base within our solar system would be in low orbit (and low inclination of orbit) around Jupiter. The massive/strong magnetic field would protect us from particle radiation that is the byproduct of nearby supernova explosions. There's still the whole asteroid/comet collision thing (Shoemaker-Levy 9, anyone?, but now you're an orbiting colony, and you can alter your trajectory. Then you've only got several million other engineering problems to worry about!

Food for thought.





cybergarp  ·  3166 days ago  ·  link  ·  

I always thought the strong magnetic fields posed huge challenges in and of themselves, eddie currents in electronics could destroy a lot of potentially critical systems, so shielding and design require a lot more work.

am_Unition  ·  3165 days ago  ·  link  ·  

That is correct, and swept under my rug of "several million other engineering problems to worry about". Everything you mentioned is thought to be solvable, as best I know.