More so the grim question: if you were in a typical space suit sitting in a ship just outside Jupiter, then propelled yourself towards the planet - what would kill you first?
Assume you are close enough that from the moment you are launched out, you are “in” the atmosphere at the outer edges. Also assume moving fast enough that the answer is not “dying from dehydration”.
I discussed a bit with GPT 4o and came to the conclusion that shear wind gusts of over 300mph in the upper atmosphere would probably do it. You’d hit that almost instantly, before high pressure, temperature or highly corrosive materials.
A fascinating, unexplored yet frequent use case, I am sure :)
(Positing these "what-ifs")
PS. On that note: All the recent space probes are yielding much interesting information on this.-
It was a thought provoking conversation, regardless of whether it was absolutely accurate.
then wouldn't the movement kill you?
The Galileo probe needed a heat shield to survive dropping into atmosphere. The 225g deceleration would have killed any human. It is presumed to be destroyed from the temperature and pressure.
Although, you might die from the radiation first.
‘Jupiter’s radiation belts – and how to survive them’: https://www.esa.int/Enabling_Support/Space_Engineering_Techn...
One conjecture is metallic hydrogen.
Yet this article notes liquid Hydrogen towards the core and ice in the core. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Metallic_hydrogen
The triple point diagram https://www.engineeringtoolbox.com/hydrogen-d_1419.html suggests temperatures in this range would not yield anything solid or liquid.
If you look at your triple point graph, it stops several order of magnitude below.
I wonder if there is a thin crust filled with hot swirling liquid, which would explain its "largest in the solar system" magnetosphere (some planets and moons have none).
I like to think that Jupiter and the Jovian moons are better suited for human exploration than Mars. Mars has no magnetosphere or large amounts of water. many of the Jovian moons have water and radiation is minimized due to proximity to Jupiter. Saturn's ice rings can also be transported for humanity's needs.
We could be making space-ship yards and settlements with a mining economy based out of Ganymede and Europa if we weren't busy finding creative and new ways to kill each other. Projects like the ISS are great starts but they're focused on scientific experimentation, not that there's anything wrong with that, but it's been decades and humans haven't even started planning practical applications of all that research. Lots of probes and satellites that cost tens of billions of dollars but not a single plan to establish a Lunar base for civilian and commercial use, or to explore the solar system.
Look at JWT, it is possible to get the political will and financing, even when there is no near-term profit in sight. How much more if humans took risks, made nuclear powered propulsion (despite the risks!) and attempted to make actual pioneering progress! Imagine taking Lunar shuttles being as common as taking an airplane flight to a different continent. The militaries of the world alone would be happy to contribute to his due to the side-effect it has on military technology advancement. It is practical to expect a pace of progress like that in our lifetimes (30-50 years), humans went from flight to moon landing within the span of a normal adult's lifetime.
My observation is that humans have gotten too risk averse and complacent. "It's not about the dog in the fight but the fight in the dog".
fmajid•3h ago
tptacek•2h ago