Gas Giant Station Design

What would, roughly, a scientific research station look like on a gas giant? Use Saturn as a baseline. The station would float because of a "balloon" carrying nothing. Vacuum is the lifting "gas", as the atmosphere of most gas giants is already hydrogen/helium.

The pressure at the average elevation of the station would be 1 bar, or just a tiny bit less than 1 atm. The average temperature would be around -139 C.

Power is generated by fusion of atmospheric hydrogen and helium, as Saturn is too far away from the sun for solar power to be meaningful.

The stations will be floating along in the wind, so they will experience a stiff breeze at most, because they aren't actually going that fast relative to the wind.

Materials come from regular shipments from drop bots delivered by mass drivers in the asteroid belt/moons. (I haven't decided yet)

Drop bots are large machines that are mainly cargo pods built to withstand atmospheric entry, with helicopter blades that extend when they slow down enough.

23rd century tech, use your best judgement.

Some ideas I had, might not be the most practical: Would it have a huge central sphere with the station built on a strip around its center? Would it be a number of small balloons around the edges of the base? I feel like that'd be sacrificing buoyancy for redundancy.

posted about 8 years ago

Jetscooters‭

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