Uranus and Neptune

--- In spacesettlers@yahoogroups.com, Joe Strout wrote
> On 5/7/12 9:48 AM, brooksn wrote:
>
> > Now you're left with a warm mostly water super Earth. The question being
> > will it remain warm enough? Still at probably 9 Earths, I would expect
> > it still to be pretty active geologically. Of course sunlight would
> > still be very very low and would need to be considered.
>
> Since we're mega-engineering, I'd think it would be easier to either (a)
> put giant mirrors in co-orbit with it to focus the Sun's light, or (b)
> put one or more giant fusion reactors (which perhaps we could feed with
> all that hydrogen we pulled out of the atmosphere) into orbit around it,
> providing light and heat directly.
>
> The rest of your post needs more thought than I can spare it at the
> moment, but I'll consider it more later... it's an interesting idea.
>
> Best,
> - Joe

Yeah, alot of mirrors, but something to consider. On the second point I've thought of that. In particular if you weren't going to find a way to red dwarf our gas giants, then you could use floating giant fusion reactors in the atmospheres of the gas giants to provide light and heat to their moons. No issue of getting out of the gravity well, since your purpose would be to fuse right on the spot.
Brooks