space colonies around the gas giants

On 10/3/14 7:23 AM, 'Combs, Mike' mikecombs@... [spacesettlers] wrote:

> Ive often thought that Jupiters Trojan points might be prime real
> estate. Plentiful materials in bite-sized chunks. Youre far enough
> outside of the gravity well of Jupiter for its steepness to not be an
> issue. But on the other hand, you could do a slingshot maneuver around
> Jupiter (the kind where you gain an advantage by burning as much fuel as
> you can in the lowest parts of the gravity well) when departing to other
> parts of the Solar System.

True -- though you're in free space there, with the same cosmic ray
shielding requirements as, say, the asteroid belt or the Earth-Moon
Lagrange points.

(See http://space.alglobus.net/papers/RadiationPaper2014.pdf for why
cosmic rays are a major driver of space colony cost.)

I'm much intrigued by the notion that being closer to Jupiter or Saturn
might actually be a MORE benign environment than free space. But I know
I have a lot more homework to do to show (or refute) that.

Cheers,
- Joe