There’s no way to put this gently, so I’ll just ask it: where’s the best place to build a monastery on Pluto?
The rationale behind building such in institution on Pluto is, of course, completely obvious. (;)) But the thing is, I’d prefer to have a good section of the monastery built underground, in natural rock. But…is any of the rock on Pluto thought to be within reasonable distance of the planet’s surface, or is it all covered by 600 miles of water-methane ice?
Obviously, building the monastery directly into the ice won’t work, because I’d need to have a heated, breathable atmosphere for the monks. And I’d prefer not to have to use space station-like “habitat modules” constructed on the surface. (They look terrible when lit by candlelight)
Nobody knows enough about the surface of Pluto yet to say for sure; it’s simply too far away. But it’s a sure bet that it’s so cold there, the ice is like rock. I wouldn’t worry too much about stray heat from the habitable area melting the ice in the near-absolute zero environment.
Absolutely- if Pluto is anything like Triton, you may as well build insulated monasteries into the ice- any solid rock is either buried several hundred kilometres deep or is mixed with the ice so well that you wouldn’t be able to separate them.
Triton is the body most similar in temperature range and size to Pluto- Triton’s interior but Pluto no doubt has its surprises; the close proximity of Charon is unique in our solar system.
Of course, if you already have a habitation established inside Pluto, it can’t cost too much (more) to make it into a spacecraft. Maybe you’ll need to separate it gravitationally from Charon (unless you plan on building a travelling synagogue as well :D), but if nothing else you could make a slow boat to Alpha Centauri.
I think that if you have licked the heating problem and can provide breathable air, creating self-sustaining hydroponics shouldn’t be too much harder. And once you have heat, air, food, and water, you have a self-sustaining colony fit for multi-generational trips between systems.
If you’re going to have enough energy to gravitationally separate Charon from Pluto, it might make more sense to crash the moon into the planet. The resultant heat could keep your monestary all toasty whilst you sail the abyss between the stars.
Make it a missionary, have them Spread the Word to the Outer Rim Systems.
Squink: Capital idea! And while we’re at it, we can add a few other bits of debris to the pile, molding and shaping in the process. Heck, we could create a big version of the C-ship and travel the cosmos at relativistic speeds. Og knows there’s enough ice out there to craft a thick hull…
There is a lot of deuterium in the ice of Pluto, no doubt; fusing this might keep you warm for a long time even without sacrificing Charon-
but it will need a lot more energy than available from fusion to send Pluto to Alpha Centauri in a hurry.
Should be quite a bit of Oxygen, nitrogen and even carbon in the form of methane.
Surprisingly it is not a bad place to live, assuming duterium fusion is feasible.
Lety’s just hope the New Horizons mission does one day go ahead.
Regardless of separating Charon from Pluto just getting Pluto moving is going to be a great deal harder than just a little more added cost. As planets go Pluto is small but at approximately the size of our moon it is still pretty freaking big. At least big when considering slapping some engines on it and getting it to move.
So…if I were to hollow out ice caverns to build the monastery in, would it still be “OK” to use open flame “indoors”? I mean, the methane ice wouldn’t…ignite, would it?
You’re not going to be living directly in the caverns; methane ice is too cold for humans. As, for that matter, is everything else on or in that blasted planet. No matter what you do, you’re going to need some pretty good insulation between your living quarters and the surrounding material. Unless, of course, your monks are Palainians or Outsiders, in which case skipping the open flames might be a good idea anyway.
Getting rid of waste heat may be a bigger problem than the cold. If the monastery is surrounded by volatile ice such as frozen methane, waste heat may melt this ice violently and blow away the monastery.
The main thing I have learned about Pluto is the real estate agents cannot be trusted. Ensure you have a through title search in hand before you close the deal.
The best spot for a monastery would no doubt be on the sub-Charon spot.
Charon and Pluto are both tidally locked to each other, so they rotate at the same speed they orbit each other. The result is that if you stand on the surface of Pluto, Charon will always appear in the same spot on the sky, never moving.
So if you choose the spot directly underneath Charon, then Charon will appear directly overhead, always, never moving. Given its diameter of 1170 kilometers and distance from Pluto of 19,640 kilometers (minus Pluto’s radius of 1100 km to give 18,540 or so km from the surface), Charon would be a whopping 3.5 degrees across, seven times the width of the full Moon as seen from Earth.
It will appear almost magically suspended in the sky. How much more mystical can you get?
