Difference between revisions of "Io (moon)"

Latest revision as of 11:18, 27 August 2023

AI generated artistic impressions for how the surface of Io might look like. Inspired by the dallol hydrothemal vents. Pretend the non-black skies are from long exposures and volcanic gasses. And perhaps Jupiter in the backdrop.

In the context of gemstone metamaterial technology the Jupiter moon Io is quite interesting due to its unusual sulfur rich chemistry.

Things that pose interesting design challenges in exploration:

• high radiation environment
• falling down down sulfur
• ground tremors
• frequent volcanic eruptions

Just as Europa Io is not a good place for humans to visit due to the extremely high radiation levels.
Not impossible but it would requite massive amounts of shielding in transit and going sub-surface on arrival.

A note on sulfur

See main page: Sulfur

Sulfur can be used as nanoscale surface passivating element for making sliding surfaces that do not stick together on contact.
Sulfur matches better to silicon than to carbon due to its bigger atom size.
Silicates are likely much more abundant on Io than carbon compounds. Ass still quite unclear.

Silicon & Carbon

There is definitely a lot of silicates (and aliuminates) on Io.
A question is: How accessible are these silicates? How much are they are buried below all the sulfur snow?
A question is: Is there any significant abundance of carbon?
Io is most likely quite hydrogen poor.

Iron in the form of pyrite or other iron sulfide minerals might be a common occurrence.
More rare chemical elements (including gold and silver) that chemically like sulfur might occur in greater abundance.
They also may concentrate in sulfur-volcanic cracks potentially giving attractive mining targets.

External links

• https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Io_(moon)