I’ve been fascinated with these clouds for some reason and so I’ve created another 3D render of the argon gas miners, in this case skimming the upper atmosphere right before they dive into the gas giant’s depths.

My friend Angus McIntyre suggested that mining a gas giant would be difficult for many reasons, not limited to: the energy needed to slow down and then again break free of the planet’s gravity, the dangerous electromagnetic fields and radiation, not to mention the intense pressures involved. I found a NASA paper from a few years ago that explored the feasibility of just such an endeavor and they basically said that, without advances in propulsion tech, the idea is probably far-fetched. Still, out of several options, including “scoopers” like those depicted above, the best option would probably be some kind of floating platform. So for my next render I hope to envision just such a setup.

Also, this render I imagine taking place some seven centuries in the future (or so), where technology has progressed far past our crude chemical rockets. Still, I do think it’s important to make things “real,” that is, based on plausible future scenarios. And so look for a floating gas platform soon