do you think?

[conrad96]

i have a thousand word report to do in science about colonizing a planet/moon. i was thinking of Saturn's moon Rhea. a thin atmosphere of carbon dioxide and oxygen has been discovered on the planet. i was wondering if Saturn gets a decent amount of sunlight, if we have the Cassini probe orbiting Saturn there must be enough sunlight for solar energy, right? 

[MrMxyzptlk]

I'd worry more about the makeup of the "ground:" it's mostly an ice moon....  (25% rock, 75% water ice)

That and the fact that it's temp ranges between 53-99K....  (BRRRRRRRR!)

And if memory serves: in general, sunlight - enough to power modern solar arrays for any length of time - is impractical around the range of the asteroid belt and beyond.

'Doesn't rule out a nuclear power plant, tho....

[BFM_Kiwi]

Saturn is about 10 times further from the sun.  Solar radiation being proportional to the square of the distance, that means Saturn would receive 1% as much as on Earth.  I guess it's feasible with large solar panels.

Mars would get about half, and Venus around double based on their relative distances from the sun.

The Cassini probe probably only requires a fraction of a Watt of energy, something really puny.  So that 1% would do it for a small probe, but for a colony, not sure.

[conrad96]

 I didnt really think of that, the nuclear power and what not. and kiwi has a valid point too, now i gotta go back and retype some stuff. thanks guys