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Various posts and articles discuss the possibility to harvest hydrogen (but also Helium etc...) from the Sun or the giant planets, Uranus appearing the be the most favourable for this operation.

Is there any other possible/plausible sci-fi way for harvesting Hydrogen in space without defying the turbulent atmosphere of Gas Giants? Obviously, one possible way would be to mine water out of asteroids and other bodies, but let's assume that we do not have much water, what could be done? Any original idea?

Thank you.

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    $\begingroup$ I think it would be fairly complicated to know which was easier, mining the Oort cloud, or mining Jupiter's atmosphere. If you can do one, it is likely you can do the other. $\endgroup$
    – Boba Fit
    Commented May 15, 2023 at 16:14
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    $\begingroup$ Europa + electrolysis? Or are the moons of the gas giants excluded too? $\endgroup$
    – user86462
    Commented May 16, 2023 at 2:30
  • $\begingroup$ What kind of an asumption is that we do not have much water? Water is literally the second most abundant molecule in the universe. $\endgroup$
    – Negdo
    Commented May 19, 2023 at 8:39

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Comets will contain more hydrogen (per body) than asteroids. They're made mainly of water, methane, and ammonia ices (along with what we think of as minerals, of course), all of which contain useful amounts of hydrogen. They could serve as sources of hydrogen in addition to drinking/etc. water.

Now, there's some long term involved in getting to even the Kuiper belt, never mind the halo proper, to mine comets -- but once the pipeline is filled, you'll have a very long term source that likely includes a small amount of 3He (fusion fuel) from tritium decay as well (the helium will be retained by low surface temperatures, even if the interior is warmer).

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  • $\begingroup$ that's brilliant. What about systems that can concentrate hydrogen atoms from space? I presume that, even if hydrogen is very common, the density of the atoms is nonetheless too scarse to make the system efficient, or am I wrong? $\endgroup$
    – Haiwas
    Commented May 15, 2023 at 16:17
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    $\begingroup$ You're correct. Even in the solar wind, the density of hydrogen is so low you'd need a collector hundreds of km across moving at a hundred or more km/s to collect enough to be worth the build. $\endgroup$
    – Zeiss Ikon
    Commented May 16, 2023 at 12:11
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    $\begingroup$ @Haiwas I don't have the figures on hand but let's say a very "dense" interplanetary medium contains 1 trillion hydrogen atoms per cubic meter. That sounds great except if you find just one cubic meter of water ice instead, you get like 10^12 more. It's simply not worth looking for hydrogen in gaseous form. $\endgroup$
    – biziclop
    Commented May 16, 2023 at 12:12
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    $\begingroup$ @Haiwas, Larry Niven told us that ramships used powerful magnetic "scoops" to sweep enough interstellar hydrogen from a vast volume of space to fuel a hydrogen fusion reactor. Realistic? Absolutely not. And yet, some of us eagerly read his stories in spite of the fact. Maybe it's because he didn't waste any words inventing technobabble details of how it worked. He only mentioned it in passing to explain how human colonists emigrated from Earth to nearby star systems. $\endgroup$
    – Ohm's Lawman
    Commented May 17, 2023 at 0:01
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Hydrogen and oxygen are the two most abundant reactive elements, making water one of the most common substances in the universe. Virtually every compound that contains large amounts of hydrogen is going to occur alongside water, or form water with the oxygen in other compounds under the conditions in which solid bodies form.

In short, the sci-fi trope of aliens invading Earth for its water is wildly unrealistic. There's countless iceballs that would be far better sources. If you've somehow found yourself in a place where there's truly no water...there's probably no other good source of hydrogen either. Such a shortage existing system-wide is hard to believe, however.

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  • $\begingroup$ Except that H tends to be rare on some objects in the solar system for one reason or another. The Moon, Mercury, Mars. They don't want our water but our H. And it's way easier to get it in other parts of the solar system. If they are coming from another star they will jaunt right past various comets that will be way easier to harvest. $\endgroup$
    – Boba Fit
    Commented May 15, 2023 at 19:56
  • $\begingroup$ @BobaFit on some objects. Not system-wide. $\endgroup$
    – Christopher James Huff
    Commented May 15, 2023 at 20:26

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