This is my first question in the series "Saturnian Cloud cities". The second question is Ice Harvesting planes
My cloud-city is centred on a low altitude region just below Saturn's cloud tops, and it is lifted by a hot hydrogen balloon, which is heated by graphene cables that are many miles long and dip into the cloud tops to harvest geothermal energy from Saturn's interior. Electricity is harvested by massive wind turbines which spin under the intense hurricane-force winds of Saturn, which is then used for artificial lighting to grow algae and plants for oxygen and food.
The copper weights hanging at the bottom of the cables, weigh the airship down, which can be lifted barely by the hydrogen airship, but cannot be moved due to the sheer weight. And since copper and graphene are good electric conductors, the weights can transfer them to the cables. This would allow the balloon to stay still and not negate the wind energy.
Also, the cloud-city would have a launch pad for rockets to take off and land. And the population of the cloud-city is about 2,000 people, 3,000 pets, and 1,000 livestock creatures. Area of the cloud city is about 100,000 km2, approx. the area of Mudanjiang Megafarm
Can this concept for a cloud city on Saturn work?
A diagram for reference:
Edit 1: So as to clarify some facts about my cloud city:
- The cloud-city is NOT floating in the water ice layer, instead it is just inside the ammonia ice layer, and let's just assume the rigid-hull balloon has some hydrophobic coating to prevent icing or damping.
- The geothermal cable doesn't stretch down entirely to the core, it is instead hanging just below the water-ice cloud deck, to get heated by the hot gases.
- I have edited the diagram to clarify the wind-turbine problem.
- The livestock consists of cows, goats and sheep
- The pets are cats and dogs, though you can add some fish or apes or even some exotic livestock like birds, if you want to.
- The mass of the copper weights are enough for the hydrogen to just barely lift, but not be moved
- Except for airships and some sophisticated equipment, the development of the people on that airship is just more than that of 2022 Earth i.e. they haven't discovered fusion, or some strange tech. But, they can launch rockets to its moons, like Titan or Enceladus