Here we explore how we might generate power on the icy moon Enceladus of Saturn. - **Nuclear fission (primary, early):** Same as Titan; easy heat rejection to ice/ocean. - **Vent-thermal (unique advantage):** Closed-cycle heat engines across hot-vent effluent vs \~0 °C ambient can add **steady baseload** (think tens–hundreds of kWe per module, scaled by plumbing). Great underwater. - **Solar:** Very poor (\~15 W/m² at TOA, no atmosphere but far from Sun) → \~4.5 W/m² with high-efficiency arrays; huge areas for MW-class plants. - **Wind:** None (no atmosphere). - **Hydraulic (sub-ice):** Circulation between plume intakes and ocean sumps can run small turbines—niche.
# Propellant & building Water is everywhere → **LOX/LH₂** via electrolysis. Fantastic specific impulse and **ultra-easy launch** (escape \~0.24 km/s), but LH₂ boil-off management is a design must. Construction feedstocks are ice/salts; metals require importing or seafloor extraction via robots (harder than Titan or Ganymede).
# See