Uranus Helium 3 Ram Scoop - NASA 360 Video

Presented in 360 video format [drag curser to look around environment] — So if you are over a billion miles from the Earth and Sun, the need to create your own energy to power your living needs can be difficult. But if you have a giant gas planet with lots of Helium 3 nearby, all you need to do is find a way to scoop up some for your needs. As a sequence for a planetarium program showing possible future NASA exploration directions, Home Run Pictures, working with NASA scientists, visualized engineering concepts for a space station that would dive into the upper atmosphere of the planet Uranus. Since this was an educational program, avoiding being too science fiction-like was difficult at times, but the concept involved a space station in an elliptical orbit that would once every several orbits, dive into the upper atmosphere of the planet. Designed in a style following the classic giant ring space stations, so that while in high orbit, the station can spin to provide the crew with artificial gravity... during the lower orbit pass into the atmosphere, the station would also spin to provide stability. A front fabric-like ram-scoop stretched across the rings would funnel the gasses into a collection chamber, then compressed to be stored in large tanks mounted to the central axis of the station. Shuttlecraft-tankers would then off-load the gasses from the station while in high orbit... delivering the much needed fuel to human-occupied bases on the nearby moon Miranda. For recreational purposes, those living in the Uranus system might use smaller aerodynamic spacecraft... and if looking for some extreme thrills, dive into the gas giant's upper atmosphere for some stunt-like flying. The near weightless conditions of the orbital trajectories may allow for some rather dramatic maneuvers. The Uranus Helium 3 Ram Scoop space station sequence is part of NASA funded "The Great Planet Adventures" fulldome planetarium show now being presented at the Baton Rouge, Louisiana Art and Science Museum and the Houston Museum of Natural Science.