Outward Bound: Colonizing Neptune

A look at Neptune, a potential gateway to the stars...
The Icy Giants, Neptune and Uranus, are often overlooked for as candidates for colonizing our solar system. Even when noted, the focus tends to be on their larger moons like Triton. Today we will challenge that notion by looking at way we might place a colony on the planet itself, and how Orbital Rings and Chandelier Cities might let us colonize any gas giant. We will also look at how helium-3, a core ingredient of aneutronic fusion abundant on Neptune, might serve as the fuel of future starships, and the physics behind some other starship drives future science might give us access to, such as laser propulsion.

Listen or Download the audio of this episode from Soundcloud: Episode's Audio-only version:

Credits:
Outward Bound: Colonizing Neptune
Episode 152, Season 4 E38

Writers:
Isaac Arthur

Editors:
Darius Said
Jerry Guern
Keith Blockus
Mark Warburton
Matthew Acker
Sigmund Kopperud

Producer
Isaac Arthur

Cover Artist:

Graphics Team:
Jarred Eagley
Katie Byrne
Kit Carson

Narrator:
Isaac Arthur

Music Manager:

Music:

[faceofsarcasm]

Death Stars, ecumonopolis, cloud cities, stellar mining, planetary habitats, orbital rings, uplifting, and now planetary chainsaws? This channel is outshining most of popular science fiction. Happy birthday Isaac.

[jacke]

A stormy chandelier city feels like a great place for a futuristic crime novel, like it's always storming outside, has a lot of workers for the fuel industry, maybe a nice place to do less than legal things since it's distance from the major worlds. Anyway great video!

[brianmessemer]

NASA: Let's go to Mars
Isaac Arthur: Have you considered Neptune?

[Bluecho]

I think there's something extremely poetic about a long-lived (probably cyborg) Neptunian, lamenting the loss of the chandelier cities of old, once Neptune becomes a contracted shell world.

"Do you remember the cities that hung from above
Swaying gently in the orbital motion?
My heart aches for those grand chandeliers
Lights pulsing in clouds of the helium ocean"

[Lukegear]

>Genetically engineer floating tuna that survive on Neptune
>Make them thrive
>Fish and can them
>Become rich by selling NEP-TUNA!












Sorry, I will see myself out

[gubzs]

The idea of "people gathering to witness the colonization of the last planet in the solar system" gave me chills and just about brought tears to my eyes. I can picture people clear as day standing with hands pressed to windows watching, completely overwhelmed, knowing what that means we'll be doing next. What an absolutely profound and deeply, yet blissfully, jarring image that is. That thought is gonna stick with me until I die.

[AliHassan-zzif]

Isaac you are terrestrially stellar. I wish you many, many more years of joy. You have astronomically expanded the parameters of my imagination and inspired countless hours of wonder and awe. Happy Birthday.

[Surtwo]

Dang... This might just be one of my favorite episodes you've ever made, and that's saying something. Seeing the orbital rings, stellasers, fusion economy, and so many other concepts from previous episodes all put together to form a system is really amazing. Your vision of humanity's (near) future is unlike any I've ever seen before, but, once explained, it seems so cogent and self-evidently necessary that I have a hard time believing it won't happen that way, at least in the broad strokes. This channel has quickly become my second-favorite exploration of science and possibility, right after Carl Sagan's original Cosmos. Keep up the good work!

[jarredeagley]

"Neptune's Chainsaw" is the best megastructure name I've ever heard.

[gaiusjuliuspleaser]

Out of all the series you do, I think I like the episodes about colonizing our own solar system the most.

[g.seangourlay]

Outward Bound: Colonizing the Trappist 1 System! Unique and gorgeous views of the night sky, really short travel times, near earth gravities, a possibly pretty violent star... the challenges and opportunities are awesome!

[foxdavani]

so this whole channel is absolutely amazing, the Outward Bound series are my favorite, because I feel like I am on the journey at the same time as the characters are because the characters are portrayed in the way that we feel connected to them. It’s like Isaac is telling a story instead of just explaining the science. And I don’t know about the most people, but I am a story driven person. Thank you Isaac for all you do whether you see this text or not, you are a blessing in all our lives, and all our hearts. Stay amazing my friend and keep on going because you don’t know how much we appreciate you.

[AlexThGr]

What I love about your channel Isaac, is that even though we still live in a time period where we haven't even managed to start colonizing the Moon or Mars, you talk about all those incredibly sci-fi ideas like we could do them right here right now. You take what looks to be a distant dream and turn it into reality with your wonderfully informative videos. I have actually wondered if you're a time traveler coming from the far future to guide us to the stars and beyond. Such a huge appreciation for your channel dude. Also Happy birthday! :)

[kevoramma]

I don’t usually like longform videos, but I’ve been watching Isaac Arthur videos since I woke up this morning, that was 10 hours ago.

[ianyboo]

Elon Musk: "We are going to put a million people in space!"

Isaac Arthur: "You misspelled trillion..."

[exoplanets]

What a beautiful color this planet has !

[kevinocta]

This still from the beggining to now, remains one of my favorite things to do on youtube. I love thinking about the not so distant future- and how things could go. It almost sounds magical- chandelier cities hanging on Neptune, until you consider that it might actually be a really necessity.

[IntrepidDawn]

Sign me up for the first ship. As Sagan said, everyone you know, everyone who has ever lived has lived and died on Earth. I'm ready to die on Neptune!

[evananderson]

Your videos make my life infinitely more enjoyable and fill me w hope and wonder. Thank you! I hope you have a fantastic

[richardgould-blueraven]

Story time with Arthur. I truly appreciate your bright vision of the future. Happy birthday 🎁🎉🎈🎂🎊