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cjameshuff t1_j1sv1xz wrote

Enceladus is fairly deep in Saturn's gravity well, hence the tidal heating that drives its activity. There's numerous icy moons that would be easier to get ice from, even moons of Saturn.

> On the other hand, would it be easier to collect millions of tiny bodies in the asteroid belt of even mine ice from Ceres due to vicinity to Mars when aligned?

The Belt asteroids would be a relatively expensive place to get ice, in part because they're closer. It takes a substantial delta-v to reshape their orbits to hit Mars.

Kuiper belt objects could be sent in towards Mars for less than a km/s of delta-v, if you're willing to wait a few decades for them to arrive. Note that getting out there to send them back is also going to take a long time.

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LumberjackWeezy OP t1_j1t1cq9 wrote

I thought about the Saturn gravity well issue, but wasn't sure how deep in Enceladus was. So I guess any mission to Enceladus would be a one-way trip, at least for the near future. Which ice moons would be easier to get ice from?

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LumberjackWeezy OP t1_j1t43ca wrote

>The Belt asteroids would be a relatively expensive place to get ice, in part because they're closer. It takes a substantial delta-v to reshape their orbits to hit Mars.

What about reshaping their orbits into Mars' orbit so that Mars hits them?

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Obvious_Cranberry607 t1_j1trgem wrote

It's the same thing, just a difference of timing. I suspect that having them hit Mars has a higher chance of success though, because I think Mars would be moving sideways slower than they'd be accelerating towards the inner solar system. Think trying to time walking fowards into a perpendicularly thrown ball, rather than having the thrower lead it and bean you in the side.

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