Could Jupiter's Magnetic Field (in theory) be harvested for energy?
Context: I'm doing some science fiction world building where the Jovians (who live on the moons of Jupiter) have built megastructures where they harness the energy from Jupiter's magnetic field. But I'd like to know how plausible this is. I'm trying to keep things well-grounded in science... no FTL travel, maybe no nuclear fusion, just stuff we know will work today. Huge planet-spanning structures ARE on the table however.
It's a pet project I've been tinkering with for years. A space opera that occurs in our own solar system involving several alien races: Mercurials, Venetians, Humans, Martians, Jovians, Kypers, and Oorts (who are all humans evolved, hundreds of thousands of years into the future).
Anyway, I know there are science geeks here who could give me a good analysis of the problem. The reason I care is that I want the solar system to have gone through several cataclysms (maybe due to enormous solar flares that impacted the advancement of the inner planet civilizations negatively). But -for plot reasons- I need the Jovians to be largely unaffected by the solar flare activity. I'm thinking that Jupiter's magnetosphere might protect them. Is that plausible? I guess that's another thing I'm wondering about.
Context: I'm doing some science fiction world building where the Jovians (who live on the moons of Jupiter) have built megastructures where they harness the energy from Jupiter's magnetic field. But I'd like to know how plausible this is. I'm trying to keep things well-grounded in science... no FTL travel, maybe no nuclear fusion, just stuff we know will work today. Huge planet-spanning structures ARE on the table however.
It's a pet project I've been tinkering with for years. A space opera that occurs in our own solar system involving several alien races: Mercurials, Venetians, Humans, Martians, Jovians, Kypers, and Oorts (who are all humans evolved, hundreds of thousands of years into the future).
Anyway, I know there are science geeks here who could give me a good analysis of the problem. The reason I care is that I want the solar system to have gone through several cataclysms (maybe due to enormous solar flares that impacted the advancement of the inner planet civilizations negatively). But -for plot reasons- I need the Jovians to be largely unaffected by the solar flare activity. I'm thinking that Jupiter's magnetosphere might protect them. Is that plausible? I guess that's another thing I'm wondering about.
