Science Nerds: Could Jupiter's Magnetic Field be harvested for energy?

[vulcanlogician]

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.

[Ravenshire]

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.

You might want to give this a look.

[Anomalocaris]

What are you thinking of using Jupiter’s magnetic field to power?

[Peebothuhlu]

At work.

Short answer; "Yes"

Longer answer; So, do you remember the 'Tether' experiment done on board the shuttle? Basically you're holding a 'Wire' inside a rotating magnetic field. Just, the feild is being 'Spun' by a planet.

Basically power/electricity generation would be a side effect of any bean-stalk or sky-hook mounted on any planet with a magnetic feild.

The amount of power you'd get out of Earth's magnetic feild would be a 'Lot'. Doing on Jupiter? A "metric fek-ton". (Technical term, that )

Cheers.

[Anomalocaris]

I am not sure You are actually getting power out of the earth’s magnetic field.  I think what you are doing is using the earth’s magnetic field to convert your orbital kinetic energy into electrical energy.    If you can’t afford to have your orbit decay,  then You have to make up for the electric energy you get buy lighting up your rocket engines to replenish your orbital kenetic energy.

So you are getting no net energy out of earth’s electric field at all.  

Hence the question, what are you thinking of using Jupiter’s magnetic field to power?   If you say the electrical load on an orbital spacecraft. Then the answer seems to me to be it would not gain you to do this because you can probably convert the fuel directly into electricity more efficiently than through attaining and  orbital energy and then converting it to electric energy.

[BrianSoddingBoru4]

Since it's science fiction, why bother making the power source plausible? Artificial gravity isn't plausible, nor phasers, transporters, light sabres, and so on and so on.

Since you're setting this far into the future, it stands to reason that there would be some significant scientific advancements during that time. Just postulate a synthetic element (you have my blessing to call it 'borudium') that transforms magnetic fields directly into usable electricity.

Boru

[zebo-the-fat]

Since it's science fiction, why bother making the power source plausible? Artificial gravity isn't plausible, nor phasers, transporters, light sabres, and so on and so on.

Since you're setting this far into the future, it stands to reason that there would be some significant scientific advancements during that time. Just postulate a synthetic element (you have my blessing to call it 'borudium') that transforms magnetic fields directly into usable electricity.

Boru

Because it's Sience Fiction, not fantasy
It should stick to the known laws of physics or possibly add something new and explore the possibilities
(that's why I hate Star Wars.... space craft flying and banking like planes in an atmosphere, it's just wrong! Also super high tech Light Sabers that look and act like illuminated swords)

[BrianSoddingBoru4]

Since it's science fiction, why bother making the power source plausible? Artificial gravity isn't plausible, nor phasers, transporters, light sabres, and so on and so on.

Since you're setting this far into the future, it stands to reason that there would be some significant scientific advancements during that time. Just postulate a synthetic element (you have my blessing to call it 'borudium') that transforms magnetic fields directly into usable electricity.

Boru

Because it's Sience Fiction, not fantasy
It should stick to the known laws of physics or possibly add something new and explore the possibilities
(that's why I hate Star Wars.... space craft flying and banking like planes in an atmosphere, it's just wrong! Also super high tech Light Sabers that look and act like illuminated swords)

But it's not reasonable to imagine that, in 'hundreds of thousands of years', we wouldn't have a better understanding of the laws of physics, and the technologies that always follow.

All chemical elements have a half-life. In some of these, the decay is emitted as radiation. Why is it so fantastical to imagine a synthesized element that decays as electricity?

Boru

[Fireball]

Been done, don't need "Borudium", sad to say.

Borudium

[Anomalocaris]

Because it's Sience Fiction, not fantasy
It should stick to the known laws of physics or possibly add something new and explore the possibilities
(that's why I hate Star Wars.... space craft flying and banking like planes in an atmosphere, it's just wrong! Also super high tech Light Sabers that look and act like illuminated swords)

But it's not reasonable to imagine that, in 'hundreds of thousands of years', we wouldn't have a better understanding of the laws of physics, and the technologies that always follow.

All chemical elements have a half-life. In some of these, the decay is emitted as radiation. Why is it so fantastical to imagine a synthesized element that decays as electricity?

Boru

If it depends on whether the plot is about exploring what happens if one or a very few particularly irksome constraints thought to be unavoidable facets of reality turn out be susceptible to being circumvented.   But that is different from assume any known laws of physics can be superseded with a better understanding convenient to the plot whenever it is convenient to plot development.   The former is science fiction, the latter is fantasy leaching off the good name of science. 

At best, that kind of fantasy plot smells vaguely of laziness.   Aya worst it reeks of exploiting the name of science while being contemptuous of science.