Colonization of the outer Solar System the Solar System's gas giant planets for exploration and possibly mining of helium-3, which could have a very high value per unit mass as a thermonuclear fuel. The Jovian system in general has particular disadvantages for colonization, including its severe radiation environment and its particularly deep gravity well. Its radiation would deliver about 3,600 rems per day to unshielded colonists on Io and about 540 rems per day to unshielded colonists on Europa. Exposure to about 75 rems over a few days is enough to cause radiation poisoning, and about 500 rems over a few days is fatal. Jupiter itself,
Solar System in fiction Solar System in fiction The Solar System and its various bodies (planets, asteroids, moons, etc.) were the earliest objects to be treated as fictional locations in works of science fiction. Among these, imaginary voyages to and explorations of Earth's Moon are found in seventeenth century literature. By the early twentieth century, following the increase in scientific and technological development spurred by the Industrial Revolution, fictional journeys to (or from) the Solar System's other planets had become common in fiction. Early literature regarding the Solar System, following scientific speculations dating back to the 17th century, assumed that every planet hosted its