Colonization of Titan
According to
Radar images obtained on July 21, 2006, appear to show lakes of liquid hydrocarbon (such as methane and ethane) in Titan's northern latitudes. This is the first discovery of currently existing lakes beyond Earth.[3] The lakes range in size from about a kilometer in width to one hundred kilometers across.
On March 13, 2007, the Jet Propulsion Laboratory announced that it found strong evidence of seas of methane and ethane in the northern hemisphere. At least one of these is larger than any of the Great Lakes in North America.[4][clarification needed]
Suitability
The American aerospace engineer and author Robert Zubrin identified Saturn as the most important and valuable of the four gas giants in the Solar System, because of its relative proximity, low radiation, and excellent system of moons. He also named Titan as the most important moon on which to establish a base to develop the resources of the Saturn system.[5]
Habitability
Gravity
Titan has a surface gravity of 0.138 g, slightly less than the Moon. Managing long-term effects of low gravity on human health[citation needed] would therefore be a significant issue for long-term occupation of Titan, more so than on Mars. These effects are still an active field of study. They can include symptoms such as loss of bone density, loss of muscle density, and a weakened immune system. Astronauts in Earth orbit have remained in microgravity for up to a year or more at a time. Effective countermeasures for the negative effects of low gravity are well-established, particularly an aggressive regimen of daily physical exercise or weighted clothing. The variation in the negative effects of low gravity as a function of different levels of low gravity are not known, since all research in this area is restricted to humans in zero gravity. The same goes for the potential effects of low gravity on fetal and pediatric development. It has been hypothesized that children born and raised in low gravity such as on Titan would not be well adapted for life under the higher gravity of Earth.[8]
In situ energy resources
In situ energy resources on Titan for use by future humans include chemical, nuclear, wind, solar and hydropower. Electrical power could be produced using chemical power plants adding hydrogen to acetylene (i.e. hydrogenation; oxygen is not freely available), or turbines in large methane seas such as Kraken Mare where the tidal pull of Saturn causes up to a meter of tidal change each Titan day. Nuclear and solar power might also be feasible.[citation needed]
Flight
The very high ratio of atmospheric density to surface gravity also greatly reduces the wingspan needed for an aircraft to maintain lift, so much so that a human would be able to strap on wings and easily fly through Titan's atmosphere while wearing a sort of spacesuit that could be manufactured with today's technology.[6] Another theoretically possible means to become airborne on Titan would be to use a hot air balloon-like vehicle filled with an Earth-like atmosphere at Earth-like temperatures (because oxygen is only slightly denser than nitrogen, the atmosphere in a habitat on Titan would be about one third as dense as the surrounding atmosphere), although such a vehicle would need a skin able to keep the extreme cold out in spite of the light weight required. Due to Titan's extremely low temperatures, heating of any flight-bound vehicle becomes a key obstacle.[9]
See also
- Titan in fiction
References
- ^ Findings from the study led by Ralph Lorenz, Cassini radar team member from the Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory, USA, are reported in the 29 January 2008 issue of the Geophysical Research Letters.
- ^ "Titan's surface organics surpass oil reserves on Earth". European Space Agency. February 13, 2008. Retrieved October 20, 2016.
- ^ "PIA08630: Lakes on Titan". Photojournal. NASA/JPL. July 24, 2006. Retrieved October 28, 2014.
- ^ "Cassini Spacecraft Images Seas on Saturn's Moon Titan". Cassini Solstice Mission. NASA/JPL. March 13, 2007. Archived from the original on October 28, 2014. Retrieved October 28, 2014.
- ISBN 978-1-58542-036-0
- ^ ISBN 978-1-58542-036-0
- ISBN 978-0-684-83550-1
- ISBN 978-0-471-13561-6
- ^ Randall Munroe (2013). "Interplanetary Cessna". Retrieved January 29, 2013.
Further reading
- Stephen L. Gillett, "Titan as the Abode of Life," Analog, Vol. CXII No. 13, pp. 40–55 (1992)
- Julian Nott - Titan: A Distant But Enticing Destination for Human Visitors (White Paper for National Academy of Sciences]
- Charles Wohlforth; Amanda R. Hendrix Ph.D. (2016). Beyond Earth: Our Path to a New Home in the Planets. Pantheon Books. ISBN 978-0804197977.