Winston
Lorenzo von Matterhorn
- Joined
- Jan 31, 2009
- Messages
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What does Titan smell like?
A bouquet of musky sweetness, bitter almonds, gasoline, and decomposing fish would likely fill the air on Saturn’s largest satellite.
September 3, 2020
https://astronomy.com/magazine/news/2020/09/what-does-titan-smell-like
Titan is Saturn’s biggest moon. It is so big, in fact, that it rivals Jupiter’s moon Ganymede for the title of the solar system’s largest satellite. If you were to strip Titan bare by removing its atmosphere, Ganymede is slightly larger. But that’s OK; Titan is still so fascinating that we can let Ganymede have that win.
Yes, Titan has an atmosphere. And not a small, inconsequential one, either: Titan’s atmosphere is four times denser than Earth’s. And while you wouldn’t need a spacesuit to protect you against its pressure, you would need one heck of a parka. The surface temperature on Titan is a frigid –290 degrees Fahrenheit (–179 degrees Celsius). For reference, the coldest temperature ever recorded on Earth was when the mercury dropped to only about –129 F (–89 C) at Vostok Station in Antarctica in 1983.
So, an astronaut walking on the surface of Titan would have to keep their skin covered to avoid rapid frostbite, but they wouldn’t need a super bulky spacesuit like they would on the Moon or in the vacuum of space. The astronaut would have to bring their own oxygen, though, as Titan’s atmosphere is devoid of it. Instead, Titan’s skies, like Earth’s, are mostly nitrogen, plus about 5 percent methane and a few other trace gases.
For a trip to Titan, one could envision donning attire similar to that worn by researchers working in Antarctica during the frigid winters: clothing with multiple insulating layers, perhaps embedded with futuristic NASA-quality heating elements; thick gloves; hats and balaclavas; and extreme cold vapor barrier boots (fondly referred to by Antarctic researchers as bunny boots or Mickey Mouse boots). The only necessary modification would be an insulated gas mask for oxygen, and maybe a heater to prevent supercooled air from freezing your lungs. The suit wouldn’t even need to be completely airtight as long as oxygen remained circulating. It would be like the masks on airplanes: “Even though your bag may not inflate, oxygen is still flowing.”
This leads to an interesting thought experiment: If an airtight spacesuit is not a necessity on Titan, then it might be possible to get a whiff of your surroundings through your oxygen mask. In that case, what would Titan smell like?
Confession Of A Planetary Scientist: 'I Do Not Want To Live On Mars'
October 16, 2017
https://www.npr.org/sections/13.7/2...etary-scientist-i-do-not-want-to-live-on-mars
I am a planetary scientist and once astronaut candidate finalist (read: space nerd).
But I have something to confess: I do not want to live on Mars.
While certainly interesting scientifically (e.g., seasonally-varying polar caps; transient methane plumes; permafrost), Mars is not particularly compelling as a long-term human destination.
But there is another place in our solar system where conditions are right for a self-sustaining, long-term human settlement: Saturn's moon Titan.
Why Titan?
To start with, let's make clear that Titan is a moon that, in many ways, acts more like a planet. It has a thick atmosphere, with about 1.5 times the surface pressure of Earth's atmosphere. None of the 177 other moons in the solar system has such an atmosphere. Plus, Titan is the only place in the solar system, other than Earth, with stable surface liquids: Titan has lakes and seas on its surface. So Titan is a remarkable, and very Earth-like, world.
Titan's thick atmosphere is beneficial, because it means that you don't have to wear a bulky pressure suit while you're out and about on Titan. But the main reason I like it is simple: Titan's atmosphere will help us stay alive. Out in space, radiation is deadly. Energetic particles from the sun, and especially galactic cosmic rays (GCRs), penetrate human tissue, causing cancer and cognitive disorders. To stay within NASA's current cancer risk limits, astronauts can travel beyond Low Earth Orbit (LEO) for as much as 200 days; a Mars trip would likely be more like 600 days. But these damaging particles cannot make it to Titan's surface; they're absorbed by the atmosphere, meaning that it's a safe environment for humans. Mars's atmosphere is not thick enough to provide much shielding from GCRs — and Earth's moon has little in the way of an atmosphere — so humans living in those places would probably need to live underground in order to protect themselves from radiation.
People living on Titan could walk around (or, rather, bounce around — since the gravity is 14 percent of Earth's gravity, just a little less than at the moon) wearing suits to keep warm. It is cold on Titan (surface temperature of about -290 degrees F). And people would need to wear respirators to breathe oxygen, since the atmosphere is mostly nitrogen. The light on Titan is a little dim, like just after a sunset here on Earth, due to the haze particles in the thick atmosphere. People living on one hemisphere of Titan, the one always facing Saturn, would have beautiful views of the ringed planet.
A really fun (and potentially useful) thing is this: Thanks to the low gravity and thick atmosphere, people on Titan could easily fly under their own power if they strap wings to their arms! Future humans could also go boating on the lakes and seas, which are present primarily at higher latitudes.
Because it's so cold on Titan, all the water is frozen — the lakes and seas are composed of liquid methane and ethane. These hydrocarbons (like natural gas here on Earth) are in abundance on Titan — not only in the lakes and seas, but covering the surface and in the atmosphere. These hydrocarbons present a ready source of materials for building things, such as habitats, out of plastics. Humans could burn methane to produce energy, perhaps using a nuclear reactor to power electrolysis of water (since Titan's atmosphere doesn't contain the oxygen we would need for the methane combustion). Another chemical energy option is hydrogenation of acetylene (i.e. 3H2 + C2H2); both hydrogen and acetylene are present in Titan's atmosphere.
Outward Bound: Colonizing Titan
A bouquet of musky sweetness, bitter almonds, gasoline, and decomposing fish would likely fill the air on Saturn’s largest satellite.
September 3, 2020
https://astronomy.com/magazine/news/2020/09/what-does-titan-smell-like
Titan is Saturn’s biggest moon. It is so big, in fact, that it rivals Jupiter’s moon Ganymede for the title of the solar system’s largest satellite. If you were to strip Titan bare by removing its atmosphere, Ganymede is slightly larger. But that’s OK; Titan is still so fascinating that we can let Ganymede have that win.
Yes, Titan has an atmosphere. And not a small, inconsequential one, either: Titan’s atmosphere is four times denser than Earth’s. And while you wouldn’t need a spacesuit to protect you against its pressure, you would need one heck of a parka. The surface temperature on Titan is a frigid –290 degrees Fahrenheit (–179 degrees Celsius). For reference, the coldest temperature ever recorded on Earth was when the mercury dropped to only about –129 F (–89 C) at Vostok Station in Antarctica in 1983.
So, an astronaut walking on the surface of Titan would have to keep their skin covered to avoid rapid frostbite, but they wouldn’t need a super bulky spacesuit like they would on the Moon or in the vacuum of space. The astronaut would have to bring their own oxygen, though, as Titan’s atmosphere is devoid of it. Instead, Titan’s skies, like Earth’s, are mostly nitrogen, plus about 5 percent methane and a few other trace gases.
For a trip to Titan, one could envision donning attire similar to that worn by researchers working in Antarctica during the frigid winters: clothing with multiple insulating layers, perhaps embedded with futuristic NASA-quality heating elements; thick gloves; hats and balaclavas; and extreme cold vapor barrier boots (fondly referred to by Antarctic researchers as bunny boots or Mickey Mouse boots). The only necessary modification would be an insulated gas mask for oxygen, and maybe a heater to prevent supercooled air from freezing your lungs. The suit wouldn’t even need to be completely airtight as long as oxygen remained circulating. It would be like the masks on airplanes: “Even though your bag may not inflate, oxygen is still flowing.”
This leads to an interesting thought experiment: If an airtight spacesuit is not a necessity on Titan, then it might be possible to get a whiff of your surroundings through your oxygen mask. In that case, what would Titan smell like?
Confession Of A Planetary Scientist: 'I Do Not Want To Live On Mars'
October 16, 2017
https://www.npr.org/sections/13.7/2...etary-scientist-i-do-not-want-to-live-on-mars
I am a planetary scientist and once astronaut candidate finalist (read: space nerd).
But I have something to confess: I do not want to live on Mars.
While certainly interesting scientifically (e.g., seasonally-varying polar caps; transient methane plumes; permafrost), Mars is not particularly compelling as a long-term human destination.
But there is another place in our solar system where conditions are right for a self-sustaining, long-term human settlement: Saturn's moon Titan.
Why Titan?
To start with, let's make clear that Titan is a moon that, in many ways, acts more like a planet. It has a thick atmosphere, with about 1.5 times the surface pressure of Earth's atmosphere. None of the 177 other moons in the solar system has such an atmosphere. Plus, Titan is the only place in the solar system, other than Earth, with stable surface liquids: Titan has lakes and seas on its surface. So Titan is a remarkable, and very Earth-like, world.
Titan's thick atmosphere is beneficial, because it means that you don't have to wear a bulky pressure suit while you're out and about on Titan. But the main reason I like it is simple: Titan's atmosphere will help us stay alive. Out in space, radiation is deadly. Energetic particles from the sun, and especially galactic cosmic rays (GCRs), penetrate human tissue, causing cancer and cognitive disorders. To stay within NASA's current cancer risk limits, astronauts can travel beyond Low Earth Orbit (LEO) for as much as 200 days; a Mars trip would likely be more like 600 days. But these damaging particles cannot make it to Titan's surface; they're absorbed by the atmosphere, meaning that it's a safe environment for humans. Mars's atmosphere is not thick enough to provide much shielding from GCRs — and Earth's moon has little in the way of an atmosphere — so humans living in those places would probably need to live underground in order to protect themselves from radiation.
People living on Titan could walk around (or, rather, bounce around — since the gravity is 14 percent of Earth's gravity, just a little less than at the moon) wearing suits to keep warm. It is cold on Titan (surface temperature of about -290 degrees F). And people would need to wear respirators to breathe oxygen, since the atmosphere is mostly nitrogen. The light on Titan is a little dim, like just after a sunset here on Earth, due to the haze particles in the thick atmosphere. People living on one hemisphere of Titan, the one always facing Saturn, would have beautiful views of the ringed planet.
A really fun (and potentially useful) thing is this: Thanks to the low gravity and thick atmosphere, people on Titan could easily fly under their own power if they strap wings to their arms! Future humans could also go boating on the lakes and seas, which are present primarily at higher latitudes.
Because it's so cold on Titan, all the water is frozen — the lakes and seas are composed of liquid methane and ethane. These hydrocarbons (like natural gas here on Earth) are in abundance on Titan — not only in the lakes and seas, but covering the surface and in the atmosphere. These hydrocarbons present a ready source of materials for building things, such as habitats, out of plastics. Humans could burn methane to produce energy, perhaps using a nuclear reactor to power electrolysis of water (since Titan's atmosphere doesn't contain the oxygen we would need for the methane combustion). Another chemical energy option is hydrogenation of acetylene (i.e. 3H2 + C2H2); both hydrogen and acetylene are present in Titan's atmosphere.
Outward Bound: Colonizing Titan
