Let's Colonize Titan
blogs.scientificamerican.com
Let's Colonize Titan
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Re: Let's Colonize Titan
#2They succeeded better in convincing me that there are no habitable choices in the solar system than Titan being the obvious choice. Mars will probably be our next destination as the best-fit of several ill-fitting choices. We need a propulsion revolution to reach Titan.
Re: Let's Colonize Titan
#3 > On Earth, we are shielded from GCRs by water in the atmosphere. But it takes two meters of water to block half of the GCRs present in unprotected space. Practically, a Moon or Mars settlement would have to be built underground to be safe from this
> Underground shelter is hard to build and not flexible or easy to expand. Settlers would need enormous excavations for room to supply all their needs for food, manufacturing and daily life. We ask why they would go to that trouble. We can live underground on Earth. What’s the advantage to doing so on Mars?
Re: Let's Colonize Titan
#4Terraform the moon. I want to look up to the skies and see a green moon every night. It is unfortunate we haven't spent a dime settling a moon base and studying the possibilities of creating a livable atmosphere on the moon being just a couple days away.
Re: Let's Colonize Titan
#5> On Earth, we are shielded from GCRs by water in the atmosphere. But it takes two meters of water to block half of the GCRs present in unprotected space. Practically, a Moon or Mars settlement would have to be built underground to be safe from this > Underground shelter is hard to build and not flexible or easy to expand. Settlers would need enormous excavations for room to supply all their needs for food, manufactu…
> Why then?
Because it's a different planet.
Re: Let's Colonize Titan
#6I strongly believe we'll never permanently settle anything beyond earth, for reasons pointed out by this article among others.
That said, please prove me wrong, I would be so very happy to be wrong.
Re: Let's Colonize Titan
#7> It might be possible to live suspended by balloons high in Venus’s atmosphere, but we can’t see how such a habitation would ever be self-sustaining.
I think they're a bit too dismissive here. I'm a great fan of the colonisation of Venus, and don't really see a problem with self-sustaining stations in a place with pressures and temperatures naturally fit for humans, with lots of sunlight for energy and lots of CO2.
After all, as long as there is plenty of energy, carbon, and oxygen, we should be able to synthesise mostly whatever we want.
Re: Let's Colonize Titan
#8This article has no good reasons for Titan, it doesn't discuss water, it doesn't discuss energy or how to grow food. It says that because you can fly there and there are dunes and a liquid surface in some places its like Earth, but that doesn't help us to survive at all.
To survive we need water, food and energy. How are we going to get that from Titan as opposed to Mars?
Re: Let's Colonize Titan
#9Here are some good arguments for colonizing Mercury:
Re: Let's Colonize Titan
#10Terraform the moon. I want to look up to the skies and see a green moon every night. It is unfortunate we haven't spent a dime settling a moon base and studying the possibilities of creating a livable atmosphere on the moon being just a couple days away.
The moon doesn't have enough mass (gravity) to keep an atmosphere suitable for us there.