Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

Saturn's largest moon may be the only place beyond Earth where humans could live

blogs.scientificamerican.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

31–40 of 393 posts

Re: Saturn's largest moon may be the only place beyond Earth where humans could live

#31

Post by keiferski »

Two thoughts on this topic:

1. The film Gattaca (1997), in addition to being an excellent, inspiring film all around, centers on an aspiring astronaut's upcoming trip to Titan. Highly recommended.

- https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lZa83dTf4JA

2. The colonization of Venus is also a fascinating idea that isn't talked about much in comparison to the Moon or Mars. Essentially, the surface is too hot for colonization, but it may be possible to build floating cities ±31 miles above the surface.

- Venus's atmosphere is made mostly out of carbon dioxide. Because nitrogen and oxygen are lighter than carbon-dioxide, breathable-air-filled balloons will float at a height of about 50 km (31 mi). At this height, the temperature is a manageable 75 °C (348 K; 167 °F); or 27 °C (300 K; 81 °F) if we could get 5 km (3.1 mi) higher

- The atmosphere also provides the various elements required for human life and agriculture: carbon, hydrogen, oxygen, nitrogen, and sulfur.

- Additionally, the upper atmosphere could provide protection from harmful solar radiation comparable to the protection provided by Earth's atmosphere. The Atmosphere of Mars, as well as the Moon provide little such protection.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Colonization_of_Venus

Re: Saturn's largest moon may be the only place beyond Earth where humans could live

#33

Post by muzani »

> It’s cold on Titan, at -180°C (-291°F), but thanks to its thick atmosphere, residents wouldn’t need pressure suits—just warm clothing and respirators.

I'm no space colony expert but am I missing something here? -180°C sounds like constant space suit level, not "just warm clothing".

Re: Saturn's largest moon may be the only place beyond Earth where humans could live

#35

Post by muzani »

Santosh83 wrote: post #3

Let's first ensure we do all possible things as a species and a collection of communities to restabilise Earth and give ourselves a 99.5% chance of healthful survival for the next 200 years, which is probably the reasonable timeline until we can establish more or less independent non-Earth habitats that can survive without Earth indefinitely. This is like expressing the wish of wanting to run while simultaneously ign…

I like how we're optimistic in terraforming and colonizing distant bodies with different gravity, pressure, atmosphere, temperatures, while equally panicking trying to control a few degrees of temperature on our home planet.

But I think research on how to colonize other planets will help us in dealing with local climate change.

Re: Saturn's largest moon may be the only place beyond Earth where humans could live

#36

Post by sulam »

keiferski wrote: post #31

Two thoughts on this topic: 1. The film Gattaca (1997), in addition to being an excellent, inspiring film all around, centers on an aspiring astronaut's upcoming trip to Titan. Highly recommended. - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lZa83dTf4JA 2. The colonization of Venus is also a fascinating idea that isn't talked about much in comparison to the Moon or Mars. Essentially, the surface is too hot for colonization, but…

"Strap in folks, we're going through some turbulence... For the rest of your lives."

Re: Saturn's largest moon may be the only place beyond Earth where humans could live

#39

Post by muzani »

keiferski wrote: post #28
pyrale wrote: post #21

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Mainly because right now, any significant endeavour is tied to using massive amounts of fossil fuel. As long as it will be the case, we won't be able to start new, large scale projects without jeopardizing our ability to live on earth.

> Mainly because right now, any significant endeavour is tied to using massive amounts of fossil fuel. But does that actually matter in space? I am asking out of genuine curiosity here: does using fossil fuels in space have any real downside? There is no atmosphere, ergo no greenhouse effect. The vastness of space would seem to swallow up any sort of pollution.

That's... a different question. Where would you find fossils on other planets? The article says Titan has seas of hydrocarbon, but otherwise Moon and Mars, it's just not an option. One reason why Musk has invested so much in non-fossil fuel tech is not so much to save this planet but to operate things on other planets.

Re: Saturn's largest moon may be the only place beyond Earth where humans could live

#40

Post by imjasonmiller »

fnord77 wrote: post #2

terraform venus. it's much closer, has a nice .9g and maybe a viable long-term project https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Terraforming_of_Venus

The much weaker gravity and its effects on human health is something I rarely see mentioned.

If one were to be born on a body with a much weaker gravity than Earth, e.g. Mars (0.38) or the Moon (0.17), wouldn’t this confine them to bodies where gravity is less than or approximately equal?

Post reply on HN