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Let's Colonize Titan

blogs.scientificamerican.com

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Re: Let's Colonize Titan

#51

Post by forgotpwtomain »

gkafkg8y8 wrote: post #28
donatj wrote: post #6

I 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.

The main two reasons we wouldn't settle anything beyond Earth would be: 1. Lack of interest. 2. Lack of time. #1 is the biggest problem as far as we know right now. #2 is a problem only if we destroy our planet to the point where we can't expend resources or time, or we overpopulate and run out of resources, or a natural disaster sets us back too far or kills us. We have sufficient resources right now, we're just not…

> 1. Lack of interest.

F-35 was a lot more important, what would we do if we had to stop interfering in the middle-east?

[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Budget_of_NASA [2] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lockheed_Martin_F-35_Lightning...

Re: Let's Colonize Titan

#52

Post by jsnathan »

codingdave wrote: post #48
sgentle wrote: post #32

So, the argument is let's not go to Mars because we'd have to deal with cosmic rays. Instead, let's go to Titan, which has an atmosphere, but is ridiculously cold and rains methane. Also, we can't go there because it's nearly thirty times the distance. Plus we'd still have to deal with cosmic rays along the way. I'm not convinced.

It wasn't a proposal -- it was a thought experiment.

Let's do X is not a proposal?

Re: Let's Colonize Titan

#53

Post by patall »

ajuc wrote: post #37
oska wrote: post #36

> 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. Build a double-skinned geodesic dome with a 4 metre gap between the two shells. Fill the space between with water. Your 'sky' now has a water-shielding layer.

1 square meter of such roof would weight 4 tonnes (on Earth). 500 kg on Titan. That's quite a roof.

yeah, but it scales cubical. If you build your station 8 times as big and only need 2 times the material. So million people colonies become cheaper per person wise. Plus you might be able to grow algea in there.

Re: Let's Colonize Titan

#54

Post by gkafkg8y8 »

babyrainbow wrote: post #49
gkafkg8y8 wrote: post #28

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The main two reasons we wouldn't settle anything beyond Earth would be: 1. Lack of interest. 2. Lack of time. #1 is the biggest problem as far as we know right now. #2 is a problem only if we destroy our planet to the point where we can't expend resources or time, or we overpopulate and run out of resources, or a natural disaster sets us back too far or kills us. We have sufficient resources right now, we're just not…

>If every government said, "You, need to change what you are doing and start helping us get off of this planet," and changed laws and regulations to encourage or enforce this, it would happen. Would't be better if they tried to "fix the planet" instead? Boring, I know. But much more easier and possible and most importantly, proper.

> Would't be better if they tried to "fix the planet" instead?

It would be, but based on what I hear, it's too late. Also, you can't easily keep Earth from being hit by a giant meteor or a large CME that takes out all of our electronics and sends us back to the bronze age.

Re: Let's Colonize Titan

#55

Post by jp555 »

sytelus wrote: post #35

If we ever get to fusion or other unlimited energy source, it may be possible someday to thoroughly transform Titan, relocate 100,000 people on it and flung it in to space to another star. Titan can be our "generational spaceship" that goes forever to infinity and beyond. To colonize galaxy, using moons as spaceship would be necessary assuming there is no way to travel faster than speed of light. So all inter-galacti…

That's making a lot of assumptions though. For one thing, I think to become an interstellar species, we'll have to direct the evolution of Homo sapiens into some kind of Homo exteriores spatium sapiens. Radiation-hardened, very very long lived, happy to live together in very tight spaces, etc. Might look closer to giant cockroaches than hairless apes. It certainly seems we're a lot closer to the ability to do this (eg. CRISPR-Cas9) than colonize & move a moon.

Re: Let's Colonize Titan

#57

Post by bitL »

Alright, so currently we can't even predict how bad osteoporosis becomes after a flight to Mars (will astronauts break their hips on the first step out of landing module?), what would radiation exposure outside Earth's magnetosphere do to our bodies, yet we should hurry up to Titan. Currently even human space flight to Mars is a pipe dream, our practical knowledge constructing vehicles capable of reaching Moon and sustaining human life deteriorated (still using Soviet engines from the 60s?), not mentioning reaching Mars which is way way farther than Moon (50M-400M km vs 380k km, 130-1050x farther). Overcoming this would require massive undertaking of all humanity, like with LHC, and not just PR from SpaceX to secure their funding.

Re: Let's Colonize Titan

#59

Post by vbezhenar »

sliken wrote: post #50
w-ll wrote: post #42

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If we were to invest in building a underwater 'Sealab' on the bottom of some ocean floor, say at least 100m water deep, what kind of cataclysmic event could destroy it. A few dozen of the underwater sea-colonies seams the most practical safety net for humanity that we can do today. I completely for exploring and colonizing space, but we still haven't mapped our own oceans fully. And sadly, I don't think my generation…

If there's a nuke war, anything nuke resistant would likely be directly targeted. After all last thing your enemy wants is for the earth to be repopulated by their enemy.

Is it hard to nuke Mars or Titan? Looks the same for me. Deploy nukes in the Mars orbit and destroy colony if needed.

Re: Let's Colonize Titan

#60

Post by bazzargh »

ape4 wrote: post #46
sgentle wrote: post #32

So, the argument is let's not go to Mars because we'd have to deal with cosmic rays. Instead, let's go to Titan, which has an atmosphere, but is ridiculously cold and rains methane. Also, we can't go there because it's nearly thirty times the distance. Plus we'd still have to deal with cosmic rays along the way. I'm not convinced.

Hopefully we can develop some light materials for radiation protection. So we can have radiation-proof domes and suits on Mars.

I have to wonder if the recently discovered ice deposits on mars would do the job

https://www.nasa.gov/feature/jpl/mars-ice-deposit-holds-as-m...

If this really is just a metre down and 80% water it's got to be an attractive target - relatively easy to mine (once surface is cleared, just use heat) and a hollowed out underground structure with 1m of ice above would be an effective radiation shield:

http://space.stackexchange.com/a/1826

... and once you're there, water is water, plus water can be used to make fuel.

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