Why not colonize deserts on earth? It is vastly less energy consuming, vastly more useful, but no less of a challenge.
Because if you’re talking about things we can’t do anyway might as well talk about the ones that we can’t do the most
Saturn's largest moon may be the only place beyond Earth where humans could live
91–100 of 393 posts
Re: Saturn's largest moon may be the only place beyond Earth where humans could live
#92> 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".
And here I am, with my (Mexican) wife mentioning almost daily how horribly cold it is here in Europe. I'm also not sure what kind of warm clothing they'd mean lol.
goretex: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0e58SiFSxLs :p
Re: Saturn's largest moon may be the only place beyond Earth where humans could live
#93Let'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…
False dilemma. We can do both!
Sounds like a fun metaphor but human colonization has nothing to do with running or safety pins.
Re: Saturn's largest moon may be the only place beyond Earth where humans could live
#94If you can you should check out the TV series Avenue 5. It’s a sci-fi comedy and whoever they hired to do their science is really knocking it out the park. Some of the true science I’ve seen in the shown: the ship is massive enough to have its own gravity. Objects that get lost in space don’t float away. They orbit the ship. They use passenger effluent as a cosmic radiation shield. And due to an anomaly they don’t ge…
You basically spoiled the entire show now :)
Re: Saturn's largest moon may be the only place beyond Earth where humans could live
#95Earlier quoted context omitted.
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.
Stopping climate change isn't even hard, just place a large solar sail on a sun synchronous orbit to block part of the sun's energy from reaching Earth.
The ultimate weapon of imperialist terror! Why haven't we built this already?!
"It's most unfortunate, and not only for your farmers, that you've chosen not to have sunlight this year... perhaps you should reconsider our demands?"
Re: Saturn's largest moon may be the only place beyond Earth where humans could live
#96Someone read the Kurt Vonnegut book, The Sirens of Titan!
Re: Saturn's largest moon may be the only place beyond Earth where humans could live
#97Colonize the moon first: 1. plenty of solar power 2. close to earth 3. easy to launch out of its gravity well 4. lunar base technology can be iterated far more rapidly
> 1. plenty of solar power
For two weeks at a time. That's a long time for batteries to run.
Re: Saturn's largest moon may be the only place beyond Earth where humans could live
#98Earlier quoted context omitted.
Methane is a "greenhouse gas" itself, worse than co2. Mostly a problems from cattle digesting food. So burning it actually reduces climate change.
The methane is burnt and turned into CO2, it's not released.
I thought you were discussing rocketry? Releasing the exhaust is the point of the whole endeavor.
Re: Saturn's largest moon may be the only place beyond Earth where humans could live
#99Earlier quoted context omitted.
Stopping climate change isn't even hard, just place a large solar sail on a sun synchronous orbit to block part of the sun's energy from reaching Earth.
Now I'd like to know what you consider hard if launching a solar sail is not.
Let me reword that: it's do-able with current technology and at an affordable cost.
Such a solar sail can be extremely thin, just needs to be reflective. So even hundreds of square km of surface are manageable.
Re: Saturn's largest moon may be the only place beyond Earth where humans could live
#100Earlier quoted context omitted.
> 1. The film Gattaca (1999), in addition to being an excellent, inspiring film all around, centers on an aspiring astronaut's upcoming trip to Titan. Highly recommended. Gattaca is one of my favorite films. I agree that it is excellent, but I'm not sure it is inspiring. Gattaca is about how the system, society, circumstances and expectations beyond your control are an albatross around everyone's neck and ultimately…
> Vincent dies on his way to Titan due to his "degenerate" heart. Vincent definitely doesn't die on his way to Titan. I'm not sure where you got that from. Jerome also self-immolates because he realizes that his purpose is now completed, not because he is cynical and depressed. His silver Olympic medal also turns gold in the fire, which is supposed to suggest that he has achieved his true purpose in life. In any case…
since the film ends with him leaving we don't know if he dies or not, but outlook does not exactly look promising. Then again nothing of Vincent's life has ever looked promising.