Author Topic: A colonizing effort for TITAN (Read 27868 times)

Patchouli · « **Reply #20 on:** 02/11/2016 05:54 am »

Quote from: Lampyridae on 02/11/2016 05:40 am

You'll also have more gravity and drag losses than normal. Titan's atmosphere is 600km deep. You'll probably have to take balloon halfway up to launch, or have some kind of hybrid aircraft design.

Winged vehicles would have a big advantage over pure VTOL type landers in that environment.
Something that can take off slow at first but switch to flying like the X15 half way up would be needed.
I wonder if nuclear turbojets yes they actually researched such a thing back in the 1950s would be a valid solution as there is no oxygen but it would be desirable to use the atmosphere as reaction mass.
With the thick atmosphere and low gravity of titian most of the weight issues with a nuclear jet engine would no longer be an issue.
Supposedly flight is so easy in that environment that in theory a person could fly by strapping on a pair of wings.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aircraft_Nuclear_Propulsion
It might even be possible to reach high altitudes using electrically driven propellers using battery and motor technology derived from EVs.
Then from there you wouldn't need much more delta V then the LEM ascent stage to get into orbit.
Something equivalent to SS2 and WK2 but built for the low temps and lack of oxygen might have enough performance.

Lampyridae · « **Reply #21 on:** 02/11/2016 10:54 am »

Oxygen? Just carry LOX and burn methane! The relative abundance is about the same as oxygen on Earth.

Admiral_Ritt · « **Reply #22 on:** 02/11/2016 05:44 pm »

Why do people assume such a high concentration of Methane on Titan?
according to NASA On the surface Methane = 4.9 Percent (maximum) you are not
going to burst into flame just because you are leaking a bit of Oxygen. Nitrogen is a great buffer gas at 94%+

To get a flame You would need to have a modest concentrator to gather
a combustible amount CH4 to burn with the 02.

Cyanide is a trace gas on the surface of Titan. a nominally closed breathing
system should be enough protection. should it fail the most It would give you a headache while you
were heading off to safety. Hell of a lot less dangerous than Perchlorate Dust and Soil on Mars.

No, I don't think It a suit made for the Moons of Uranus or Neptune, would be necessary for Titan, it would
be overkill.

The external material for the Titan Outerware I was thinking of is Polytetrafluoroethylene (Teflon)
good idea to keep the temp of the exposed material above -80C, since below this it tends to become
stiff and brittle. So like I stated, 20C on the inside and -80C on the outside.
And special boots would be required to not cause explosive thermal events as you walk/hop

Alf Fass · « **Reply #23 on:** 02/11/2016 06:13 pm »

Quote from: Admiral_Ritt on 02/11/2016 05:44 pm

Why do people assume such a high concentration of Methane on Titan?
according to NASA On the surface Methane = 4.9 Percent (maximum) you are not
going to burst into flame just because you are leaking a bit of Oxygen. Nitrogen is a great buffer gas at 94%+

To get a flame You would need to have a modest concentrator to gather
a combustible amount CH4 to burn with the 02.

Cyanide is a trace gas on the surface of Titan. a nominally closed breathing
system should be enough protection. should it fail the most It would give you a headache while you
were heading off to safety. Hell of a lot less dangerous than Perchlorate Dust and Soil on Mars.

No, I don't think It a suit made for the Moons of Uranus or Neptune, would be necessary for Titan, it would
be overkill.

The external material for the Titan Outerware I was thinking of is Polytetrafluoroethylene (Teflon)
good idea to keep the temp of the exposed material above -80C, since below this it tends to become
stiff and brittle. So like I stated, 20C on the inside and -80C on the outside.
And special boots would be required to not cause explosive thermal events as you walk/hop

trace amounts of cyanides have been found in Titan's atmosphere, what's interesting is that these chemicals are solids at Titan's temperatures, so the concentrations on the surface could be quite high.

lamontagne · « **Reply #24 on:** 02/11/2016 06:28 pm »

Why settle on the surface at all? wouldn't it be simpler to live in orbit on a rotating torus, and use Titan and other moons for ressources? What is gained by living on the surface?
Might be interesting to create life forms that can live/adapt to Titan though.
If you absolutely want to live on the surface, it might be possible to build a rotating city? Since it needs to be insulated anyway, and essentially be a spaceship analog in most things, might it spin to create 1g on the surface (or inside a cave)?At least the magnetic superconductors that would be required could be at 'room' temperature ;-)

JulesVerneATV · « **Reply #25 on:** 07/03/2025 12:12 pm »

Exploring Saturn's moon Titan: our possible future home (Full Documentary)

Original Title: Last call for Titan! Directed by Frédéric Ramade
wocomoDOCS

Paul451 · « **Reply #26 on:** 07/06/2025 07:46 am »

Normally I'd snark at "domes in space". But here it's fine. Indeed, just a heavily insulated tent is sufficient.

This time it's the SEV rover that is silly. Completely wrong for the environment.

Run your internal atmosphere at Titan ambient (1.5atm¹) and you don't need a pressurised cabin at all, just a crap-ton of insulation. (Perhaps running a very slight positive pressure to reduce inward leaks, but not enough to worry about pressure containment.) Also, there are silicones that can handle Titan temps, so pressurised tyres should be fairly easy. (Likewise, other basic seals/gaskets.)

^{¹ 1.5 atm with 20kPa pp.Oxygen is 14% oxygen, which is below the limit for methane fires. So even if you had a build-up of methane (somehow), you wouldn't get fire. Likewise, it drastically reduces the risk of any fire.}