This may be the best place in solar system for us to live after Earth

in science •  7 years ago  (edited)

A lot of thinking is going on about whether humans should inhabit the planet Mars. However, Mars is very unfriendly to humans.

Left: Mars, Right: Titan

On the other hand, Saturn's largest moon, Titan, is quite Earth like in many ways. It has an atmospheric pressure which is 1.5 times more than that of the Earth, at 1.5 bar. Compare this to Mars, which has a pressure of only 0.01 bar. This has two advantages. Firstly, humans won't need to wear a spacesuit while being outside on Titan, but would require just an oxygen mask. Secondly, this thick atmosphere, like Earth, would prevent the inhabitants from deadly solar flares. And the most fun part is that you could just strap wings and fly on Titan, as was shown by a study, which is mentioned in https://io9.gizmodo.com/humans-might-be-able-to-fly-on-titan-if-they-use-large-1536169825

An artist's impression of a view of Saturn from Titan

Image source

And do you know that there are enormous hydrogen lakes on Titan, with which you can generate enormous amount of power! According to experts from the Johns Hopkins University in Mayrland, a settlement of up to 300 million people could be supported with that much of hydrocarbons.

Yet another artist's impression of a view of Saturn from Titan

image source

You can read more about Titan from https://www.express.co.uk/news/science/827431/Mars-colony-titan-saturn-nasa

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Interesting. Elon Musk is hell bent on going to Mars and inhibit it. I'm not sure how he views Titan as an option.

I think he's interested in going to Mars to use it as a test. He already knows he can get to the moon. That's an easy task for him. His goal is interplanetary life in as a whole so anything that expands our reach in a positive way he will be on board with.

  ·  7 years ago (edited)

Going to Mars is not a bad choice as Saturn is much far away. But in the future, 100 or 200 years from now maybe, Titan could be a good choice.

I was reading an article about this the other day and found it strange why anyone would want to inhabit Mars. It'd be a good interplanetary test to do as a "smaller scale" move since Mars is much closer to Earth than Titan is.. by over a billion km. Any idea on how the dense atmosphere would affect planes?

  ·  7 years ago (edited)

I think the denser atmosphere would mean that the planes would fly slower than here on earth. Just like submarines travel slower than airplanes because water is much denser than air.

I just went back and did a search to see if I could find an answer. Apparently it's actually the opposite of what I would think. According to this site(This is not my site and I'm not affiliated with it at all) https://what-if.xkcd.com/30/ they think that it could actually be easier to fly on Titan than it would be here on earth. I can't wait to see all of the new engineering feats that we're going to be faced with when going to Titan. It's going to be exciting.

  ·  7 years ago (edited)

Yes it would be easier to fly because of the denser atmosphere. Just like its easier to swim than fly. But the speed of travelling of the airplanes itself I think would be slower, because of more resistance from the thicker atmosphere.

Ah... I guess that could be a possibility. I think the biggest engineering problem that we're going to have to overcome is the temperature. Imagine flying with wings and a few seconds in you just fall straight to the ground from the wings freezing lmao.

I'm intrigued by Titan. I'm not sure the hydrocarbon lakes would be the ideal way to use it's energy resources. I mean, haven't we learned anything about climate change yet. also 1 carelessly discarded cigarette could make the whole planet go BOOOOOOm.. (probably not)..

https://saturn.jpl.nasa.gov/internal_resources/403/
this shot by Cassini is very tempting isn't it.. much nicer looking than hot, dry, dusty Mars.

my guess is that Titan is probably inhabited anyway, if not by original species (And why not ? we're here aren't we) then by some passing space colony of interplanetary or interstellar beings. ! more detail @hmushtaq.. if you want my votes, you got to put a bit more into your posts !! :)

Good perspective @outerground. And nice suggestions relating to improving my posts. Thanks for commenting :)

good work ! & keep going.. space is a great topic !

Informative post... Mars is hopefully just our first step into the universe. Once we’ve dipped our toes out into the solar system, it will be easier to expand but i think in future would be possible to live at Mars.

Amazing post.

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