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Titan's oiled up like a mad bastard.
Now we just gotta figure out how to get there, rape the place dry, then get to Mercury, figure out how to switch it on with a sea of solar panels, and then maybe - just MAYBE - we aren't fucked in minus 200 years... -
Having said that, though, current rocket-fuel technology doesn't allow us to get very far out of orbit in any meaningful way. We certainly don't have the capability to get a manned craft with refinery-building materials and labourers all the way to Titan unless we develop an entirely new fuel source. Which will make Titan's oil completely redundant in any case.
Titan is the biggest carrot-on-a-stick in the history of malevolent existence. -
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CommentAuthorAlan Tyson
- CommentTimeFeb 13th 2008
The real sad part is that by the time we get to Titan, we'll probably have little need for oil, since just to get there in any reasonable amount of time would require advanced fuel cell power plants and/or a fusion torch.
Now here's the really interesting question: if Titan has so much fossil fuels....what are the fuels fossils of?
*whistles X-files theme* -
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Did you see the link on the bottom for the story about the moon having over three hundred times as much He3?
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And the tech to make it useable would be available in 30 years at a conservative estimate, or 10 if we stopped arsing about and actually do something proactive!! Insane that this hasn't been reported more widely....
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Sadly, we're screwed either way. If we manage to get that stuff here, burning it would add a whole bunch more global warming fuel into the atmosphere. Considering that we know that taking burning all the terrestrial oil has already put more crap in the atmo than is good for business, I'd rather hope that by the time we could economically transport that much mass here, we have a more eco friendly energy infrastructure in place.
Though the engineering challenge in question would make a damn fine Discover Channel show. I do wonder if burning fossil fuels might be helpful in terraforming and atmosphere, too.
And this:@Artemis_of_OZ
is a very cool question.
Now here's the really interesting question: if Titan has so much fossil fuels....what are the fuels fossils of? -
@zenbullet
the moon having over three hundred times as much He3?
i vaguely recall that's why the Chinese are heading there.. -
- CommentAuthorKosmopolit
- CommentTimeFeb 14th 2008
With a little luck, the human race might get to Titan sooner than we think:
http://www.spaceflightnow.com/news/n0801/18avweek/
The key to the solar system is exploiting the resources already floating around up there rather than spending billions shipping stuff up from the Earth. -
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CommentAuthorAlan Tyson
- CommentTimeFeb 14th 2008
Bingo. He3 mining on the moon, and much, more more importantly on Jupiter and Saturn, useful metals on the carbonaceous chondrite asteroids, and water from the outer moons, plus whatever other Easter goodies we find once we start really putting Sol System under a microscope. -
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CommentAuthorofftandiscord
- CommentTimeFeb 14th 2008 edited
so, Titan used to have dinosaurs too? dinosaurs from space?
awesome. -
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Well, even though most (all?) known life forms are carbon-based, that does not imply that carbon can only exist as a consequence of living things.
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- CommentAuthorsacredchao
- CommentTimeFeb 14th 2008
I was gonna say basically the same thing. Squishy carbons don't necessarilly have to come from critters.
But space dinosaurs - that sounds way cooler then my boring ass explanation. -
Space Dinosaurs From The Centre Of The SUN!! Think I saw that movie....
Mind you, what impact will this shameless hauling-in of everything up there have on down here? How much crap can we put the moon through before we start noticing terrestrial effects on tides and anything else the moon has influence on? Political problems too -- who gets what slice of the moon? You just KNOW that international co-operation would collapse with speed.
Also, I know the Chinese for instance believe that the moon is a radiating source of Chi (body/spirit energy). I'm sure strip-mining the place for our capitalist needs is sure to turn up a few noses for quasi-religious reasons the world over... -
We should edit Titan's wiki entry to include space dinosaurs....from space.
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CommentAuthorKitsuneCaligari
- CommentTimeFeb 14th 2008
Is it too telling of my fractured brain that I misread the header as SAILOR MOON AWASH WITH OIL? -
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CommentAuthorofftandiscord
- CommentTimeFeb 14th 2008
@Adam, the universe is the source of Qi, infact the universe IS Qi, and vice versa. the chinese are more likely to want to exploit it beore eberyone else anyway, the last thing on their mind is qi... -
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Very true, it wasn't the central government of that fine industrial juggernaut I was expecting to hold the qualms over it. It was the little old men in dingy antique shops selling dried lizards and mogwais under-the-counter I was thinking more of.
Sailor Moon.... baby oil..... DAMMIT, FOX!! I'm not gonna be able to get any work done for the rest of the day now!! }:( -
We don't even need to leave the planet to find the next great fuel source. HYDROGEN. It is easy to obtain, and easy to manufacture. It has the highest concentration of any other gas on the planet. But the only reason it is not up now is because the Oil triad owns all the little hydrogen producers and they are not letting them mass produce.
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@kitsuneCalligari
i, too, thought it said Sailor Moon and was horribly let down until i got to the space dinosaurs.
you know they wore helmets. -
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CommentAuthorAlan Tyson
- CommentTimeFeb 19th 2008
Well, if we can get Virgin Galactic or some other private space agency to get some of those guys up to the moon to mine the stuff, no oil triad in the world could stop them. -