Lately, there has been a ton of discussion about the race to colonize Mars. Mars is on our space travel radar for the United States and the Earth in general. After years of no space travel or colonization discussions, it is back. NASA and several other private organizations like Mars One have been focusing on Mars.
Scientific American says not so fast. They don’t believe a colony on Mars or the Moon is sustainable.
But although the Moon and Mars look like comparatively reasonable destinations, they also have a deal-breaking problem. Neither is protected by a magnetosphere or atmosphere. Galactic Cosmic Rays, the energetic particles from distant supernovae, bombard the surfaces of the Moon and Mars, and people can’t live long-term under the assault of GCRs. (Scientific American)
Instead of looking at Mars, they believe we should colonize Titan, a moon of Saturn. Titan has an atmosphere that would protect colonists from harmful radiation ad Cosmic Rays at damages DNA. Colonists wouldn’t need pressure suits to survive like they would on Mars or the Moon.
There are some considerable challenges to living in a colony on Titan. Titan is 886 million miles from Earth. It would take around 7 years to reach Titan with our current technology. Currently, we have no way to safely send people to Titan for a colony.
The environment and atmosphere on Titan are way outside of our norms on Earth. The temperatures on Titan are around 300 Degrees below Zero Fahrenheit or minus 180 Celsius. It rains methane and ethane. Playing catch outside in the back yard isn’t likely to happen on a Titan colony.
What does Titan have to offer humanity? There is frozen water under the surface of Titan that can be used to drinking and used to make oxygen to breath. There are hydrocarbons which can be converted for easy energy consumption. Homes could be made from plastics from the hydrocarbons and filled with warm oxygen and nitrogen.
Colonizing any planet or moon in our solar system is full of challenges. We have focused on the challenges of Mars. Some believe a colony there is not sustainable like it could be on Titan. There are plenty of challenges and advantages to examining Titan but currently, we don’t have a method to get a colony out to Titan.
(via Scientific American)
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