Pigs might fly on Titan?

[Gian]

When explorers eventually reach Titan, I suppose they could take some farm animals with them which if they had enough to eat would create manure, although I'm not sure how pigs and cattle would get on in the low gravity (flying pigs?)

But would there be enough minerals lying about on the surface to use as soil to grow crops? Would there be enough nutrients in it? Titanian wheat and potatoes?🙂

[joigus]

From what I know the only liquid in Titan is mostly methane (and maybe other light hydrocarbons.) Water is frozen solid so hard that geologically it plays the role of rocks there. I don't think there would be even the remotest possibility of growing crops or pigs because of that.

Also, Saturn's magnetosphere would be deadly to the flying pigs. Although I love the picture of flying pigs in Titan.

[Gian]

I picture explorers creating giant igloos to use as greenhouses, with methane-powered heating to room temperature and melting water ice for crops and pasture, and also extracting oxygen from water (electrolysis?) to make breathable air. But yes I suspect there wouldn't be enough 'goodies' on the Titanian surface to grow stuff, so the astronauts would have to bring their own compost.

Can you define magnetosphere and explain why it would be a problem for animals please? (I'm a novice at science) Thanks

GIAN 🙂

[joigus]

Yes, the fact that there are lots of methane and ethane could be very useful to obtain energy/store it for different purposes. I don't know about how efficient electrolysis of water in Titan would be. Maybe someone can help about that. My personal favourite in terms of generating oxygen is analogues of cyanobacteria that could work in Titan's conditions. You would need a microorganism that liberates oxygen... It seems that the most abundant source of oxygen in Titan is water. Not much CO₂ from volcanos.

Bacteria and archaea of some kind on Earth manage to exploit virtually any redox-reaction that the chemists have been able to draw on the whiteboard. So, possibilities there are.

Quote

Pre-Cassini models of impact trajectories and angles suggest that where the impactor strikes the water ice crust, a small amount of ejecta remains as liquid water within the crater. It may persist as liquid for centuries or longer, sufficient for "the synthesis of simple precursor molecules to the origin of life".^[113]

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Titan_(moon)

Magnetosphere. Stars and gas giants have very powerful magnetic fields around them that, in the case of Saturn, whip their moons with very strong and potentially very damaging ionizing radiation. This radiation is mutagenic, and most mutations would result in cancer. The Earth, e.g., is protected against the Sun's magnetosphere by its own magnetic field. The problem with these moons is that generally they are geologically inactive, so the don't have own magnetospheres to act as shields.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Magnetosphere_of_Saturn

Quote

The hydrocarbons are thought to form in Titan's upper atmosphere in reactions resulting from the breakup of methane by the Sun's ultraviolet light, producing a thick orange smog.^[47] Titan spends 95% of its time within Saturn's magnetosphere, which may help shield it from the solar wind.^[48]

Here they seem to suggest the opposite of what I was saying, that Saturn's magnetosphere shields the moon from solar wind. [?] Maybe it's a question of prevailing winds...

As to soil minerals, the problem with life is that you must move all the chemicals in cycles: nitrogen, carbon, water, iron... That would take a massive engineering grand scheme of recycling.

Because Titan is being the subject of intense study now, I wouldn't take anything we know now as set in stone.

I'm no expert on this. I only want to entice nice and informed conversation here, because the topic is interesting. +1

Edited August 23, 2020 by joigus

[Gian]

28 minutes ago, joigus said:

Yes, the fact that there are lots of methane and ethane could be very useful to obtain energy/store it for different purposes. I don't know about how efficient electrolysis of water in Titan would be. Maybe someone can help about that. My personal favourite in terms of generating oxygen is analogues of cyanobacteria that could work in Titan's conditions. You would need a microorganism that liberates oxygen... It seems that the most abundant source of oxygen in Titan is water. Not much CO₂ from volcanos.

Bacteria and archaea of some kind on Earth manage to exploit virtually any redox-reaction that the chemists have been able to draw on the whiteboard. So, possibilities there are.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Titan_(moon)

Magnetosphere. Stars and gas giants have very powerful magnetic fields around them that, in the case of Saturn, whip their moons with very strong and potentially very damaging ionizing radiation. This radiation is mutagenic, and most mutations would result in cancer. The Earth, e.g., is protected against the Sun's magnetosphere by its own magnetic field. The problem with these moons is that generally they are geologically inactive, so the don't have own magnetospheres to act as shields.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Magnetosphere_of_Saturn

Here they seem to suggest the opposite of what I was saying, that Saturn's magnetosphere shields the moon from solar wind. [?] Maybe it's a question of prevailing winds...

As to soil minerals, the problem with life is that you must move all the chemicals in cycles: nitrogen, carbon, water, iron... That would take a massive engineering grand scheme of recycling.

Because Titan is being the subject of intense study now, I wouldn't take anything we know now as set in stone.

I'm no expert on this. I only want to entice nice and informed conversation here, because the topic is interesting. +1

Thanks 🙂