Conditions on Titan

[Martin]

This just came out today. It is the first scientific report based on Huygens images and data AFAIK. The estimates we had earlier, about the temperature and pressure at the surface were presumably based on remote imaging and theoretical calculation. this thread is for whatever new information about Titan and especially surface conditions.

 

It really does seem as if it is analogous to earth in many ways except instead of rivers and lakes of water it has had rivers and lakes of liquid methane. I believe there are signs of recent liquid but at the moment no actual liquid was seen. Please correct me if I have the wrong impression about this.

 

http://www.esa.int/esaCP/SEMHB881Y3E_index_0.html

 

"The first scientific assessments of Huygens' data were presented during a press conference at ESA head office in Paris on 21 January."

 

"Thus, while many of Earth's familiar geophysical processes occur on Titan, the chemistry involved is quite different. Instead of liquid water, Titan has liquid methane. Instead of silicate rocks, Titan has frozen water ice. Instead of dirt, Titan has hydrocarbon particles settling out of the atmosphere, and instead of lava, Titanian volcanoes spew very cold ice.

 

Titan is an extraordinary world having Earth-like geophysical processes operating on exotic materials in very alien conditions."

 

"Geological evidence for precipitation, erosion, mechanical abrasion and other fluvial activity says that the physical processes shaping Titan are much the same as those shaping Earth."

 

"Images have shown a complex network of narrow drainage channels running from brighter highlands to lower, flatter, dark regions. These channels merge into river systems running into lakebeds featuring offshore 'islands' and 'shoals' remarkably similar to those on Earth"

 

"In addition, DISR surface images show small rounded pebbles in a dry riverbed. Spectra measurements (colour) are consistent with a composition of dirty water ice rather than silicate rocks."

 

"Huygens' data provide strong evidence for liquids flowing on Titan. However, the fluid involved is methane"

 

"Titan's rivers and lakes appear dry at the moment, but rain may have occurred not long ago."

[5614]

similar landscape, not similar environmental weather factors... it has superfast windws and very-sub zero temps.... other than that its just like home!

 

that sounds wrong like im joking, i promise im not!

[Martin]

similar landscape' date=' not similar environmental weather factors... it has superfast windws and very-sub zero temps.... other than that its just like home!

 

that sounds wrong like im joking, i promise im not![/quote']

 

maybe a colony on Titan could use wind turbines (as well as nuclear power) to generate electricity

 

if the rocks are made of water-ice then maybe they could construct massive igloos to live in----or icecaves under the surface.

 

if there is a secure snug shelter then all you really need is a source of electric power and you can melt ice for water and grow vegetables make a lake for fish, and play video games.

 

so why not Titan windmills

[us.2u]

I was looking on the beebs science page (Ceefaax 154) I think they manantain that

their river beds are flowing from metane rainfall...

[Martin]

I was looking on the beebs science page (Ceefaax 154) I think they manantain that

their river beds are flowing from metane rainfall...

 

Please give a link!

 

I read that there are no signs of methane rain in the immediate past (like yesterday) so there is nothing that IS NOW flowing. but there are obvious signs of having had methane rain down in the past and cause erosion and riverbeds and suchlike features we associate with water.

[us.2u]

Liquid methane rain feed river channels, lakes, streams and springs on the surface of Saturns' moon, Titan, images from the Huygen probe show.

Scientists have also recovered much data from Huygen that had been thought lost, due to a communications failure.

On 14 January,the spacecraft plunged through the moons atmosphere, sending scientific data- including stunning images-back to ground control as teams outlined new results at a press conference in Paris, France.

[[Tycho?]]

so why not Titan windmills

 

The ultimate irony, using windmills on a place where it literally rains fuel.

[boka-fett]

hey, yknow, theres something to be said about that [Tyco?]. There has been something of the kind suggested in colonizing Mars, that involved burning 'greenhouse' chemicals in order to make the enviroment warmer. Could something similar be suggested for Titan, where a system could be set up that did not need human assistance? Anywho, this is very interesting information.

[Bettina]

'']The ultimate irony, using windmills on a place where it literally rains fuel.

 

Hahahaha I'm keeping this

 

Bettina

[us.2u]

If Titan were to be heated by a similar greenhouse effect or by atificial means by us the problem would be we would destroy Titans atmosphere I do have that info if the temperateure were raised only by 100 degrees farenheit the atmosphere on Titan would escape....

[[Tycho?]]

hey, yknow, theres something to be said about that [Tyco?']. There has been something of the kind suggested in colonizing Mars, that involved burning 'greenhouse' chemicals in order to make the enviroment warmer. Could something similar be suggested for Titan, where a system could be set up that did not need human assistance? Anywho, this is very interesting information.

 

Well Titan's problem is its huge distance from the sun, I dont think adding new compounds to the atmosphere will increase its warming by the sun.

[boka-fett]

'']Well Titan's problem is its huge distance from the sun, I dont think adding new compounds to the atmosphere will increase its warming by the sun.

 

True, well, just a thought.

 

If Titan were to be heated by a similar greenhouse effect or by atificial means by us the problem would be we would destroy Titans atmosphere I do have that info if the temperateure were raised only by 100 degrees farenheit the atmosphere on Titan would escape....

 

Ah, so a normal heat trapping atmosphere would throw that one out of wack. Nifty.

[us.2u]

Titan has a cold dense atmosphere (-240d f). Higher temperatures mean that the particles in an atmosphere move more quickly. So that they are more easily able to escape into space. This has happened with Mercury, where the daytime heat can rise to at least 700d f. Any atmosphere which may have existed has long been driven off. With Titan, the situation is different, the atmospheric particles are less agitated and have been unable to leak away. Even so Titan represents something of a border line case. It has been calculated if a temperature were raised by as little as 100d f naturally or artificially the atmosphere would escape.

[Martin]

here is more about surface conditions

http://www.harktheherald.com/modules.php?op=modload&name=News&file=article&sid=45812&mode=thread&order=0&thold=0

 

somebody interviewed the mission manager, Lebreton.

he would like now to send balloons to drift around and photograph the surface more extensively

 

From today's article I get this impression: the methane slowly photodissociates into hydrogen (and carbon/heavier compounds) and the hydrogen presumably escapes the weak gravity of the moon

 

therefore the methane would gradually disappear from Titan if it were not constantly being renewed (perhaps by volcanism of some sort) from inside the orb.

[TimeTraveler]

The Mars Rover team has already contacted him to say that "they really now are dreaming of sending their rovers on the surface of Titan," he added. "This is highly possible -- that we can now dream seriously of sending rovers on the surface of Titan. We just need the money."

 

Send the rovers, have the baloons equipped onto the rovers and released after touchdown = 2 birds with one stone. Sounds good anyways.