Space/Science — HabitableZone

Space/Science » in reply to Lets take a moment to reflect on the mars rovers, and the 4th of July

Dr. Robert Zubrin: "In certain ways, Titan is the most hospitable extraterrestrial world within our solar system for human colonization."
~tax leech — (archived)

Dr. Robert Zubrin, on pages 165 & 166 of Entering Space (1999):

"In certain ways, Titan [Saturn's largest moon, which is 9 times as far from the Sun as Earth and which has a surface temperature of -173 degrees Celsius] is the most hospitable extraterrestrial world within our solar system for human colonization. In the almost Earth-normal atmospheric pressure of Titan, you would not need a pressure suit, just a dry suit to keep out the cold. On your back you could carry a tank of liquid oxygen, which would need no refrigeration in Titan's environment, would weigh almost nothing, and could supply your breathing needs for a week-long trip outside of the settlement. A small bleed valve off the tank would allow a trickle of oxygen to burn against the methane atmosphere, heating your breathing air and suit to desirable temperatures. With one-seventh Earth gravity and 4.5 times terrestrial sea-level atmospheric density, humans on Titan would be able to strap on wings and fly like birds... Electricity could be produced in great abundance, as the 100K heat sink available in Titan's atmosphere would allow for easy conversion of thermal energy from nuclear fission or fusion reactors to electricity at efficiencies of better than 80 percent. Most important, Titan contains billions of tonnes of easily accessible carbon, hydrogen, nitrogen, and oxygen. By utilizing these elements together with heat and light from large-scale nuclear fusion reactors, seeds, and some breeding pairs of livestock from Earth, a sizable agricultural base cold be created within a protected biosphere on Titan."

Elsewhere in that book [pg. 163] Dr. Zubrin mentions that "[a]s Saturn is the closest of the outer planets whose Helium 3 supplies are accessible to extraction, it will most likely be the first of the outer planets to be developed. The case for Saturn is further enhanced by the fact that the ringed planet possesses an excellent system of satellites, including Titan, a moon that, with a radius of nearly 2,600 km, is actually larger than the planet Mercury."

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Would it not seem that Mars, due to its proximity and apparent terraforming potential, offers more potential to the next several generations of Earthlings, though?

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