Telescope Reviews: Hydrocarbons on Titan

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Mike Casey

Reged: 11/11/04

Loc: El Pueblo de Nuestra Señora la...

Hydrocarbons on Titan new

#2210988 - 02/22/08 01:00 PM

Cassini has found that Titan has hundreds of times more oil and natural gas than all the reserves on Earth. Now we just have to figure out how future human explorations of the outer solar system could obtain and use these huge hydrocarbon pools.

http://www.pasadenastarnews.com/news/ci_8330572

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StarWars
Mr. Postmaster Man

Reged: 11/26/03

Loc: Karma Chameleon...

Re: Hydrocarbons on Titan new

[Re: Mike Casey]
#2211117 - 02/22/08 01:50 PM

I don't think it would be cost effective..

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Pess
(Title)

Reged: 09/12/07

Loc: Toledo, Ohio

Re: Hydrocarbons on Titan new

[Re: StarWars]
#2211220 - 02/22/08 02:31 PM

Quote:

I don't think it would be cost effective..

Pesse (Just think 'Alaskan Pipeline' but on a larger scale.) Mist

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imjeffp
Aluminum Falcon

Reged: 09/30/03

Loc: Cedar Park, Texas

Re: Hydrocarbons on Titan new

[Re: Pess]
#2211636 - 02/22/08 05:17 PM

What I don't quite get is if these are "fossil fuels," where did the fossils on Titan come from?

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Pedestal
Post Laureate

Reged: 03/11/06

Loc: Smoggy Bottom, Baytown,Texas

Re: Hydrocarbons on Titan new

[Re: Pess]
#2212233 - 02/22/08 09:24 PM

Quote:

Quote:

I don't think it would be cost effective..

Pesse (Just think 'Alaskan Pipeline' but on a larger scale.) Mist

Do it the simple way: Exchange places with the Moon. It'd be right in our back door, then...

Hubert
('course the orbit might be a smidge different)

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jupiterzkool
Carpal Tunnel

Reged: 05/08/06

Loc: Pasadena, CA

Re: Hydrocarbons on Titan new

[Re: Pedestal]
#2213892 - 02/23/08 04:53 PM

My former graduate advisor wrote an article in Scientific American last year about the sources of methane (the precursor of larger hydrocarbons) on Titan and Mars. Here is a link to that article which you can download from Sci-Am for a small fee.

-S

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llanitedave
Humble Megalomaniac

Reged: 09/26/05

Loc: Amargosa Valley, NV, USA

Re: Hydrocarbons on Titan new

[Re: jupiterzkool]
#2214519 - 02/23/08 10:13 PM

For us to get enough equipment out to Titan to mine its hydrocarbons, we'd need nuclear fusion power.

If we have nuclear fusion, we won't need all those hydrocarbons.

Edited by llanitedave (02/23/08 10:17 PM)

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llanitedave
Humble Megalomaniac

Reged: 09/26/05

Loc: Amargosa Valley, NV, USA

Re: Hydrocarbons on Titan new

[Re: imjeffp]
#2214542 - 02/23/08 10:25 PM

Quote:

What I don't quite get is if these are "fossil fuels," where did the fossils on Titan come from?

Even though the article uses the word "oil", it's probably not equivalent to the crude oil we find on Earth. Fossil-based oil takes the form of a class of compounds called Kerogen. Kerogens are usually verly large molecules. The hydrocarbons on titan are likely to be mostly much smaller and simpler, although the presence of processes that can produce a few kerogen-like compounds is not out of the question.

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Mike Casey

Reged: 11/11/04

Loc: El Pueblo de Nuestra Señora la...

Re: Hydrocarbons on Titan new

[Re: llanitedave]
#2214670 - 02/23/08 11:25 PM

I would not consider trying to bring hydrocarbons back to earth from titan, but I do think they might be handy in whatever industrial processes and needs they could fill for colonies in the asteroid belt and further out in the Kuiper Belt.

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llanitedave
Humble Megalomaniac

Reged: 09/26/05

Loc: Amargosa Valley, NV, USA

Re: Hydrocarbons on Titan new

[Re: Mike Casey]
#2215576 - 02/24/08 01:37 PM

You'd still need to import as well lots of oxygen to burn the stuff with.

I really think that we'd be better off learning to master nuclear fusion -- hydrocarbon burning is a temporary phase in our industrial evolution that we need to outgrow as soon as possible.

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Mike Casey

Reged: 11/11/04

Loc: El Pueblo de Nuestra Señora la...

Re: Hydrocarbons on Titan new

[Re: llanitedave]
#2215702 - 02/24/08 02:35 PM

Rather than burning the stuff, I was thinking of manufacturing things like plastics, etc.

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jupiterzkool
Carpal Tunnel

Reged: 05/08/06

Loc: Pasadena, CA

Re: Hydrocarbons on Titan new

[Re: Mike Casey]
#2215963 - 02/24/08 04:59 PM

Actually, there may be plenty of oxygen tied up in water ice which cover the surface. We would just need to convert it to O2. However, just capturing the methane in the atmosphere would provide us with a great source of natural gas.

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Mike Casey

Reged: 11/11/04

Loc: El Pueblo de Nuestra Señora la...

Re: Hydrocarbons on Titan new

[Re: jupiterzkool]
#2216657 - 02/24/08 10:40 PM

Colonists will need to convert plenty of hydrocarbons to construct those big plastic domes that will cover those far-flung settlements out in the asteroid belt.

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Pess
(Title)

Reged: 09/12/07

Loc: Toledo, Ohio

Re: Hydrocarbons on Titan new

[Re: Mike Casey]
#2217212 - 02/25/08 08:24 AM

Quote:

Colonists will need to convert plenty of hydrocarbons to construct those big plastic domes that will cover those far-flung settlements out in the asteroid belt.

Excellant point Mike. They could get a series of shuttles using 'aeroscooping' as opposed to aerobraking to dip into atmosphere and grab a bucketful as they zip out and back. Also useful technique for the Gas Giants. Well, that is, if we don't scoop up the equivalent of Jupitorian Flippers as we cruise through the jovian atmosphere at supraorbital velocities.

Pesse (Urban Legend) Mist

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Rick Woods
Postmaster

Reged: 01/27/05

Loc: Inner Solar System

Re: Hydrocarbons on Titan [Re: llanitedave]
#2218292 - 02/25/08 04:52 PM

Quote:

For us to get enough equipment out to Titan to mine its hydrocarbons, we'd need nuclear fusion power.

If we have nuclear fusion, we won't need all those hydrocarbons.

Heck, we can't let that stop us!

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