Harvesting Energies on Titan: We can live there

Titan's natural resources could be utilized as energy resources for future human

As the search for the next habitable planet is growing, the parameters of living is not merely the water availability. On the other hand, the Mars which was recently considered as hazard environment so the possibility of living is low will be excluded even though there is scientific evidence about water availability. Therefore, the parameters of living in alienated environment must be followed to support the life existence there including the air and energy resources. So, what do we have on Titan?

The decision of choosing Titan as the replacement for Mars was quite intriguing since Titan is not the same like Mars in term of planet. Titan is one of the moon which rotates the Saturn. Titan has liquid bodies which are similar those on Earth regarding of the surface, for instance, they have tectonic, pluvial and fluvial characteristics [1]. More importantly, the environment of new planet must be suitable for the human particularly in the air and ground.

Titan has unique composition of air and soil and it differs to Mars which has hazard soil and air. However, the future human must be able to harvest energy from the natural-new-planet resources to support their life. In this topic, the in situ energy resources are crucial. Interestingly, according to Amanda R Hendrix and Yuk L Yung, titan has many resources which can be utilized for harvesting energy [2].

Firstly, the nuclear material resources. Titan has nuclear power sources which can support future human for creating energy. Most of the radioactive material can be mined from silicate rocks because it (the Pu 238) decays with 88 years of half-life in form of silicate rocks [3]. It means also almost a half of the Titan’s mass is comprised by the silicates. In the meantime, the atmosphere of Titan also consists of radiogenic argon, but one thing is interesting about the atmosphere. The Huygens GCMS [4], The Cassini Orbiter Ion and Neutral Mass Spectrometer [5] has observed and analyzed the atmosphere so that they found the decay product of Kalium-40 is presented in the inner atmosphere.

The next energy is Solar energy resources. Although the distance of the Sun to Titan is very far, the possibility of harvesting energy from solar radiation is also possible. According to the referenced paper, the solar radiation on the Titan’s atmosphere is depended on the red and near infrared waves because they are one of the highest wavelength. Therefore, the best photovoltaic material is either amorphous silicon or cadmium telluride (DcTe) which can generate efficiency up to 20 per cent of range [2].

Thirdly, the Chemical energy resources. This is the most fascinating aspect of Titan because lots of chemical compounds which can be utilized for future human. For instance, is the presence of methane (CH4) in Titan, and it can be used as raw material either for energy or creating the oxygen by using the solar energy system. Over 90 per cent of Titan’s atmosphere is Nitrogen whereas hydrocarbon gasses in form of alkaline such as ethane, diacetylene, methylacetylene, acetylene, propane and cyanoacetylene also exist there. Interestingly, the carbon dioxide and monoxide also occur which are very beneficial for us in growing plant [2].

Because the energy is important, then there are several options in generating energy via these chemical compounds. The best method for harvesting energy from these chemical compound is performing the exothermic reaction with combustion.

Finally, as Titan has abundant quantity of lakes and seas of liquid methane and ethane, Hydropower energy resources is the next answer. To compare with Earth, Titan’s liquid natural resources has more flow rate than the Earth, but the problem is due to natural drop occurs and liquid flows downhill. It is because the gravity of Titan is much lower than the Earth. Therefore, constructing the dams to produce enough kinetic energy which is obtained from the flow rate of the liquid methane and ethane [2].

So, how about the wind and geothermal energies? Well, we will discuss it in the next article. Do not miss it!

References
[1] O. Aharonson, A. G. Hayes, P. O. Hayne, R. M. Lopes, A. Lucas and J. T. Perron, "Titan's surface geology," in Titan: interior, surface, atmosphere and space environment, New York, Cambridge planetary science series, 2014, pp. 63-101.
[2] A. R. Hendrix and Y. L. Yung, "Energy options for future humans on Titan," Journal of Astrobiology & Outreach, vol. 5, no. 157, pp. 1-4, 2017.
[3] G. Tobie, D. Gautler and F. Hersant, "Titan' bulk composition constrained by Cassini-Huygens: Implication for internal outassing," Astrophysics Journal, no. 752, pp. 125-135, 2012.
[4] H. B. Niemann, S. K. Atreya, S. J. Bauer, G. R. Carignan and J. E. Demick, "The abundances of constituents of Titan's atmosphere from the GCMS instrument on the Huygens probe," Nature, no. 438, pp. 779-784, 2005.
[5] J. H. Waite, "Ion neutral mass spectrometer results from the first flyby of titan," Science, no. 308, pp. 982-986, 2005.
[6] Image of Titan is downloaded from https://sos.noaa.gov/