Could Titan be our best chance at a new human colony within our own solar system? Let us know what you think below!

We could theoretically build a floating city of airships and using long hoses pump the Methane up to turn Titan into a giant Fuel Station for ships exploring or mining the Kyper Belt. While it would be tricky in the extreme the technology for this exists today and the first people to get fuel from Titan woud become Gozillionaires!

“Alien algae is still cool as shit”

The difference between Icarus and a person who does the same thing on Titan, is Icarus used candle wax to keep his wings together. That's why he fell to his death when he tried because the wax melted mid-flight and he fell into the ocean and he drowned. We wouldn't have that problem on Titan. Seeing that it looks like twilight all day long.

Humans won't get there till I'd guess the 2070's, but it will be hype as fuck to see more of the gas giant moons. Casey Handmer in an interview made a great point about how we should be launching either Starship or a Falcon heavy literally every launch window for any planet and I really wish that idea would get more support. It's cool seeing all the robotics that get to go to Mars but it's lame that none of the other planets/moons get much attention.

If the term "God Forsaken World" was ever meant for any world it was clearly meant for Titan and establishing a base on its surface would be very very difficult and horrendously dangerous. Titan has an atmosphere 1.15 times denser than earth and is composed of 98% nitrogen with the remaining 1.6% composed of mostly of methane (1.4%) and hydrogen (0.1-0.2%), there is very little oxygen if any . Titan receives just 1% of the amount of sunlight Earth does so midday on Titan thru its very heavy cloud layer would be like 5 minutes after sun down on earth . The average surface temperature is about −179 °C, or −290 °F , at that temperature water vapor cannot stay in the atmosphere so any water on Titan will be frozen solid as an ice that is as hard as steel . A very special space suit would have to be constructed with super insulating properties and high energy source for heating the space suit and wearer because of the enormous heat sink capability of an atmosphere that is 1.15 times denser than earths and sits at -290oF ! If man was to try to colonize Titan he would have to bring along a very powerful and extremely reliable energy source , a nuclear reactor powered generator would be the minimum . Probably at least 500kw per individual. Solar cells would be useless and the mind numbing cold would be absolutely relentless . -179 degrees Celsius will cause most metals to shatter like glass if stressed. All the living quarters would have to have cryogenic bottle type insulation, how you would do that on a portable walled structure I have no idea. You could only build your base on solid rock . If you built on some kind of sediment there is a chance it is being held together with some form of ice (permafrost) and the heat of the base would very quickly cause you to sink into the mire . All oxygen and water would have to be obtained from the water ice that is assumed to be present on the surface . But of course the main problem with Titan along with its awful surface temperature is its colossal distance from earth which on average is 1.5 Billion kilometers. Also although Titan has .85 the gravity of the moon , very low , it has a very deep and relatively thick atmosphere , even deeper than earths , at least 600 km and even extending out to 1000 km . With an orbital velocity of 1.84 km per second I would say attaining orbit from the surface of Titan even with the low gravity would be very difficult. Especially when you have to attain an altitude of maybe 7-800 kilometers first without too high a velocity before you clear the atmosphere, which will prevent you from getting too heated by atmospheric compression . Its not like the Moon where you can attain orbit at just 10 km above the surface because the Moon has no atmosphere.

Titan is uniquely suited to be a computing colocation centre. That is because the energy required for a switching operation, the fundamental unit of computing, goes down with temperature, and also because heat dissipation is an increasing problem the faster and more compact computer components get. Heat dissipation can be done in three ways: radiation, conduction and convection but normally, in space, you can only use radiation and conduction, while on Earth we mostly use convection in the form of fans. Titan's environment addresses all these issues by being very cold but also with a solid surface and an Earth-like atmospheric pressure that allows the building of unpressurized structures. Its atmosphere provides for convective cooling, in effect making the entire atmosphere a radiative heatsink coupled to interplanetary space. Humans can walk around there without a pressure suit, but only arctic clothing and a breathing mask. Indoors, they can live comfortably. The scenario of terraforming it for Earth-like use is a non-starter because it would be a useless ocean world.

As fascinating as it all sounds, the thought of a leak developing turning my habitat into a bomb with the capability of blowing me into orbit kind of scares the crap out of me! A small pipe going into house's here on Earth blows one up every once in awhile whereas on Titan we would actually be inside that pipe, hmmm... I wonder what the atmosphere smells like on Titan.

Titan's lower atmosphere has a surface pressure about 1/2 higher than on earth with a temperature of liquid methane near the triple point, as mentioned by the speaker. due to the low gravity you can tow, walking, a flying trailer. A spacecraft with four rotors to fly around is an active NASA project , called Dragonfly .

Honestly I think the only way we could ever hope to truly colonize not just our own system, but have even the slightest hope of moving beyond is to find some way to bypass the lightspeed barrier, whether that be the Alcubierre Drive, something similar, or something we haven't even considered yet. Also I would be SO down to out on some Icarus wings and fly on Titan.

You forgot to mention that Titan was probably an individual planet that was captured by the gravity of Saturn and you should hypothesize what Titan would be if it was in its own orbit again. And what needs to happen to create a balance between hydrogen and oxygen so it's atmosphere is not explosive

Whenever I think about Titan, I wonder how one would manage the explosive atmosphere in an airlock. The best I've come up so far is a liquid-filled tunnel, where one end is outside and the other is inside the habitat.And whenever your breathing mask leaks oxygen, you'll be spitting flames like a dragon ;)

The only place we know for sure so far that has an atmospheric pressure within human tolerance outside of the Earth.

Loved this video. I'm all for getting humans to Mars, but I'm far more excited about the prospect of exploring the moons of Jupiter and Saturn. NASA reckons Callisto would be an ideal human base camp, and Titan really is the motherlode. Plus, being able to operate robots in real-time on Enceladus - how cool would that be!

Love your channel, i really enjoyed this video, thank you!!

Might be better to consider Dwarf planet Ceres for a colony. With water ice and ammonia. Breathable air with oxygen and nitrogen can be made. Nitrogen could be used for plants. Fuel could be mined from it's ices. Next to zero tilt, means it might be possible if solar panels are put up high enough on Ysolo mons it could also be used with RTG electricity. Artificial gravity habitats could be placed in it's surface. Might be able to stack some habs skycraned on the top of Ysolo mons.

Absolutely superb video. THANKS!

This channel is so underrated. How do assholes like Jake Paul have millions of viewers yet channels like these are so small?? The world's mad af. Thanks for all the effort you put in to create extremely informative content, appreciate it man. Keep up the great work. PS Love The Tesla Space too. Good job on that as well.

Great video (as usual for this channel), but you might want to work on your Celsius to Fahrenheit conversions.

If you watch this video in 2023 and hear "titan sub" you think of something else than a NASA mission 😂😂

Dude. You are killin it. Keep bringin us the beautiful story-telling of the most exciting things to come and the most interesting topics. Kudos!

instead of a propane tourch you would just need oxygen in a tank and that would be your tourch. someone did this in a chamber it looked cool

Excellent stuff bro

NASA says this and that... but in reality they can't even get off planet earth these days.

Really well done and interesting video!

Great video, liked and subscribed.

By 2026 space x can build a rocket that can cut down the 7 years trip to one year so we don't have to wait till 2037

keep it up bro 💪❤️

nice video. make some more about space and planets

New here and find it engaging and thorough One tech everyone seems to be missing is beam powered rocket propulsion. Laser provides the energy and all the rocket has to do is have a concentrator mirror of aluminized Mylar and a system for heating a propellant. Years ago a pulsed laser achieved 5000 sec. Isp using wax as propellant. This means that teavel time is dependent on the size of the broadcasting laser arrays in range at a given time. Transfers can be high Isp AND high thrust. I believe laser arrays are what humanity requires to expand thru the solar system and beyond. We already have this tech but lack imagination IMO. Lasers in Mercury orbit could warm Titan for instance.

I would love to see a colony over there. It is my philosophy that if we want to get out, we'll have to climb out, using the moons around the gas giants after Mars.

in this universe it takes NASA 1B dollars to develop 2 spacesuits for Moon exploration.

I would be amazed if there a manned mission to Titan before the start of the 22nd century. There's so much to do before we even consider a manned mission to Titan. Going back to the Moon and setting up a permanent colony there. Then sending a manned mission to Mars and setting up a permanent colony on Mars. At its closest Mars is about 34 million miles away. At its closest Titan is about 400 million miles from Earth. That difference is huge and will take some real tech ingenuity to overcome. That's why humans won't be sending a manned mission to Titan in the 21st century.

Really like the fact you explain in meters and feet.

WOOW AMAZING.....

That's like, amazing.

No sunlight, no breathable atmosphere, no drinking water, no gravity, and extremely low temperature. Yeah, everyone feel free to go live there. Go with my blessing. I'll stay on this beautiful planet and enjoy all that it has to offer.

Awesome video! My i got distracted big time around 2:32 for some reason...

Honestly without that graphic at 2:34 I probably wouldn’t understand the issues around Increased gravitational pull so thank you.

8:19: North Face is a Wax Doll Uranus brand. It’s “Galatian”. It has the texture of crayons. Milky Way uses mostly cotton and wool and Saturn Neptune rubbery woodsy fabrics.

If the flight to Titan is today, I'm sure I'll be on it.

Jiminy Cricket! Your question is, "How long before we can send humans to Saturn?" Gotta' admire a guy reaching for the outer planets before we're back on the moon. I did enjoy the clip, thank you.

Would love to see you do a similar video about Enceladus

All the Fuel we would ever need

That will be awesome to colonize a new planet.

Good video

Sounds like a great place to make starships

0:36 "Is that a dealbreaker tho?" hahahah I died

So interesting ! Stuff for our kids and grand kids !

Why this channel is underrated?

Thank you for a thought provoking video. DragónFly is already experiencing cost over run problems. Human visit to Titan? maybe near the end of this century... maybe

Can you raise your volume? It's half as loud as other channels, and it ends up blasting when other videos are autoplayed.

Redbull should sponsor the space race to Titan for their future extreme sports competitions

A fascinating little world. Unfortunate that Saturn and its moons are so far away and that trip times are so long. My understanding is that the one definitely funded mission, NASA's Dragonfly, won't launch until 2027 and won't arrive there until 2036. Could another country or a private company get a mission there before that? I'm skeptical; I don't see any low-cost way to get to the surface of Titan.

I think one thing you got wrong or maybe overlooked is that freezing/boiling points of water are also effected by gravity. So even if we would get titan to a perfect climate our blood would still boil. So pressurized suits would still be a thing for every rock in the solar system even mars.

I wont be around (at least not in this body) to see this , but i dream of a time when us humans can spread out to other planets , moons , space station or cities... The imagination says itl be a magical time and hopefully not a scary time

Tbh I feel every low gravity colony should have a few massive centrifuges in orbit, every few months people should be made to spend a bit of time there to experience earth’s gravity to lessen the impacts of long exposure to low gravity

Nice video, one thing: you should pronounce "mare" like M-A (the A you find in sArcophAgus) R-E (the E you find in Echo)

WOW

Titan is the most promising colonization target. We wouldn't need to heat it up, we could easily create massive plastic domes using the resources there as both building materials and fuel. We wouldn't need to pressurize them either, just keep them warm. We need to have faster propulsion methods though. Current technology takes 7 years to get to Titan. We need to be able to cut that it half at least.

I think it would be a very good idea to have spaceports on Earth's Moon and on Mars to travel over to Titan as it would require lesser fuel to get there than launching directly from sea level on Earth. Thus, using their weaker gravity as a way to use lesser amounts of fuel, and getting over to Titan a lot faster. So it could play out like this. Earth 🔵➡ Moon⚬➡Titan⚪ Earth 🔵➡Mars🔴➡Titan⚪ Earth🔵➡Moon⚬➡Mars🔴➡Titan⚪ Or just Earth🔵➡Titan⚪ Going to Mars: Earth🔵➡Mars🔴 Earth🔵➡Moon⚬➡Mars🔴 Or if you're living, or from Mars: Mars🔴➡Titan⚪ Mars🔴➡Earth🔵 Mars🔴➡Moon⚬➡Earth🔵 Or if you're living, or from Earth's Moon: Moon⚬➡Mars🔴➡Titan⚪ Moon⚬➡Titan⚪ Moon⚬➡Mars🔴 Moon⚬➡Earth🔵 So it's basically like the plane airport aviation system with possible layovers to get to your destinations a bit faster, or to save a bit on fuel for long range flights, but using spacecrafts like Starship for example. From Earth, you'll need to use the Superheavy booster to leave Earth's gravity, then orbital refuel to get to your destination, but other places mentioned above would only require Starship and no Superheavy boosters due to lower gravity, that is if you'd like to build a miniature size of Superheavy on Mars. 😁 Just curious as of what the ticket prices is gonna be once this is in place... I think a bit more than the average 401K retirement accounts... Idk 😳

I am curious as to what kind of entrances the engineers have come up with to make it possible for a person coming in from the outside with his suit on practically bathing in methane to be completely clean before he enters the living quarters. Especially with the outside air constantly pushing to get in.

I think that if we colonize Titan, the weather channel would be wild up there.

The rocket 🚀 sounds resourceful.

It probably won't be in our life time when the first human's walk on Titan.

Cool

We need to colonize the Solar System! We're humans dangit! We explore..

The four paces of the broken circle may the carcle be unbroken

With a flamable atmosphere you could bring a tank of oxygen then light the flamables using the oxygen to oxidize it.

I wonder if titan would be a good place to build an orbital refuling space dock ? Makes sense if all we need for fuel is there, right ?

Uranus gas is liquid and more stable until lighted. It’s similar to when we ate hot pot at restaurants in Beijing the liquid jell used as heat source under the pots.

Peat is very clean. The rest of the stuff can be used as fertilizer.

love your content

Moon and asteroid resource mining seems the best idea, just keeping fuel costs in mind.

Excellent place for Android/robotic operations. Resources are abundant and could be exported as well! Long-term, of course.

A comment and watching until the end helps the algorithm too. Good video! I've been thinking Titan was the place to go for a long time. Mars is good too but a bad solar storm that wipes out Earth may take out Mars too.

It wouldn't have harmed to mention that the Huygens probe, the only one that has ever landed on Titan, the only one that has sent back images from the surface and the provider of a great part of the data about the surface conditions you mention in the video, was sent by the European Space Agency, in a combined mission with Cassini. I wouldn't say anything if you weren't mentioning NASA for every little project related to Titan. Sometimes is good to acknowledge partners.

Wat zijn we toch snel he om ergens te komen in ons eigen zonnestelsel echt in de prehistori

Light à match in the lower atmosphere

There might be a problem with terraforming any other planet that has less gravity then Earth. Will it or will it not effect the orbit of the terraforming planet if you increase the gravity on that planet? Will that push that planet out of orbit within the solar system? I have a theory .... its like if you have two magnets of the same power next to each other. They will always keep the same distance because it have a delicate balance. Now lets say you have two magnets but one is stronger than the other. The distance between them will be greater then if you have two magnets of the same power. Just wondering.

Its hard too say how long it would take too get too titan . This only according too nasa with all of these private space agency there is bound too be break troughs in space flight with in the next 10-15 years .

thanks for the video. With respect to the idea of living on another body in the solar system, I always asking me how much of a hurdle will be the lower gravity. We already know that micro gravity effects more or less the whole body. our muscles, bone structure, cartilage, eyesight, smell, taste, the cardiovascular system and so on... it's more or less a 'full body experience' even if you spend only several month in this kind of environment. I ask myself what will happen if you spend your whole live in a lower g environment. If we colonize these places, people will be born there, live their hole life there and will die. Can we safely assume that a healthy life is even possible? Isn't that the biggest and most important question before we even start doing anything along that line? I mean, sure right now we are still struggling to leave our own planet in an 'easy' and financially viable way, but after that I think it is indeed a big question for what exactly we are pushing.

I don't expect we'll colonize Titan, too many difficulties. But science missions will be very interesting. With chemical rockets, the best we could manage would indeed be a 7-year trip, but we can probably use electric drives and nuclear power to cut that way down. Fission would do, but of course we all want a fusion drive to play with! Maybe someday.

What about the air weight though? Wouldn’t that be extremely hard to manage and tiring?

What is the feasibility of living on ice covered mountains?

Titan seems good as a fueling station

I wanna go there if there's an regular Supply of Goods from Artemis Space Ports.

I'm ready to fly, "Icarus Style"!!!

Them domes might not be enough soil to protect from radiation. I would imagine that you would need it a foot thick.

More or less 40 years to build, launch and get back to earth with samples of Titan to earth. I'm not sure I'll be alive till then 🥺

Crazy that only one element is keeping Titan from erupting into a giant planet sized explosion

Belta Welta!

By that time we would not need to bring back samples, we would simply scan and replicate the samples for study here on earth. Molecular 3D printers will most likely be beyond infancy in 10 to 20 years time with miniaturised electron microscopes already in use today

3:57: That is pretty after Uranus has frozen off the crayon Galatian substance. Now it’s looks like PVC particles 😂

Only 7 years to reach the moon Titan? WOW. Technology must have come a long way in a very short period of time, because I assumed it would take much longer than that. Shows you what know, which is very little.

To get the kids really worked up about space travel and colonizing Titan NASA should adopt the tagline: "Fuck Mars! Titan is LIIIIIT!!"

Terraforming Titan: 1) Introduce oxygen 2) light a match

Wasn’t there a movie about changing the human gen to live on Titian.?

Very interesting video... except plants cannot utilize atmospheric nitrogen. They would need nitrogen fixing bacteria.

Negative 20 Celcius is four below zero Fahrenheit, not 70. I think you converted positive 20C by mistake, which would be 68F. The correct answer is: -20c is -4F, which would be fine for a parka, for sure. I lived in the Colorado Rockies for four years, and we got to negative 66F / -54.4C and got by okay with parkas, wool socks, face coverings, etc.