Does anyone here think the world is getting too populated? Running out of breathing room in our cities? We need to expand and reach out to the galaxy we live in. Scientist have found a few planets and moons that might have the possibility to harbor humans and have a correct atmosphere for us to live. The real trick to finding an extraterrestrial home, is finding liquid water or another liquid, most moons have water but its either frozen solid or mixed with dangerous elements we shouldn’t meddle with. I have done research on a moon of Saturn, this moon is Titan; the biggest moon orbiting Titan and the second largest moon in our solar system. Titan has an atmosphere very similar to ours, 98.4 percent is nitrogen, 1.6 percent is methane, and less than one percent is hydrogen. Titan is the only place to have a nitrogen rich atmosphere beside Earth of course. When the nitrogen and methane molecules split and then mix with each other they create the orange haze on Titan, which is why telescopes and cameras ca haven’t been able to see Titan’s surface until now that NASA and ESA have conducted a mission to go to Titan and discover what it looks like and how the moon reacts.
While I was researching Titan, all our discoveries on it, and all the competition Titan has for missions; I enjoyed watching the documentary the most because I believe that I learn best from a visual or movie type of educational services and I found it very entertaining and informative to my project. I also really appreciated the poem by Robert Frost: The Road Not Taken. It has so many deep meanings and it can almost relate to any topic of involving choice or a hard decision, it can connect with my topic because NASA and ESA have to choose between Titan, Europa, Io, and many other moons or planets to go to for scientific research and discoveries. They chose Titan but do not not know how long it will be until they get to conduct a mission to Europa or Io. I did read an academic article on this matter, NASA had the controversy of choosing Europa or Titan again and in the end they did end up deciding to go back to Titan because of its extremely important atmosphere. NASA needs to reach out to the people on the outside to try and get support for this upcoming mission and missions to come. I know for sure that I would do what I could do to support them in their efforts, but I also know that most people do not care about space exploration or are just oblivious, and that is why I am talking about this because I want to make them more knowledgeable to colonization and just space in general.
I asked three main questions of myself and others about my project. What would make it possible to live in a methane filled atmosphere on Titan? What would it take…a lot of research into making a filter for a helmet or a design for a power armor suit capable of withstanding the extreme cold of empty space, the cold rigid outer moons and planets, the intense heat of the inner moons and planets, should be able to breathe in any atmosphere, and be able to take immense impact both physical and chemically. This suit would be very expensive but if used for the right purposes it would prove very beneficial to humanity in ways most wouldn’t even realize. We would be able to explore almost anywhere we wanted to. How long will it take us to reach either of these moons, with humans aboard? How long would it take…well, unless some scientist somewhere discovers how to create a form of light speed for ships to use, it would still take 7 or more years to get to Titan, plus the ship has to go through the rings of Saturn to get to Titan. If it were up to me I would focus a lot of research and money to finding a way to travel much much faster than we can at the moment. Otherwise the men and women who attempt a manned mission to Titan, would probably die in the process. What are some possible ways that we can purify the liquid methane into drinkable water on Titan? How would we…relativity the same way we would breathe there, we create a filter to strain the methane into water. Also there are cryo volcanoes on Titan that erupt a mix of water and ammonia which could also be strained out into drinkable water. Water on Titan is frozen solid so if we were to melt it, then wouldn’t we.
I wish to tell the story of how we could colonize the moon Titan. Right now with our current technology we could not even attempt a colony on the moon or mars, but I hope to see in the future much more progress with our technology and money for research. I see humanity having a life in space as we would see in movies like Star Trek or in Mass Effect, some of the concepts are a bit far fetched but we can achieve greatness as we have in the past. I want to see NASA or ESA bring forth a massive world wide fundraiser for research on more spacial exploration and a way to develop a form of light speed. My reason for the world wide instead of just national is because the entire world is getting crowded and we all need to come together and find a new way to spread out. I am not just talking to my fellow students, teachers, or even the school board; my goal is to get everyone my message. You, the people of Earth need to be enlightened of the serious issue of over population and spread to outer space, because we will perish as a race if not done so.
When I first started this research for this project I thought it was going to be a fun and entertaining period, but finding information that is valid and involves Titan is a strenuous process. I still partially enjoyed my time finding new and informational articles, videos, and poems about Titan. It really started to turn into a chore to find some of the info but in the end I found and received it all. I find space exploration to be exciting and exceedingly important. When I think of living on a different plant, moon, rock, or whatever it may be it makes me excited because that would be so awesome.
Saturn's Moon 