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Energy Options for Future Humans on Titan Hendrix AR et al., Astrobiol Outreach 2017, 5:2 Journal of Astrobiology & Outreach DOI: 10.4172/2332-2519.1000157 Research Article OMICS International Energy Options for Future Humans on Titan Amanda R Hendrix1* and Yuk L Yung2 1Planetary Science Institute, Tucson, Arizona, USA 2Division of Planetary and Geological Sciences, Caltech, Pasadena, California, USA *Corresponding author: Hendrix A, Planetary Science Institute, Tucson, Arizona, USA, Tel: 323-800-2700; E-mail: [email protected] Received date: May 29, 2017; Accepted date: June 6, 2017; Published date: June 16, 2017 Copyright: © 2017 Hendrix AR, et al. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited. Abstract We review the possibilities for in situ energy resources on Titan for use by future humans, including chemical, nuclear, wind, solar, geothermal and hydropower. All of these options, with the possible exception of geothermal, represent effective sources of power. Combustion of methane (after electrolysis of the native water), in combination with another source of power such as nuclear, is a viable option; another chemical source of energy is the hydrogenation of acetylene. The large seas Kraken and Ligeia potentially represent effective sources of hydropower. Wind power, particularly at altitudes ~40 km, is expected to be productive. Despite the distance from the sun and the absorbing atmosphere, solar power is (as on Earth) an extremely efficient source of power on Titan. Keywords: Titan; ISRU; Planetary environments Chemical Species in Titan’s atmosphere and at the surface and subsurface can Introduction be utilized to produce chemical energy. Nitrogen makes up ~95% of Once propulsion challenges are overcome, allowing humans to the atmosphere. The abundance of methane (CH4) increases with travel great distances quickly without incurring significant radiation decreasing altitude below the tropopause at 32 km, leveling off at damage, Saturn’s moon Titan is the optimal location in the solar system ~4.9% between 8 km and the surface [4]. This small amount of for an off-Earth human settlement. It has Earth-like qualities and a methane is responsible for keeping the nitrogen in the gas phase; thick atmosphere that provides shielding from damaging radiation without the methane, much of the nitrogen in the stratosphere and [1,2] unlike any other solid surface location in the solar system. Given troposphere would condense out [6]. Trace amounts of other the distance from Earth (~1.3 × 109 km), such a settlement must be hydrocarbons, e.g. ethane (C2H6), diacetylene (C4H2), methylacetylene self-sustainable, and in particular, humans will need to produce oxygen (CH3C2H), acetylene (C2H2) and propane (C3H8), and of other gases, to breathe and provide heating for habitats. The abundance of such as cyanoacetylene (HC3N), hydrogen cyanide (HCN), carbon hydrocarbons and availability of wind and hydro-based power give this dioxide (CO2), carbon monoxide (CO), cyanogen (C2N2), argon and self-sustainability a high likelihood. Here we discuss such energy helium are also present [4,7]; H2 is also present at larger abundances options, from In Situ Resource Utilization (ISRU). This paper [8]. Complex N2/CH4 chemistry involving photons and energetic represents an exercise to provide a first look at energy options without electrons in the atmosphere leads to the production of organic haze delving into tedious detail on each one (at a time when questions about particles, which act as condensation nuclei and eventually settle to the specific Titan conditions still exist), to provide readers with estimates surface as sediments (“tholins”). Titan’s dune fields [9] are likely of energy options for future study. Clearly, many details will need to be composed of organics that originated in the atmosphere. Methane/ worked out in the coming decades, such as equipment mass required ethane rainfall occurs periodically on Titan [10], and liquid for delivery to Titan for any one of these systems. hydrocarbons fill the polar lakes and seas [11,12]. Water ice is available in abundance and makes up the bulk of Titan’s interior [3]. All of these Nuclear species represent potential resources. Several options are available for producing energy via chemical A nuclear power source brought to Titan from Earth would last pathways on Titan. Combustion of hydrocarbons alone (e.g. reactions several decades; for instance, 238Pu decays with a half-life of 88 years. 3, 4 in Table 1) is not efficient on Titan because it costs more energy to After that, radioactive material can be extracted from silicate rocks; do the electrolysis needed to get the O (reaction 5). In practice, a about 50% of Titan's mass is silicates [3]. Radiogenic argon (Ar) in 2 nuclear source could be used to run an electrolysis plant while Titan’s atmosphere, likely a product of decay of 40K in the interior, has chemical energy is produced via combustion separately. Alternatively, been observed by the Huygens GCMS [4] and the Cassini Orbiter Ion hydrogenation of acetylene (reaction 1) [13] is a viable exothermic and Neutral Mass Spectrometer [5]. Such materials are likely to be option at Titan conditions, producing 376 kJ/mol of energy. Both deep in the interior assuming substantial differentiation, under acetylene and H could be extracted from the atmosphere; alternately, hundreds of kilometers of ice and water, and thus extraction of 2 pyrolysis of CH (reaction 8) could be performed to produce C H radioactive materials would require significant effort and energy which 4 2 2 (though it would cost energy to do the pyrolysis). [On Mars [14], we do not attempt to estimate here but note as a possibility. sources of H2 include ferrous-ion reduction of H2O to H2 during serpentinization, and photochemical dissociation of H2O in the atmosphere.] We note that an alternative (or additional option) for Astrobiol Outreach, an open access journal Volume 5 • Issue 2 • 1000157 ISSN: 2332-2519 Citation: Hendrix and Yung (2017) Energy Options for Future Humans on Titan. Astrobiol Outreach 5: 157. doi:10.4172/2332-2519.1000157 Page 2 of 4 producing O2 for combustion/respiration would be to use a Where η is the efficiency of the turbine, ρ is the density of the fluid, greenhouse full of plants/algae to produce O2; this would, however, Q is the flow rate, g is the gravitational acceleration and h is the height require energy to operate and heat the greenhouse. We anticipate that, difference. As an example, we use η=0.85, ρ=660 kg/m3 [17], and given the low efficiency of photosynthesis, genetically engineered h=145 m. For the volumetric flow rate Q, the standard value used for plants/algae will be an attractive option for future Titan residents, but water on Earth is 80 m3/s; given the estimated viscosity of the fluids in that is the subject of another paper. Titan’s lakes (Hayes et al. [18] give a range of viscosities on Titan of 0.003 to 0.03 cm2/s, compared with Earth’s H O viscosity range of We also consider possible uses of the abundant atmospheric 2 0.0084-0.0184 cm2/s), we estimate a range in flow rates on Titan of 40 nitrogen. For instance, hydrogenation of nitrogen (Table 1 reaction 10) to 160 m3/s. The gravitational acceleration at Titan is 14% of Earth’s is exothermic, producing ~92 kJ/mol of energy. gravity, or 1.37 m/s2. This Titan methanopower system would produce Reaction number Reaction Energy ~9 MW of power (Table 2). In comparison, for a similar system on Earth running on water, the power production would be 97 MW. 1 C2H2+3H2 → 2CH4 -376.3 kJ/mol (exothermic) Estimating the depth of Titan’s largest sea, Kraken Mare, at 500 to (hydrogenation of acetylene) 1000 m [19], its length at 1100 km and an average width of 500 km, the volume of Kraken is estimated at 2.75-5.5 × 1014 m3. This results in 19 2 CO2+4H2 → -164.9 kJ/mol some 3.1-6.1 × 10 J of energy produced by dropping the entire CH4+2H2O(g) (exothermic) contents of the sea over a height of 145 m. Such a system could provide (Sabatier process; power (constrained by the volume of Kraken Mare) for 53,900 to methanogenesis) 431,250 Earth years (1840 to 14,740 Titan years). In comparison, 3 CH4+2O2 -802.3 kJ/mol Earth’s Lake Superior, which has a volume smaller than that of Kraken 12 3 19 →CO2+2H2O(g) (8.7 × 10 m ), would produce ~1 × 10 J of energy for a similar (combustion of methane) system for a duration of 3450 years. On Titan, if higher resolution topographic data indicate that there are no locations where a natural 4 2C2H6+7O2 → -2857.2 kJ/mol drop occurs and liquid flows downhill out of a lake, then such a system 4CO +6H O 2 2 may require major engineering work which is out of the scope of this (combustion of ethane) report to detail fully. We estimate that it would require cutting into the edge of the lake/sea to create the drop and then cutting into the 5 4H2O → 4H2+2O2 967.2 kJ/mol (241.8 x 4) landscape away from the lake/sea to allow the liquid to flow away, in a electrolysis of H O 2 canal or pipeline. Without better knowledge of Titan’s topography, we 6 2CO2 → 2CO+O2 (endothermic) do not attempt in this report to estimate a precise location for such a (3000°C) project. More information is needed on Titan’s topographic surface structure to plan out where such a system might be installed in the 7 2CH4 → C2H2+H2 (endothermic) future.
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