Energy Options for Future Humans on Titan

Amanda R. Hendrix, Yuk L. Yung
(Submitted on 2 Jul 2017)

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.

Subjects:    Earth and Planetary Astrophysics (astro-ph.EP)
Journal reference:    Journal of Astrobiology and Outreach vol 5 issue 2 2017
DOI:    10.4172/2332-2519.1000157
Cite as:    arXiv:1707.00365 [astro-ph.EP] (or arXiv:1707.00365v1 [astro-ph.EP] for this version)
Submission history
From: Amanda Hendrix 
[v1] Sun, 2 Jul 2017 22:45:22 GMT (311kb)
https://arxiv.org/abs/1707.00365