5 ms·
You'd want to wear your warm jumper to wander those shores.
by andrewstuart 2y ago
You'd want to wear your warm jumper to wander those shores.
- EdwardDiego 2y agoWonder what the buoyancy would be like, and who will be the first surfer on Titan.
- isoprophlex 2y agoLiquid hydrocarbons? You'll sink like a brick. I don't know exactly what methane and ethane do at minus whatever but the density is at least 30% lower than water...
- eru 2y agoWikipedia says 422.8 g/L (liquid, −162 °C). (See https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Methane https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Methane) So nothing you could swim in, but it would be relatively easy to build a boat. Hmm, come to think of it: Titan's gravity is 0.138 g. So you might be able to stay afloat in liquid methane by actively swimming upwards, even if you can't float. Similar to how birds stay afloat in the air, despite being heavier than air.
- lazide 2y agoIf you thought huffing was bad for your brain cells though…. Wouldn’t it dissolve a lot of things, including space suit seals? If it wasn’t for the extreme cold embrittlement anyway.
- rightbyte 2y agoSurely there are seals suitable for methane?
- lazide 2y agoMovable ones? At the temperatures methane is a liquid?
- eru 2y agoYou could perhaps build them out of ethanol or so? Basically, you wouldn't want to build them out of materials that are useful at human room temperature, but you could perhaps build them out of materials that are liquid or even a gas on earth, but solid at Titan's temperatures. (No clue whether ethanol would be good, it solidifies at -114.1C, but I have no clue what kind of solid it would be.)
- eru 2y agoYes, I was ignoring the effects of low temperature here.
- kombookcha 2y agoThere is something super raygun gothic about walking on the bottom of the liquid hydrocarbon sea in an old timey lead-boot diving suit.
- Cyphase 2y agoMy amusing thought was a "kite" boarder pulled by a person in some kind of flying gear: https://erikwernquist.com/wanderers https://erikwernquist.com/wanderers
- euroderf 2y agoI'd bet a modest sum that this hypothetical has been addressed in some cyberpunk story or another.
- KineticLensman 2y agoStephen Baxter's SF nivel 'Titan' [0] has some astronauts build a sort of boat on Titan but the generally depressing story otherwise lacks any surfer vibes. [0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Titan_(Baxter_novel) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Titan_(Baxter_novel)
- Something1234 2y agoWell that’s depressing beyond belief. I don’t even have words for how sad the novel sounds. I think the best thing I can leave is “war pigs” by Black Sabbath
- KineticLensman 2y ago> “war pigs” by Black Sabbath War pigs is positively cheerful compared with Titan! At least Titan sort-of avoided another Stephen Baxter trope that annoyed me when it kept appearing: how humanity's first star ship, last-chance rescue ark, etc always somehow gets taken over by a gang of lowlife characters who were included for bizarre plot reasons / sneaked onboard at the last minute / etc. Although in Titan, instead of stowaways, madness due to increased radiation exposure turns one of the crew into the deranged psycho who has to be managed by the others. Many of his books also include a disgruntled ex-astronaut partnered with some all-knowing alien / robot / immortal / etc that provides exposition / info dumps as required when Baxter decides to 'tell' rather than 'show'.
- noisy_boy 2y agoThats why Dr. Manhattan is my favorite superhero; he can appear anywhere he wants in the universe and observe the glorious interactions without any harm to him. What a grand universe and how little we can observe with our mortal eyes!
- frr149 2y agoAnd doesn't need to wear warm jumpers.
- escapecharacter 2y agoWe all wish he’d wear something, anything, however.
- BriggyDwiggs42 2y agoAy speak for yourself buddy