Are you ready for a new start?
Are you sick and tired of Earth
and all its problems?
Well, here’s your chance to start fresh,
by moving to Titan!
Yes, you heard me.
Titan,
Saturn’s largest moon,
could be your new home away from home.
Even if you weren’t
1.5 billion km (900 million mi)
away from Earth,
starting a community is extremely hard.
Luckily for you,
we’re here to help you work out the kinks.
You know, the first thing
teach you in real estate is
location, location, location.
And thankfully,
Titan fits the bill.
Titan is the most Earth-like place
in our Solar System
because of its thick atmosphere
and water on its surface.
Of course, there are some differences
you’re going to have to get used to.
Differences like Titan having
1.6 times the atmospheric pressure of Earth.
That's the same pressure you'd feel
diving about 5 m (16.f t) down
into the ocean.
On the plus side,
Titan has seasonal changes
that would let you rock your new fall getup.
And I hope you like it,
because on Titan a season
lasts about seven Earth years.
The main pull, however,
is Titan’s abundant supply
of hydrocarbons.
They could be used to build shelters,
and for energy sources.
OK, that was a good enough reason
for us to set up shop here,
but how exactly
would we create our community?
Well, the first step would be
to send a fleet of smart robots
to start prepping for human settlers.
The robots could start constructing houses,
buildings,
and mines.
Since Titan is filled with hydrocarbons,
such as methane and ethane,
it makes sense to convert them into plastic
and use them as building materials.
As for powering the settlement,
we’d have to cover about 10%
of Titan's surface with solar panels.
That's no small feat,
but with a little elbow grease
and scientific know-how,
we could pull it off.
Next, it’s time to make ourselves at home.
But what would life on Titan be like anyway?
Well, first you’re going to have to bundle up.
The surface temperature on Titan
is -179 °C (-290 °F).
Translation:
it's really cold.
We would need to build large domes
with self-sustaining ecosystems
for us to stay alive.
Those self-sustaining ecosystems
would provide us with food.
We would take the lessons learned
from the International Space Station
on how to grow lettuce,
peas,
and radishes.
These have all been successfully grown
in their space garden,
and will help us to understand
how low gravity affects plants.
With less sunlight reaching Titan
than our plants are used to,
we'd need to add additional lighting
to make our galactic greenhouse thrive.
But what if vegetables weren’t cutting it?
What if you had a craving for
a juicy,
meaty Earth burger?
Well, we could use cellular agriculture
to grow meat from animal cells
in large bioreactors.
And for snacks,
we could farm
insects.
Ok, hear me out.
Insects are a great source of protein.
Farming insects is energy efficient
as it doesn’t require a lot of farmland,
energy, or water.
Come on, just try some.
So, we could set up our colony,
and work together in harmony to
HEY!
who stole my cricket sandwich?
Like in any society,
not everyone is going to play nice.
So, what do we do about crime in space?
Thankfully, we have a contingency plan.
A researcher at the University of California
suggested that committing a crime on Mars,
would be so hard to do,
that no one would be tempted to try it.
The same could be said for our Titan colony.
This is because of all the monitoring data
that would be needed,
such as airlocks opening and closing,
exact GPS data about your whereabouts,
your vital signs,
adrenaline levels,
and so on.
If someone did commit a crime,
all that data would make it pretty easy
to identify the criminal.
That will teach you.
This is my cricket sandwich!
And you don't have to be a rocket scientist
to go to Titan.
In the beginning,
we would need skilled laborers to build it,
with engineers,
nurses,
farmers,
and cooks.
Much like the way a community on Earth
is made up of all kinds of people
with different skills,
we would need someone like you
in our new home on Titan.
But what if the trip to Titan
didn’t go so well
and you ran into some
issues?
How could you survive a rocket explosion?
Well, you can find out in our new show
HOW TO SURVIVE.