Energy Options for Future Humans on Titan
- Creators
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Hendrix, Amanda R.
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Yung, Yuk L.
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.
Additional Information
© 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. Received date: May 29, 2017; Accepted date: June 6, 2017; Published date: June 16, 2017. The authors are grateful to Ralph Lorenz and Jason Barnes for helpful comments on an earlier version of this paper, and to Aimee Oz for help with chemical energy calculations.Attached Files
Published - energy-options-for-future-humans-on-titan-2332-2519-1000157.pdf
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Additional details
- Eprint ID
- 105450
- Resolver ID
- CaltechAUTHORS:20200918-104150019
- Created
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2020-09-18Created from EPrint's datestamp field
- Updated
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2021-11-16Created from EPrint's last_modified field
- Caltech groups
- Division of Geological and Planetary Sciences (GPS)