Re: Titan, the interplanetary gas station

a425couple <[email protected]> wrote:

> Titan's water could provide oxygen for breathing and hydrogen as fuel. 
> Hydrocarbons, such as methane, would serve to produce energy or 
> plastics. This approach would significantly reduce the mass to be 
> launched from Earth, making missions more economical.

You seem to think there's free energy available there.  You
need O2 to oxidize the methane.  So you have to separate water
into hydrogen and oxygen to make O2.

Add up the bonding energies.  I think you will find it takes
more energy to make the O2 than you can get out of the
oxidation.

As far as using hydrogen for fuel, we don't even need to do
any pencil work.  You're turning water into water and hoping
for excess energy.  Not happening.

Now if you have an energy source on Titan, you can make
portable fuel.  Solar is out as the sun is too dim.  The best
you could do is bring a nuclear RTG generator from Earth.

Sorry to rain on your scifi parade.