This is such an amazing piece, especially the sentiments at the beginning around how as a species we have faltered in our exploration of the solar system. I have always loved the quote by Tsiolkovsky about the cradle of humanity. It is one the quotes I have on my wall. I also love the work of Sagan. I have tried to combine these in my novel “Orphans of Apollo”. And the video “Wanderers”, I love this too! When I sit down to write I often put this on to get myself into the right headspace. Great work Owen.
Great article and stimulating read to start a Saturday. Where should we go first? In my opinion, whatever is easiest. Why is that? I think there is something to the Dave Ramsey method of getting the ball rolling with some earlier wins that draws the greatest interest. The more challenging destinations (even if they are better or more important long term) will likely follow once we have established a foothold and built up our capabilities and confidence. Starting with easier targets like the Moon allows us to achieve quick successes, gather valuable experience, and generate the momentum needed to tackle more ambitious goals like Mars and beyond.
Excellent point! While generally I'd argue in favor of focusing on Mars over the Moon (I'd rather we do both simultaneously), getting a robust Lunar economy established will mean we're active in space beyond LEO. Once that happens, it's inevitable that we'll spread into the rest of the Solar System.
NASA should really use your argument for their Moon first plan, because their current one (and using the Moon as a pitstop on the way to Mars) isn't very good.
One nit/nuance: the hydrocarbons on Titan do not really represent an available energy source due to the lack of molecular oxygen. They would rather serve the purpose that oxygen does on earth, where oxidizer (oxygen) is abundant and fuel (hydrogen or hydrocarbons) is what is scarce. On Titan, oxygen would be the scarce half of the reaction, so it would have to be produced via electrolysis the way renewable hydrogen is on earth. There likely aren’t any reserves of unreacted oxygen on Titan just waiting to be dug up and combusted with the abundant gases in the atmosphere.
So the energetic situation on Titan would be similar to most anywhere else with abundant H2O and C of some form: we’d still need nuclear power (since sunlight is so weak there) of some sort to electrolyze water and store the resulting fuel and oxidizer. Dragonfly will start with an RTG, but any human presence there or any form of rocket fuel production would likely need fission or fusion.
This is such an amazing piece, especially the sentiments at the beginning around how as a species we have faltered in our exploration of the solar system. I have always loved the quote by Tsiolkovsky about the cradle of humanity. It is one the quotes I have on my wall. I also love the work of Sagan. I have tried to combine these in my novel “Orphans of Apollo”. And the video “Wanderers”, I love this too! When I sit down to write I often put this on to get myself into the right headspace. Great work Owen.
Thanks Alex! I think I'll go and watch Wanderers again...
Great article and stimulating read to start a Saturday. Where should we go first? In my opinion, whatever is easiest. Why is that? I think there is something to the Dave Ramsey method of getting the ball rolling with some earlier wins that draws the greatest interest. The more challenging destinations (even if they are better or more important long term) will likely follow once we have established a foothold and built up our capabilities and confidence. Starting with easier targets like the Moon allows us to achieve quick successes, gather valuable experience, and generate the momentum needed to tackle more ambitious goals like Mars and beyond.
Excellent point! While generally I'd argue in favor of focusing on Mars over the Moon (I'd rather we do both simultaneously), getting a robust Lunar economy established will mean we're active in space beyond LEO. Once that happens, it's inevitable that we'll spread into the rest of the Solar System.
NASA should really use your argument for their Moon first plan, because their current one (and using the Moon as a pitstop on the way to Mars) isn't very good.
Great survey of the solar system, thanks.
One nit/nuance: the hydrocarbons on Titan do not really represent an available energy source due to the lack of molecular oxygen. They would rather serve the purpose that oxygen does on earth, where oxidizer (oxygen) is abundant and fuel (hydrogen or hydrocarbons) is what is scarce. On Titan, oxygen would be the scarce half of the reaction, so it would have to be produced via electrolysis the way renewable hydrogen is on earth. There likely aren’t any reserves of unreacted oxygen on Titan just waiting to be dug up and combusted with the abundant gases in the atmosphere.
So the energetic situation on Titan would be similar to most anywhere else with abundant H2O and C of some form: we’d still need nuclear power (since sunlight is so weak there) of some sort to electrolyze water and store the resulting fuel and oxidizer. Dragonfly will start with an RTG, but any human presence there or any form of rocket fuel production would likely need fission or fusion.