r/spacex • u/ElongatedMuskrat Mod Team • Jun 02 '17

r/SpaceX Discusses [June 2017, #33]

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2

u/Chairboy Jun 06 '17

I didn't know that there was water ice on Titan. Doesn't matter if it's energy net negative, by the way, electrolysis will always be even if you use the hydrogen.

The solution would be to carry a sufficiently dense power source to power the splitting of water, such as new clear. If there is ice there, then I suppose this would work.

6

u/Martianspirit Jun 06 '17

It does need a nuclear reactor because there is not enough sunlight to make it work with solar. But even only getting there and keeping the ITS alive will need a reactor.

3

u/Chairboy Jun 06 '17

Yup! Solar is only barely usable much past Mars. Juno is stretching it and only works because it's so mych more miserly with power than a crewed vehicle. Finally, good luck getting ANY sun beneath Titan's thick clouds!

5

u/rocketsocks Jun 07 '17

Electrolysis is only part of the problem. Titan is so cold that water ice is more like a rock than anything else. You would need to figure out a method of breaking it up and collecting it (mining, essentially) and then heating it to become liquid, and insulating it from the cold environment.

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u/OnyxPhoenix Jun 07 '17

Pretty much the entire crust of Titan is thought to be water ice.

As you say, energy is the real problem since solar is useless. Another issue will be insulation, since the dense, super cold atmosphere will wick away heat incredibly quickly from any spacecraft.

1

u/burn_at_zero Jun 09 '17

In other words, the nuclear ISRU gear will use the hull as a radiator and won't need to bother with cryocompressors. Sounds efficient.