This Idea is for all those who don't believe we have to worry about Global Warming. I'm one who thinks it is a problem, but am posting this anyway, just for the fun of it.

Above, that title and subtitle pretty much sum up this Idea. See, Saturn's moon Titan is bigger than Earth's moon, and is believed to hold OCEANS of hydrocarbons. Which is exactly the sort of stuff that oil companies go to extreme lengths to obtain!

Currently we have a pretty fancy space probe just beginning to investigate Saturn and its system of moons (see Cassini link). I bet that within a year, we can start applying the phrase "proven reserves of trillions of barrels" to Titan (and possibly multi-multi-trillions).

Obviously, if we TELL the oil companies about that (hint to NASA: the President is an oil man!), and let them sink as many billions of $ into the space program as they currently sink into dry exploratory wells, we could be gallavanting out to Titan before the end of this decade, and shipping oil back to Earth not long after.

(OK, I confess, I really just want all that oil money invested in the space program, because even if we don't import oil from Titan, we CAN solve various Earthly problems with enough presence in space. --Occasional extinction events, for example.)
-- Vernon, Jun 11 2004

The Cassini mission to Saturn http://saturn.jpl.nasa.gov/index.cfm
As mentioned in the main text. [Vernon, Oct 17 2004, last modified Oct 21 2004]

sustainable oil? http://www.worldnet...sp?ARTICLE_ID=38645
[philmckraken]

Oil won't be cheap for long http://www.lifeafte...sh.net/PageTwo.html [philmckraken, Oct 17 2004, last modified Oct 21 2004]

Oil won't be cheap for long http://www.lifeafte...sh.net/PageTwo.html
[Aerythes, Oct 17 2004]

"More fuel on Titan than on Earth" http://www.esa.int/...UUHJCF_index_0.html
Note I wrote: "I bet that within a year, we can start applying the phrase "proven reserves of trillions of barrels"" --OK, it took longer than a year, but my quantity estimate might be correct! [Vernon, Feb 14 2008]

Proof of lakes of Methane http://blogs.discov...-otherwordly-lakes/
One single lake of liquid methane (a.k.a. LNG, liquid natural gas) is larger than the Caspian Sea on Earth. [Vernon, Dec 18 2009]

Yes...ish. Big spacecraft = cool. More oil = useful. More oxygen to burn with said oil? Problematic. If this were to be taken seriously, instead of for fun and futurism, we'd run into huge problems with global warming //--Occasional extinction events, for example// even faster than currently predicted. Tell you what, though... with all that oil, plastic spacecraft anyone? (+) for cool space stuff.

(Edit: Saw the H3 post, which suggests, er, electrolysing the Moon's crust for oxygen. I'm guessing there must be some oxides amongst Saturn's moons somewhere...)
-- david_scothern, Jun 11 2004


OK, comment withdrawn. I'm surprised, though, how many people don't know this acronym, it's in the help section with all the others.
-- harderthanjesus, Jun 11 2004


Its just a bunch of natural gas over there anyway, we got enough of this crap.

WTCTTISITMWIBCIIWR lives on!!!
-- daseva, Jun 11 2004


Great idea here. No plan coming. :-(

I favor the anaerobic composting of organic slop that could be done in a space based sphere. As the slop heats it decomposes. When equilibrium is reached and the more viscous slop occupies the sphere poles, small thrusters kick in and the body moves closer to the sun, subjecting the viscous slop to higher temperatures and further fractionation.
-- dpsyplc, Jun 11 2004


some people think the earth's oil formed geologically, and not from biological sources (presumably nobody thinks the hydrocarbons on Titan formed from zillions of dead ETs). if that turns out to be true, then no need to ship the stuff in from outer space (still have the problem of oxidising it as per [david_scothern] though) (see link)
-- philmckraken, Jun 13 2004


I think the moon's crust has a form of helium, helium-3 which could also work as fuel. Not much would be needed so as not to cause other problems, which I shall get to later.

I'd love more money spent at Nasa. Also Titan quite possibly has the chemicals to take back but much research has to be done on the possible ecosystem of such a place. If they find all of these chemicals are sterile then maybe they will consider it. Methane on Titan may have the same role as water on Earth.

Plus, Earthors once they cross the line of importing raw materials from offworld, they shall find other problems like mass polution. I don't want to hear how much mass the Earth imports naturaly from space. Humans could easily surpass it and like in the past where they didn't think they could possibly over polute the oceans or fish to extinction, humans will eventually over mass the planet if not careful.

It would be nice to think that banding together to prevent great losses from extinction events would have their own reward to humans. But aparently that isn't very high on the list of priorities. In fact furthermore, on the human agenda, higher up is causing extinction events. Which ranges from having some small sort of reward like taking other people's things to avoiding real work in an area of expertise.

Bun for trying to sink oil money into Nasa. +
-- sartep, Jun 13 2004


I'm torn. On the one hand we have a better space program, which is good. On the other we have the possibility that no-one will ever have to develop a decent renewable energy source and climate change will kick in.

Meh, I'll have to be neutral I think.
-- RobertKidney, Jun 13 2004


Good idea. We'd really need some new sources of oil and natural gas anyway. Seems like our peak oil period has passed for the reserves on Earth (see link).
-- Aerythes, Jun 13 2004


The problem is not a lack of natural petroleum reserves....that can be easily resolved if people would start voting with their brains and stop voting with their ass-hats. The problem is not a new, alternative, less polluting energy system...we have had that for decades now, it's called nuclear energy and hydrogen fuel and electric powered vehicles.

Here is the real problem. The governments that are 1) beholden to the oil companies and 2) the governments that are addicted to the tax revenue the gasoline and carbon based fuels industry and infrastructure provides.

The solutions are as near as your computer research and your voting booth. People, in general, just need to quit being absurdly stupid and so easily manipulated. That is not going to happen any time soon, sadly.
-- Blisterbob, Feb 15 2008



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