The Titan Project
The Titan Project is a coordinated effort between corporations from several different industries to establish a permanent human settlement on Titan, Saturn's largest moon. The project is supported by both scientists and industrialists looking to take advantage of Titan's unique conditions.
Structure
The Titan Project has several contributors including:
Public Agenda
The Titan Project seeks to establish an industrial colony on Titan in order to support several endeavors:
Supercomputers
The cryogenic conditions on Titan allow for exceedingly efficient cooling of computer systems. Based on Landauer's Limit, computational power is limited by the thermal efficiency of the heat sinks. The abundance of cold on Titan when compared to Earth based computers would allow for significantly faster computations. The Titan colony would be home to the most advanced and extensive computers in the solar system, including NooNets and quantum computers, should the latter become more than theoretical. Any computations that are not time-sensitive could be outsourced to Titan.Industrial Fabrication
The cold temperatures also support the construction of highly efficient automated factories. As with computers, the laws of thermodynamics dictate the efficiency of mechanical work. The greater disparity between the starting (cold) temperature and the hot running temperature would make fabrication on Titan run with more than double efficiency compared to Earth. Due to Titan's gravity, the export of these products from Titan throughout the solar system would be cheaper and easier from Titan than from earth.Hydrocarbon Fuel Sourcing
Titan has plentiful hydrocarbons that can be used to fuel chemical rockets. Chemical rockets are expected to continue to bridge the gap between high thrust fusion drives and low impulse/max efficiency ion drives. Titan is the best source for hydrocarbons beyond Earth, made all the more lucrative by the lower gravity.Volatile Export
Titan is also a good source of nitrogen and hydrogen, which can be collected and exported where needed using either chemical rockets fueled on Titan or slow ion freighters. Various artificial colonies throughout the Solar System are reliant on externally supplied air. While Titan is not a good source for free oxygen, nitrogen exports from Titan can be blended with oxygen sourced from Earth or harvested from water. Surplus nitrogen from Titan can also be sent to Mars in order to slowly increase the habitability of the Martian atmosphere over the course of several centuries. Hydrogen is less abundant on Titan but still available in sufficient quantities that Titan could provide Hydrogen to the outer solar system for various applications including as reaction mass for hydrogen based fusion drives.The Search for Life
Despite the dozens of probes sent to Titan in the past three centuries, much of the planet remains a mystery. In order to gain a better understanding of the Solar system, small scientific expeditions will use the Titan Project's infrastructure to explore for subsurface aquatic life and hypothetical methane-based life.History
The plans for an industrial Titan colony were conceptualized in the early 2290's, and the project was formally announced in 2300. As of 2310 the project is still in developmental stages, with plans to launch the first automated infrastructure by 2315 to establish a foundation.
Founding Date
2300
Type
Expedition, Colonization
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