Saturn's Moon Titan Is More Compelling Than Mars As A Long-Term Human Destination : 13.7: Cosmos And Culture. A composite image of Saturn's moon Titan taken by the Cassini spacecraft. NASA hide caption toggle caption A composite image of Saturn's moon Titan taken by the Cassini spacecraft. I am a planetary scientist and once astronaut candidate finalist (read: space nerd). But I have something to confess: I do not want to live on Mars. While certainly interesting scientifically (e.g., seasonally-varying polar caps; transient methane plumes; permafrost), Mars is not particularly compelling as a long-term human destination. But there is another place in our solar system where conditions are right for a self-sustaining, long-term human settlement: Saturn's moon Titan. Why Titan? To start with, let's make clear that Titan is a moon that, in many ways, acts more like a planet.
Titan's thick atmosphere is beneficial, because it means that you don't have to wear a bulky pressure suit while you're out and about on Titan. And we can consider using wind turbines for an alternate energy source.
Note. Asteroids, comets, meteors. Venus. Earth, moon, and sun. Mars. Gas planets. Outer solar system. List of Solar System probes. This is a list of all space probes that have left Earth orbit (or were launched with that intention but failed), organized by their planned destination. It includes planetary probes, solar probes, and probes to asteroids and comets, but excludes manned lunar spacecraft (listed separately at List of Apollo missions). Flybys (such as gravity assists) that were incidental to the main purpose of the mission are also included. Confirmed future probes are included, but missions that are still at the concept stage, or which never progressed beyond the concept stage, are not.
Key[edit] Colour key: † means "tentatively identified", as classified by NASA.[1] These are Cold War-era Soviet missions, mostly failures, about which few or no details have been officially released. In cases which do not fit any of the above, the event to which the date refers is stated. Some of the terms used under Type: Solar probes[edit] Venus probes[edit] 1961–1965[edit] 1966–1970[edit] 1971–1975[edit] 1978[edit] 1958[edit] Moons and atmospheres. Cosmic Distance Scales - The Solar System. About the Image One way to help visualize the relative distances in the solar system is to imagine a model in which the solar system is reduced in size by a factor of a billion (109). The Earth is then about 1.3 cm in diameter (the size of a grape).
The Moon orbits about a foot away. The Sun is 1.5 meters in diameter (about the height of a man) and 150 meters (about a city block) from the Earth. Distance Information Distances in the solar system are commonly measured in Astronomical Units (AU). The Moon, the closest solar system body to us, is about 400,000 km away from the Earth, which means it takes about 2 seconds for radio signal from Earth to reach the Moon and travel back. The most distant planet from the Earth isn't Pluto anymore.
Pluto is still an interesting member of the solar system, however - its orbit is actually very eccentric and takes Pluto 4,400,000,000 - 7,400,000,000 km (30 - 49 AU) from the Sun. The Outer Reaches of the Solar System Parallax Radar Travel Time. Interactive calculator. HiRISE | High Resolution Imaging Science Experiment. : Planets. National Aeronautics andSpace Administration Solar System ExplorationNASA Science Filters Map Selector: Planets ShareEmailPrint Mercury Venus Earth Mars Jupiter Saturn Uranus Neptune Hypothetical 'Planet X' Small Bodies Dwarf Planets Pluto Ceres Asteroids Comets Meteors & Meteorites Moons Earth's Moon Europa Enceladus Titan More Moons Regions Our Solar System Kuiper Belt Oort Cloud Beyond Our Solar System Stars Sun AddToAny.
Earth and Moon as Seen from Mars. Earth and Moon as Seen from Mars + Larger view The High Resolution Imaging Science Experiment (HiRISE) camera would make a great backyard telescope for viewing Mars, and we can also use it at Mars to view other planets. This is an image of Earth and the moon, acquired on October 3, 2007, by the HiRISE camera on NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter. At the time the image was taken, Earth was 142 million kilometers (88 million miles) from Mars, giving the HiRISE image a scale of 142 kilometers (88 miles) per pixel, an Earth diameter of about 90 pixels and a moon diameter of 24 pixels.
On the Earth image we can make out the west coast outline of South America at lower right, although the clouds are the dominant features. NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, a division of the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena, manages the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter for NASA's Science Mission Directorate, Washington. Image Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/University of Arizona. How Many Hours of Daylight in Summer? Earth-Titan-Moon size comparison.PNG. Solar System Live.