Saturns icy moon ideal place to settle, establish rest stop for trips into deep space: NASA

They’re over Saturn’s moon about this idea.Scientists claim that the “abundant resources” on Saturn’s largest moon could make it the ideal place to establish an interplanetary pit stop for astronauts embarking on deep space voyages.This somewhat out-there proposal was floated in a NASA-backed study that’s currently under review for publication in Acta Astronautica.“Titan is gushing with hydrocarbons — what we call oil and natural gas on Earth,” the study’s head author Conor Nixon, an astronomer with the Goddard Space Flight Center, told Universe Today.Indeed, the massive moon — which is about 50 percent wider than Earth’s own rocky satellite –– has many attributes that make it seemingly appealing as a cosmic stopover.

It is the only body beyond Earth to have a dense, nitrogen-rich atmosphere as well as rivers, lakes and seas filled with methane and ethane — potential precursors to life.Nixon and his team explored the potential uses for these vast reservoirs of hydrocarbon, concluding that Titan is potentially viable as a home base.Coincidentally, Earth’s moon, which NASA said we could start building a base on as early as 2027, features a far more scant supply of hydrocarbons such as methane, Futurism reported.“This combination of abundant reduced carbon, along with available nitrogen and oxygen makes Titan an enticing world rich in resources,” their team wrote.In an email to Universe Today, Nixon noted that it was comprised of 5% methane — which is used in home heating and cooking — while the surface harbors “heavier hydrocarbons” like “propane used in BBQ tanks, butane used in lighters, as well as kerosene and gasoline.

“Besides burning these hydrocarbons, we can also make a lot of products from them: plastics, synthetic rubber, and feedstocks for everything from solvents to pharmaceuticals, and even foods,” he said.From this, the astronomer deduced that it could either serve as a more permanent settlement or as...