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upstart [soylentnews.org] writes:

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upstart [soylentnews.org] writes in with an IRC submission for RandomFactor:

elon musky

What does Titan smell like? [astronomy.com]:

Titan is Saturn’s biggest moon. It is so big, in fact, that it rivals Jupiter’s moon Ganymede for the title of the solar system’s largest satellite. If you were to strip Titan bare by removing its atmosphere, Ganymede is slightly larger. But that’s OK; Titan is still so fascinating that we can let Ganymede have that win.

Yes, Titan has an atmosphere. And not a small, inconsequential one, either: Titan’s atmosphere is four times denser than Earth’s. And while you wouldn’t need a spacesuit to protect you against its pressure, you would need one heck of a parka. The surface temperature on Titan is a frigid –290 degrees Fahrenheit (–179 degrees Celsius). For reference, the coldest temperature ever recorded on Earth was when the mercury dropped to only about –129 F (–89 C) at Vostok Station in Antarctica in 1983.

So, an astronaut walking on the surface of Titan would have to keep their skin covered to avoid rapid frostbite, but they wouldn’t need a super bulky spacesuit like they would on the Moon or in the vacuum of space. The astronaut would have to bring their own oxygen, though, as Titan’s atmosphere is devoid of it. Instead, Titan’s skies, like Earth’s, are mostly nitrogen, plus about 5 percent methane and ​a few other trace gases.

For a trip to Titan, one could envision donning attire similar to that worn by researchers working in Antarctica during the frigid winters: clothing with multiple insulating layers, perhaps embedded with futuristic NASA-quality heating elements; thick gloves; hats and balaclavas; and extreme cold vapor barrier boots (fondly referred to by Antarctic researchers as bunny boots or Mickey Mouse boots). The only necessary modification would be an insulated gas mask for oxygen, and maybe a heater to prevent supercooled air from freezing your lungs. The suit wouldn’t even need to be completely airtight as long as oxygen remained circulating. It would be like the masks on airplanes: “Even though your bag may not inflate, oxygen is still flowing.”

This leads to an interesting thought experiment: If an airtight spacesuit is not a necessity on Titan, then it might be possible to get a whiff of your surroundings through your oxygen mask. In that case, what would Titan smell like?

Original Submission