Bad Smelling Moon

[Mr Q]

The ongoing discoveries of Saturn's moon Titan now confirm vast rivers and lakes of methane. If we were there and could smell its atmosphere, it must be very smelly

TITAN

[acey]

Methane gas is odourless - the stuff we smell in natural "methane" emissions is hydrogen sulphide and other compounds. Interesting link though.

[Grotemobile]

That is cold.- 290 F.Very intresting through.

Steve.

[Naemeth]

Acey is right. They add the smell to Methane so you can detect a gas leak, otherwise if there was a gas leak and no smell, your house could fill with gas, as soon as you turn something on it could blow up the house.

[keithatrochdale]

Acey is right. They add the smell to Methane so you can detect a gas leak, otherwise if there was a gas leak and no smell, your house could fill with gas, as soon as you turn something on it could blow up the house.

Are you thinking of natural gas as supplied to houses etc?

Methane gas is quite different.

[Naemeth]

Are you thinking of natural gas as supplied to houses etc?

Methane gas is quite different.

Quite possibly... Methane supplied to school labs (or at least I think it's methane) also has a smell added though.

[symesie04]

Yes Titan is such an exciting environment. Recently NASA had to decide on their next big budget mission and they chose another Mars lander for 2016. One of the missions that they discarded was this:

Titan Mare Explorer - Billed as the first direct exploration of an ocean environment beyond Earth. This would put a "boat" on a large methane-ethane sea on Saturn's moon Titan.

Now I know the importance of Mars right now and the incredible stuff we are getting from the current rovers, but hey come on can you imagine a boat on Ttitan? Can you even dream of the images that would be sent back as it drifts across a lake of Methane and Methane raindrops fall in slow motion whilst a giant Jupiter is just visible through the dense clouds. Wowee.

[Mr Q]

Thanks for the corrections. Now after thinking about it, you are right.

[rfdesigner]

Can you even dream of the images that would be sent back as it drifts across a lake of Methane and Methane raindrops fall in slow motion whilst a giant Jupiter is just visible through the dense clouds. Wowee.

Jupiter?.. is your boat kitted out with a scope?

[acey]

Jupiter?.. is your boat kitted out with a scope?

Interesting point - what sort of view of Jupiter would you get from one of the moons of Saturn? A quick check gives me the Jupiter-Saturn minimum distance as about 5AU and the Earth-Jupiter minimum distance as about 4AU. So we get a better view of Jupiter than anybody on Titan would.

[symesie04]

Jupiter?.. is your boat kitted out with a scope?

Oooh my good grief!!! SATURN! SATURN! SATURN! school boy error

[spurius]

I dont know about moons but I bet uranus stinks. Someone had to say it!

[Champagnerocker]

Recently NASA had to decide on their next big budget mission and they chose another Mars lander for 2016.

Another Mars lander? Curiosity has only just arrived there, and Opportunity is still going strong. Can't they at least wait for these lander missions to finish before sending more toys to Mars? Mars is a disappointingly conservative target for landers. We choose to go to the moons of Saturn (and Jupiter) not because they are easy, but because they are hard -and still totally unexplored.

[rfdesigner]

I suppose it depends on what the bigger game is.. if it's sending people there then lots of rovers might not be such a bad move.

Personally I'd like to see them have a go at an even bigger rover, working towards the kind of sizes we'll need for manned missions. The latest curiosity mission did test out several new systems such as the crane. This might be one way of getting people down softly.. and be able to resupply without resulting in 20 mile hikes.

Derek

[spurius]

That is cold.- 290 F.Very intresting through.

Steve.

That is cold! But uranus is much colder again. Also with wind speeds up to 500mph you would get a wind chill factor of about -5 kelvin.