Life & Temperatures on Titan

[DataPacRat]

If you visit Saturn's moon Titan, you can expect temperatures around -290 F. As best as I can figure from p430, this counts as a 'cryogenic environment', so a PC who wanders outside of a nice, warm dome without a heated suit would roll against HT every minute at -29, with the PC losing one FP (and then HT) per point of failure; implying an average survival time of under a minute. Given that I've found webpages suggesting that survival times at -40 F are on the order of 5 to 7 minutes, that seems approximately reasonable.

I'm looking to build the cheapest Titanian heat-suit I can manage, and am willing to apply Pulver's armor-building system from Pyramids 52, 85, and 96. Assuming a standard human wearer, and roughly no-superscience TL10, I've ended up with this; I'm having a hard time gauging is plausibility. Anyone care to comment?

** Basic Titanian heatsuit (150 lb wearer, TL10):
* Face: 0.7 sf
- Transparent Bioplas, DR 1, Fabric: 0.0105 lbs, $12.60
* Everything other than face: 20.65 sf. (Actually in pieces: feet, trousers, jacket, gloves, hood)
- Kevlar, DR 1 (vs pierce/cut, DR 0.25 vs crush), Fabric: 2.065 lbs, $41.30
- Total cost so far: $54. (Stylish: $216. Fashion original: $1,080.)
* Addons
- Sealed: $5*21.35 sf = $106.75
- Extreme Climate Control: $200, 1 lb
- Air supply, tiny tank (15 min): $50, 0.5 lbs
- Power Pack, C cell (18 hours): 0.5 lb
* Stats
- Total weight: 4.0755 lbs
- Total cost: $410.75 + $10 battery (or $572.75, or $1,436.75)

(And for less-cheap versions, all sorts of other options can be thrown in from the Pyramid articles or Ultra-Tech.)

I'm a little hesitant to go with that strictly as written, that a thin para-aramid bodysuit with an electric heater is enough; but maybe I can throw in some extra lingo, such as 'aerogel insulation'. (I found an article suggesting such suits could have 'trapped gas insulation 7.5 cms thick'

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Anyone have stats for Titanian strap-on wings? Or do I need to dig into 3e Vehicles' for, say, a muscle-powered engine, ornithopter drivetrain, and strap-on harness crew station?

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Anyone have any good numbers on how large a dome would be feasible in 0.138 G? (Stresses on the frame could probably be made a bit easier by keeping internal and external pressures the same.) UltraTech suggests at TL9+, something 2 miles wide and 1 mile high is feasible... and 3e's GURPS Mars suggests $25M per square mile.

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Anything I might be forgetting about, beyond what has to be worried about for colonies on more ordinary, airless moons? (Eg, I've already found a note that, on average, the lighting is about 1/3000th the lux of Earth, and I can use that table from High-Tech Electricity for vision penalties.)

[AlexanderHowl]

Titan is a cold climate, unsuitable for normal heat systems (extreme is for Antarctica, not Titan). A TL10 smart vacc suit is probably your best bet, though it costs $5,500 with a TL10 flexible helmet. Then again, $5,500 is 11% of starting wealth at TL10 and would likely be considered normal clothing on Titan (coming out of the 80% allocated for assets).

[DataPacRat]

Originally Posted by AlexanderHowl

Titan is a cold climate, unsuitable for normal heat systems (extreme is for Antarctica, not Titan).

The sidebar on Pyramid 96 p26 says that a sealed suit with "extreme climate control" provides temperature tolerance of "-459°F to 250°F", which is what I based the above heat-suit build around.

[Anthony]

The big problem for a suit able to handle supercool temperatures is that the flexible polymers we generally use for things like joints aren't flexible at cryogenic temperatures (and there probably aren't any options that work over the entire range of temperatures needed); the actual insulation and heating requirements aren't all that dramatic.

[Anders]

My main problem with living on Titan is the gravity. Humans really are adapted to 1 G, and living in a place with 1/7th the gravity... I foresee all sorts of unforeseen problems.

[DataPacRat]

Originally Posted by Anthony

The big problem for a suit able to handle supercool temperatures is that the flexible polymers we generally use for things like joints aren't flexible at cryogenic temperatures (and there probably aren't any options that work over the entire range of temperatures needed); the actual insulation and heating requirements aren't all that dramatic.

It's TL10; I'm willing to posit a variety of advances in material science. (If nothing else, there should be more than enough computer power to brute-force through potential manufacturing paths.) Eg, having the suit made of clusters of atoms that gradually change in distributions between the inner and outer surfaces. Or some approach I'm not thinking of; any suggestions?

Originally Posted by Anders

My main problem with living on Titan is the gravity. Humans really are adapted to 1 G, and living in a place with 1/7th the gravity... I foresee all sorts of unforeseen problems.

I'm drawing on Transhuman Space a lot, given that it's one of the few reasonably-hard GURPS settings of close to the right TL. I've already posited something equivalent to the "calcium hack" used by THS's Duncanites. (Mostly because I'm already positing that Titan is populated, and I don't feel like forcing everyone to live in always-circling "gravity trains".)

I'm also positing that Luna has also been colonized, and so most of the solutions the Loonies came up with to deal with gravity got imported to Titan essentially wholesale. (I'm currently skimming through a pile of PDFs of '90's-era magazines from the "Moon Miners' Manifesto" with all sorts of such ideas; the most entertaining so far of which, if not the most practical, is building airlocks in the forms of shallow, U-shaped tunnels filled with mercury, kept liquid by weak heat-lamps.)

There are a few exceptions, such as Titan's atmosphere providing a terminal velocity. For a character in the classic sky-diving position, belly-down and limbs spread, their terminal velocity on Earth is around 120 mph; on Titan, I estimate it at around 37 mph. Which, according to Basic p430, implies a top falling damage of about 4d; or half that if falling into a lake or other soft surface. That's practically survivable even without a parachute or other protection, which has interesting implications for air travel.

Say, anyone have any thoughts on how small and light a parachute a typical human PC would be able to get away with, on Titan?

[dcarson]

Long term affects of low gravity are debatable. We have data points regular, 0 and 2.5 gravity. Turns out 2.5gs is good for chickens. The funding to co-fly a centrifuge with ISS has never been approved sadly.

[AlexanderHowl]

The problem with Titan is that the cryogenic nitrogen atmosphere actually makes it less habitable than Mars. Quite frankly, you would survive longer on Mars without protection than on Titan, as Titan's atmosphere will flash freeze an unprotected human body. Strangely enough, it is so rapid that ice forms an amorphous solid rather than a crystalline structure, so it is merely the expansion of ice that ruptures some of the cells rather that the tearing of all of the cells caused by ice crystals (brain scanning may actually be possible, as brain tissues have lots of fat, which would offer some protection).

[DataPacRat]

Originally Posted by Anthony

The big problem for a suit able to handle supercool temperatures is that the flexible polymers we generally use for things like joints aren't flexible at cryogenic temperatures (and there probably aren't any options that work over the entire range of temperatures needed); the actual insulation and heating requirements aren't all that dramatic.

Anyone think if it would be more plausible if I got rid of the DR 1 kevlar fabric, replacing it with DR 2 polymer-nanocomposite scale? About 1.6 lbs heavier and $101 more expensive, which is still within reason for nearly-all-the-time wear. (It even still falls into the realm of 'diaphanous as lingerie'.) Or maybe scale over an inner layer of kevlar?

Also, there seems to be a missing detail in Pulver's armor articles; they mention that heavier or lighter armour decreases or increases in LC, but doesn't mention what the base LC to adjust from is. Anyone know where I should look for that?

[Anthony]

Originally Posted by DataPacRat

Anyone think if it would be more plausible if I got rid of the DR 1 kevlar fabric, replacing it with DR 2 polymer-nanocomposite scale?

Anything that involves polymers isn't a great plan. The basic requirements are that the outer layer has to be able to handle cryogenic temperatures, and the R-value has to be sufficient to not freeze. This isn't all that demanding, your average dewar flask can do both (though it's not durable enough without more tech), but it's almost certainly going to have to be a hardsuit.