Life & Temperatures on Titan

[DataPacRat]

Originally Posted by Anthony

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.

If the point you're suggesting is to imitate a dewar by having some vacuum between inner and outer layers, why not handwave/technobabble something about the hard-scales actually just all being tiny little vacuum-filled thermos-like insulators themselves? (Or, for somewhat more plausibility, high-TL aerogels filled with vacuum instead of air?) The suits' DR would really just be a side-effect of having materials tough enough to withstand the pressure differentials.

As another thought, if the tech for flexible insulators good enough for walking around in Titan exists, and is on the order of $600 for a human's surface area, can anyone think of interesting alternate uses for it? Better fridges and hot-water tanks at home? Something something industrial processes? Laptops that run ridiculously hot internally without singeing their users?