Terraforming Titan

[Hans de Vries]

Will it be possible at some point of time in the future to terraform Titan without causing it to lose much of it's atmosphere? Today Titan's atmosphere is very cold, with very low energy, if we simply heat it up, it will just perish.

 

The same also applies to Moon, Mars etc.

 

Can we?

[Moontanman]

If you warmed Titan up you would have to keep in mind it is an ice world, thousands of miles of ice over a rock core, all you would get is a water world with no land area...

[fiveworlds]

water world with no land area...

 

So a fishing resort then??

[Afraid of Time]

Titan's crust is completely ice frozen to the point where it becomes similar to land. Underneath this is potentially a liquid ocean, and underneath that is an ice mantle. If the temperature raised to allow for liquid water on the surface, either floating platforms would have to be established, or potentially the establishment of artificial continents. The latter would be very difficult as you don't get to silicon or any other similar substance till you get to the core (which itself is silicon oxide).

 

Personally, terraforming any planet or moon is dangerous given that we don't seem to fully understand the complete chemical and physical composition of ANY celestial body, even our own. IMO terraforming mars is our best shot at making a living situation possible. As for the moon, forget about it.