Monday, July 20, 2020

As humans move to outer space, class struggle and the need to abolish capitalism will follow—Saturn’s moon Titan

By SJ Otto

I take a big interest in science. I especially like outer space and our attempts to find life of some kind here in the Solar System. Of course we would like to meet people or similar intelligent life forms from another star system. The question we all have is—“is there anybody out there?” For that reason I find Saturn’s moon Titan and other similar bodies very interesting.

The article I posted below looks at another possibility. At some point people may decide they want to live on other worlds besides the Earth. There are already people who want to move to Mars and live there. The article below looks at the possibility of moving to Titan and living there. I can’t blame people for wanting to live there. If I could live long enough, and that seems impossible at this time, I would love to walk along the shores, hills or fields of Titan. I would love to travel to Mars and visit there as well. Both places look like really interesting places to visit. Mars looks like an Arizona desert with pink skies. I’ve looked at the pictures of the landscape of Titan and it also looks beautiful. Its skies are colorful and the landscape is also interesting. I might not want to live there, but I would love to visit those places.

It is not surprising that people are looking at ways to colonize Titan. But for us leftist we have to ask the same questions that arose when Europeans came to the “New World” to conquer other people and steal there land. There are no people on Mars or Titan. But there may be some indigenous life forms. Will colonialism consider their welfare or will these futuristic colonists just take over and destroy everything that lives in those places, that get in the way of or the convenience of the colonizers. As Europeans colonized parts of the Earth, they had little concern for people, plants or animals. Colonialists destroyed the Dodo bird.

They were either in the way of the colonizers or they were good eating and no colonist cared about their future. They have been extinct since the 1700s.

So will these future colonists pay more attention to the rights of indigenous life forms than the European colonists of the past? On the Star Trek TV series they have the “Prime Directive,” [1]that is to say they agree not to interfere in the development of more primitive intelligent life forms or humanoids. The idea was to let them develop at their own pace. But Star Trek was a fictional show. And so far no nation has adapted any “prime directive.” The US has invaded and occupied both Iraq and Afghanistan. The idea of letting those people decide their fate is the farthest thing in the minds of US generals or political leaders. The US went to those countries to “Americanize” those people.

There is also the question of what kind of political system people will set up in these colonies? Right now we are struggling to bring capitalism to an end. For some of us, capitalism is a crime against humanity. We want that system to die out. For me, there is nothing I want more than to see an end to a system that allows $millionaires and $billionaires to get everything they want while poor people are denied their basic human rights, such as a right to health care.

So the colonization of space, here in our Solar System, or anywhere for that matter, simply expands our struggle for socialism and Marxism in any place where humans decide to live.

Titan's conditions could be just right to power US-sized colony

From New Scientist:

By Mika Mckinnon

Saturn’s largest moon could suit human settlement – provided we can keep the lights on. Thankfully, Titan has several energy sources that might one day power a colony, an analysis shows.

For all its alien strangeness, Titan is remarkably Earth-like. A thick atmosphere protects its solid surface from damaging radiation and it is the only other place in the solar system with liquid on its surface. If humans were to one day live under the yellow haze of the moon’s skies, exploring its rolling dunes and ragged peaks or settling by the side of gently stirring hydrocarbon lakes, they would need energy to power their lives.

“I think long-term, after Mars, Titan’s probably the next most important place that people will have an extended presence,” says Ralph Lorenz, a planetary scientist at Johns Hopkins University in Maryland.

To figure out how humans might be able to survive on the distant moon far in the future, Amanda Hendrix of the Planetary Science Institute and Yuk Yung at the California Institute of Technology analysed potential energy sources.

Mining the moon

Any robotic explorers sent to initially scout out Titan would rely on nuclear power, harnessing radioactive decay to generate electricity and stay warm. Humans might be able to do the same, packing supplies from Earth to make a nuclear power plant, then mining the moon to keep it fueled. However, without investigating Titan’s interior geology, the feasibility of this idea is mostly guesswork.

But the moon is rich in easily accessible methane, making it a potential refuelling point for rockets travelling even further from Earth. “As a resource for long-term, solar-system-wide civilisation, Titan would be a pivotal place,” Lorenz says.

Although it would be inefficient to combust hydrocarbons on the moon itself due to the lack of readily available oxygen, future inhabitants of Titan could add hydrogen to acetylene to generate power. However, despite the theoretical abundance of acetylene on the moon, scientists have yet to detect it on Titan’s surface.

“It’s possible we are missing it because it’s being masked by the atmosphere,” says Sarah Hörst, a planetary scientist at Johns Hopkins University.

For the rest click here.