Re:Let's Colonize Titan
by JoeAltmaier on Sunday November 27, 2016 @04:50PM
(#13051761)
And would it really be ok to walk around in methane in just a coat? Wouldn't your skin react?
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The temperature is so cold that it would freeze your body if you were exposed, so you would still need an airtight seal. But the atmospheric pressure is high enough that you wouldn't need a bulky vacuum-proof pressurized spacesuit.
Re:Let's Colonize Titan
by JoeAltmaier on Sunday November 27, 2016 @10:30PM
(#13053224)
I'm thinking if the surface temperature were hundreds of degrees below, and the air were thick enough for conduction, that the suit would have to be a vacuum-insulation type of thing anyway?
Re:Let's Colonize Titan
by LeifCarrotson on Monday November 28, 2016 @07:40AM
(#13055009)
No. Ambient-pressure-airtight is much easier than vacuum-airtight.
A drysuit for scuba diving is ambient-pressure airtight, basically just a neoprene coverall with sealed seams. It's easy to move around in.
But take away the external pressure, and you're in the middle of a 15 psi balloon,w which wants to be a sphere, not human-shaped. It becomes difficult to bend your limbs and fingers. Rotating a shoulder, neck, or wrist causes the suit to twist in like a party balloon. Anywhere the cross-section is not circular, it wants to be more circular.
You either need a hard shell suit, a tolerance for this difficulty, or a lot of engineering.
Re:Let's Colonize Titan
by JoeAltmaier on Monday November 28, 2016 @10:14AM
(#13055882)
Come on. Ambient-pressure-200K-differential-airtight is nothing like a scuba suit.