If we were to colonize on Titan, and Mars...?

Question

Which probably will never happen, but think with me for a second...

What would a clear night look like?

Would half of the sky be Saturn's ring just stretching for miles? It would be a beautiful sight if so. Possibly the most beautiful sight that I can imagine at least.

And also, Mars... When we do put humans there... Does anyone know if there are plans to set up a telescope there? Would it be possible to get a clearer view of Pluto, and possibly even discover other celestial bodies that we cannot see from Earth?

Answer 1

A clear night on Mars may not look so great because there is a lot of dust suspended in the atmosphere. You'd get less atmospheric distortion though, so it might look rather good. Stars would be bright and would not twinkle as much as they do on Earth.

A clear night on Titan never happens. The atmosphere is so dense with chemical smog it took special instruments on Cassini to view the surface in wavelengths other than visible light. Assuming we colonised it and cleared that smog, however, Saturn would be an impressive sight. The planet itself would cover about 5.7 degrees, roughly 11.5 times bigger than our Moon appears. The rings would stretch out over about 13 degrees, about 26 times the size our Moon appears to us. Alas, the plane of Titan's orbit coincides almost exactly with the plane of the rings, so they would appear edge on and therefore visble barely as a fine line across the equator of the planet. Not the most spectacular sight of the rings you could hope for.

As far as a telescope on Mars goes, there is little benefit. The scale of the solar system is truly staggering. Mars is not significantly closer to Pluto than Earth. Pluto at its closest to Earth is about 4.3 billion km away. Mars is only about 70 million km closer to it than we are, barely 1/60 the distance bewteen us and Pluto. That is not close enough to make the view any clearer, at least not clearer enough to be worthwhile. The view of anything further out than Pluto will be even less affected by the trip to Mars.

And responding to an earlier answer, the sunlight out at Saturn is about 1/100th that on Earth, but that's still a heck of a lot of light (the full Moon is about 1/400,000th as bright as the Sun, but that's enough light to read by here on Earth on a clear moonlit night). It'll be about as bright out there as on a mildly overcast day here.

Answer 2

I hate to be a part-pooper, but those "artist's" impressions that NASA release of views from Titan showing Saturn in all it's glory cannot be realistic, surely.

Where would the light come from? Saturn and Titan are so far from the Sun that there would little illumination from it. I'm sure we would have to use artificial help to see very much, as I think there would be insufficient light for the human eye to see everything in such detail.

As for the telescope on Mars - good idea, but the atmosphere (even though thin) would be detrimental to the view - and the regular storms would be a real problem.

Answer 3

It'd be easier & wiser to set up a telescope on Earth's moon - a place with light gravity and no atmosphere. On Titan, you'd definitely see Saturn's rings, but I think the radiation put out by Saturn would be harmful to humans over time.

Mars will definitely have scopes one day, but the moon would be a wiser choice.

Answer 4

... Why does each thing would desire to be anthropocentric? Do you not have a feeling of loyalty to the planet you have been born on? Do you not look after different lifestyles in the international? shouldn't we end this hubris of humanity and attempt to be greater compassionate? And the technologies to be waiting to flow and colonize yet another planet is a minimum of a hundred years away. maybe greater, so as that concept is out of the question.

Answer 5

Wow. I immediately started to wonder what the postal codes would be, what sort of long-distance phone bill I would get, and how long it will take the water to boil to cook my pasta.

And I studied Geography and Geology in college. What happened to me?

Answer 6

Yo, Dude, you really should read the excellent book "Entering Space" by Dr. Robert Zubrin, PhD. It discusses all of these issues and much more, and it is available on amazon.com and many local bookstores.