After Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, the whole world started to talk about natural gas prices. Saturn’s moon Titan, on the other hand, is thought to have a sufficient supply of natural gas for years. Of course, it is not easy to go out.
The war in Ukraine led to a reshaping of the world energy market. Due to the oil embargoes applied to Russia and Russia’s cutting off natural gas to some countries, the supply decreased, while the demand increased. On top of that, the barrel of brent oil exceeded 100 dollars.
According to the news of Eren Sakarya from Haber Global, the war and the increase in prices are not the only problems of energy resources in the world. The real problem is that these resources are not unlimited. The depletion of energy resources has pushed the countries of the world to seek energy in space. While NASA was making preparations to establish colonies on the Moon and Mars together with the Space X company, on the other hand, it set its sights on Titan, the largest moon of Saturn.
With a radius of 2575 km, Titan is almost 50 percent wider than the Moon. The satellite has a very thick atmosphere. The Cassini spacecraft, sent to Saturn, approached Titan in 2006 and sent the Huygens probe to Titan. When Huygens landed on the satellite, NASA scientists made a historical discovery. Titan’s surface was covered with lakes and seas (The largest sea, Kraken Mare, is larger than the Black Sea.) Moreover, weather events such as storms and rains were also taking place. It turned out to be the second celestial body after Earth in the solar system with a liquid cycle (hydrocarbon) on its surface.
NASA scientists examining the lakes discovered that they were not water but hydrocarbons made up of dissolved nitrogen, ethane, and methane. In short, there are natural gas seas on the surface of Titan and natural gas rains fall on the celestial body. According to the calculations made; The amount of hydrocarbons in these seas was 100 times more than all the oil and natural gas reserves in the world.
Coal and helium
Natural gas is not the only energy source in the celestial body. Near the equator, they came across sand dunes made up of hydrocarbon sediments from the storm. According to scientists, these dunes contained enormous coal deposits.
Moreover, there are plenty of helium-3 mines on the planet. Today, it is known that many countries such as the USA, England, Russia and China are investing in fusion power plants that will use helium-3, but these power plants are still under construction or testing.
Since it will create fusion reactions, this technology can produce almost 10 times the heat of the Sun with a small amount of fuel and provide enough clean energy for years. In addition, while it is known that there is plenty of Helium 3 on the Moon, it is known that the European Space Agency (ESA), China and Russia are interested in this mineral on the Moon.
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