An event was held in the United States about Titan—about the possibility that it could be humanity’s next destination. We’ve already reached the Moon, and we’re supposed to return there this century. As you know, there’s a competition between China and the United States, but it’s certain that someone will get there. In principle, they’re going to get there; the question in this race is who will arrive first. Will it be China first, or will it be the United States and its allies in the Artemis program?
That’s the question, but everyone is going to get there, and everyone is going to establish a presence at two bases—the Chinese one and the Artemis one—to explore and lay the groundwork for what will become the Moon’s economy. A mission to Mars is also planned. The dates are more uncertain, of course, but in principle, it would be within the next decade. Once the machinery for reaching the Moon has been set in motion, the logical next target is Mars—but after that, what would be the next interesting target in the solar system?
On June 11 and 12, the “Humans on Titan” summit was held, where various aspects of a future human mission to Saturn’s giant moon were discussed. It won’t happen immediately, but these kinds of meetings will lay the groundwork for what could be humanity’s next goal after Mars: Titan. I’ll explain why this goal is so interesting and why it’s the logical destination after we’ve set foot on Mars.
These researchers say—and I agree with them, with that team—that Titan would be the best destination after Mars. Why not Venus? Venus is the planet closest to Earth. The minimum distance between Earth and Venus is 38,0000 kilometers when they’re closest—much less than Mars, which is at least 55 million km away, and under certain conditions can be as far as 54,600,000 km away. That makes me chuckle a bit when people talk about Mars’ gravitational influence, but Venus is interesting—it’s practically Earth’s twin brother or sister. In terms of design, characteristics, size, and composition, they were born practically identical.
The only difference is that Earth was hit by another planet the size of Mars, so it has a slightly greater mass than Venus and a huge moon—in fact, Earth’s moon is one of the largest in the solar system. However, landing on Venus is practically impossible with current technology, and we may not have the technology to land humans on Venus until the next century. The temperature is hellish—470 degrees Celsius on a mild day—enough to melt lead or zinc. The atmospheric pressure is equivalent to being 900 or 1,000 meters underwater on Mars—but of course, with the heat, plus an atmosphere of CO₂, clouds of sulfuric acid, and, okay, yes, the gravity is similar to Earth’s—it’s 10% less.
The latter might sound appealing because it’s finally a planet, a place, or a world where gravity is almost like Earth’s—where we wouldn’t feel a change in our weight, and our metabolism and biology would function normally without the problems caused by gravity, as on the Moon, for example—but of course, even if it’s similar to Earth’s, it also complicates everything, because while sending a robot to Venus is a suicide mission—since the robot stays there, working until it burns up—sending a human means you have to get them off Venus.
That’s why Venus, unfortunately, isn’t a destination for humans yet—it’s a destination for robots. On Titan, there are rivers, lakes, deserts, winds, storms, and all kinds of dynamic processes; there’s an abundance of organic matter with an incredibly diverse range of chemical compositions. Remember that one of the latest news stories is the discovery that on Titan and Pluto there is some kind of substance or molecule on the surface, in the atmosphere, that absorbs a certain type of light—that “eats” a certain type of light—and uses it to trigger some kind of chemical reaction we don’t yet understand. It’s a fantastic destination, far more interesting. Plus, if you land on Titan, you don’t need a pressurized suit, and the atmosphere is one and a half times that of Earth’s.
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