Bringing it to market presents challenges:
http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2008/02/080220200045.htm

ALRIGHT! Finally some strong motivation to develop safe space travel. I've been thinking for years we really need to stop wasting our energies on fighting amongst the whole human race and turn all our military contractors to space exploration development.

Can you imagine what sort of space shuttle a Lockhead-Martin or Boeing could produce if given a check for what they spend on military endeavors now?

Hmm, I wonder what that will do for pollution and the greenhouse effect if we start using not just sequestered carbon, but extra-planetary carbon on Earth. Lets hope that never comes to pass. At most, it may be a good fuel stop for spacecraft.

It'll never happen. With the amount of energy needed to get to Titan, not to mention the infrastructure needed to be set up on the surface, the power required to launch the hydrocarbons to orbit, the transportation back to Earth, then the reentry.. You can't even use that 'fuel' to launch from Titan and get back to Earth without first transporting vast amounts of oxygen down to Titan's surface.

Out of curiosity, wouldn't this tend to lend credibility to the abiotic oil theory? Unless we're going to start claiming there was once life on that moon...

quote:

Out of curiosity, wouldn't this tend to lend credibility to the abiotic oil theory? Unless we're going to start claiming there was once life on that moon...

Yes, but science has appeared to become so politically dirty lately that it's unlikely that the main body of scientists will even admit that this find on Titan is any sort of evidence...They'd rather look for biotic evidence on Titan, rather than view hydrocarbons as inorganic in origin.

With Titan's conditions abiotic oil theory is credible, with Earth's conditions biotic oil theory is more credible. It's not an either/or competition between conflicting beliefs; each theory requires a specific set of different conditions. The existence of one origin does not rule out another origin under different conditions.

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Originally posted by john galt:
With Titan's conditions abiotic oil theory is credible, with Earth's conditions biotic oil theory is more credible. It's not an either/or competition between conflicting beliefs; each theory requires a specific set of different conditions. The existence of one origin does not rule out another origin under different conditions.

True enough, true enough.

I suspect that if we could duplicate the conditions on Titan, then hydrocarbons could be synthesized. However unless the process could be powered by solar or nuclear fission, it would be little more than depleting one energy resource to synthesize another.

Liquid motor fuel can be extracted from coal, oil shale, tar sands, and heavy oil deposits. There are enough of these deposits in N.America to meet all of N.America's motor fuel needs for at least this century.

Right now it's 'cheaper' to spend the money on military ventures to secure more 'cheap' terrorist oil, than to meet our energy needs domestically.

quote:

The existence of one origin does not rule out another origin under different conditions.

My point is that we use the term "origin" as though we had guys in white lab coats with test equipment documenting the event as it occurred. We didn't. What we do have is guys in white lab coats trying to support their bosses pre-concieved theory and secure further "reseach" funding. Of course, they will conveniently ignore any data that competes with the research funders pet theory...

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