New Horizons image of Pluto and Kuiper belt objects

[Raiden]

Originally Posted by Raptor

Well don't shoot the messenger, I'm only restating what I've read. Straight up burning it as fuel isn't the only way of using that resource. Some more broader visions include using it as fertilizer to grow food in large space stations, or perhaps even Mars or Titan settlements. The abundance of hydrocarbons and other potential organic molecules open up a lot of possibilities outside of simple chemical propulsion.

In any case, chemical propulsion is not the way to go for interstellar travel. Even light speed travel probably isn't sufficient.

Sorry, it just frustrates me that anyone has any interest in Titan.

It's so cold that no life will ever appear there unless something crazy happens that increases the temperature, it is almost certainly bombarded by radiation from Saturn's magnetosphere, and it would be difficult to build any kind of permanent settlement there that wouldn't turn into a frozen crypt for those living in it.

[Ja'k Dawsiin]

i don't care what science and academia say...Pluto will always be a planet to me!

[Disco Scratch]

These are awesome! I wish we would invest more in a Apollo like space program.

[Raptor]

Originally Posted by Raiden

Sorry, it just frustrates me that anyone has any interest in Titan.

It's so cold that no life will ever appear there unless something crazy happens that increases the temperature, it is almost certainly bombarded by radiation from Saturn's magnetosphere, and it would be difficult to build any kind of permanent settlement there that wouldn't turn into a frozen crypt for those living in it.

Future discoveries and developments may be unconventional. We're always exploring possibilities, and Titan might eventually be important for unforeseen reasons now, so I don't see why it should be dismissed altogether.

Back to Pluto, here's a preliminary map with informal names.

[Raptor]

http://www.nasa.gov/feature/new-plut...-s-complicated

[Raptor]

Absolutely incredible. Have to see in full resolution.

http://www.nasa.gov/feature/pluto-wo...cklit-panorama

[Na'vi a Kepekmì]

Source: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/scie...-revealed.html

[specificracing]

Cool. Would it be visible? I checked out the transit of Mercury last time but couldn't see it.