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Water, oxygen and electrolysis
Kraken Shore mines Titan's ice and splits it into the oxygen people breathe and the hydrogen the fusion transports throw out of their nozzles.
See it in the tour: chapter how it survives, shot 7.2.
Ice is the rock
Titan's surface is at 93.65 K, about minus 180 °C. At that temperature water ice does the job of rock, and the crust is water ice under a coat of organic sand and liquid physics. Titan's air is about 95% nitrogen and 5% methane, and it cannot be breathed physics. The oxygen has to come from the ice.
Robotic surveyors mapped the subsurface ice on the north shore of Kraken Mare in 2058. The mining plant landed with the reactors in 2061 fiction.
From ice to gas
The plant mines ice, melts it with reactor heat and splits it by electrolysis design:
2 H₂O → 2 H₂ + O₂ physics
Electric current pulls water apart into hydrogen and oxygen. Oxygen is eight parts in every nine of water by mass physics. The current comes from the two reactors. See Reactors and heat on Titan.
Oxygen, twice
Oxygen goes two places design.
- Air. It keeps the indoor air breathable at 1 bar.
- Rocket oxidiser. The ascent vehicle burns 3.6 kg of oxygen for every kilogram of methane, so one launch takes 50.3 t of oxygen against 14 t of methane design. See Methalox from Titan.
The processing hall stands well apart from the homes. Hydrocarbons and oxygen-rich indoor air must never meet design.
Hydrogen, in bulk
Hydrogen goes to industry and to the fusion transports as reaction mass design. A Long Passage tank load is 3,934.7 t of hydrogen, 58,354 m³ in six tanks design. See Fusion propulsion and helium-3.
The chemistry sets the scale. Hydrogen is one part in nine of water by mass physics. A full load of 3,934.7 t takes about 35,400 t of water, and electrolysis leaves about 31,500 t of oxygen behind physics. That is the oxygen for more than 600 ascent-vehicle launches design. Making the hydrogen makes eight times as much oxygen by mass. Oxygen is the bulk product.
The economy does not export water to Earth fiction. Propellant goes to the ships that serve Saturn.
The open question
Titan's crust is water ice. What nobody yet knows is how much of it is easy to mine under Kraken Shore challenge. The fusion transports' hydrogen rests on that number.
Key numbers
| Quantity | Value | Basis |
|---|---|---|
| Surface temperature | 93.65 K (about −180 °C) | physics |
| Titan air | about 95% nitrogen, 5% methane | physics |
| Electrolysis | 2 H₂O → 2 H₂ + O₂ | physics |
| Oxygen / hydrogen share of water by mass | 8/9 / 1/9 | physics |
| Oxygen per ascent launch | 50.3 t | design |
| Oxidiser to fuel ratio | 3.6 | physics |
| Hydrogen per Long Passage load | 3,934.7 t | design |
| Water for one load / oxygen left over | about 35,400 t / about 31,500 t | physics |
| Ice plant landed | 2061 | fiction |