A question on methane lakes (titan)

[tpeezy]

First and foremost let me appologize this may be a stupid question but I was watching a show about Titan and I was totally blown away by the lakes of methane I believe on the planet. It looked so much like earth but was different. My question is, what if we had some kind of rover that we sent out and had it land in a methane lake, now lets assume we built it to withstand the cold of the Titan surface. I know that water is very harmful to electronics im not exactly sure why but all I know is if u drop a cell phone in the toilet it quits working lol. Would liquid methane act in the same way? Would anything "wet" damage electronics? Im not talking about the cold temps, just it being "wet" from the methane lakes if thats even possible. Or would the Rover just sink and sit there in the lake? I was just wondering since methane is a gas, and electronics seem to work fine in gas well Ive only seen small concentrations but you get the point. Anyways any info would be helpful thanks.

 

[kg]

Hello,
I believe the Huygens probe which landed on Titan was built to operate in liquid hydrocarbons in case it landed in one of those methane lakes.
I'm not sure exactly why water ruins cell phones but I think just the cold temperature of one of those methane lakes would tend to kill the battery!

 

[origin]

First and foremost let me appologize this may be a stupid question but I was watching a show about Titan and I was totally blown away by the lakes of methane I believe on the planet. It looked so much like earth but was different. My question is, what if we had some kind of rover that we sent out and had it land in a methane lake, now lets assume we built it to withstand the cold of the Titan surface. I know that water is very harmful to electronics im not exactly sure why but all I know is if u drop a cell phone in the toilet it quits working lol. Would liquid methane act in the same way? Would anything "wet" damage electronics? Im not talking about the cold temps, just it being "wet" from the methane lakes if thats even possible. Or would the Rover just sink and sit there in the lake? I was just wondering since methane is a gas, and electronics seem to work fine in gas well Ive only seen small concentrations but you get the point. Anyways any info would be helpful thanks.

Interesting question. I would assume that liquid methane would not hurt the electronics (the temperature wouldn't be all that good though). The reason that water kills your cell phone is because water tends to have a lot of ions in it and therefore it is very conductive and 'shorts' out the electronics. Water molecues have a slightly positive end and a slightly negative end due to the angle that the hydrogen atoms attach to the oxygen atom. This polarity makes water an excellent solvent for ionic materials (like salt). Methane and hydrocarbons in general on the other hand do not dissolve ionic materials and so are not very conductive.

As a side note, deionized water is not conductive and is actually a pretty good insulator.

 

[tpeezy]

wow, so basically it would just sink to the bottom of the lake, and alot faster because the lake would be less dense than water correct?? I heard that the "lake would be as clear as glass because it isnt a solvent so things like rock, and minerals wont be dissolved in it as it would be in water. That would be really cool if they could have landed inside of a methane lake. I didnt think the temp would be that big of a factor though because wouldnt the water be roughly the same temp as the outside surface? If the future probes could survive days on the regular surface wouldnt they be able to survive the temps in the methane lakes for daysA??

 

[3488]

Temperature per se is not a huge issue as the correctly say, however a liquid transmits heat far more effectively than the atmosphere above, so although the lake would be the same temperature as the surrounding area, it will chill a craft far faster.

I can assure you of this, a lake landing will definitely be on the card for a future landing mission to Titan, maybe not the next one, but it will be done for sure.

Huygens indeed was designed for a hydrocarbon lake / sea landing, it was not to be, but was still an interesting site none the less, a hydrocarbon riverbed in Shangri-La on Titan.

Andrew Brown.

 

[kk434]

When we finally get a color picture of a Titan lake we will be blown away by it's alien beauty. Unfortunately Hyugens probe landed in a dry place and we missed the opportunity, it's surface image is quite dissapointing.