Why not use the In Situ ressources of energy of Titan?

An article in the german newspaper "Die Welt Online" is reporting today that scientists are thinking (dreaming) seriously of sending a rover to titan now.

I found another article at space.com saying that ESA will use RTGs in future at spacecrafts going that far to the outer regions of the solar system.

But we know now that there seem to be rivers of fluid methane at Titan and that there are winds at that moon. So why not thinking about small water power generators and make the rover follow a river - for a short time at least? It could charge a conventional accumulator this way, it could save the capacity of the RTG for work at places where it cannot use water energy and it could get autonomy that is not available on Mars.

This valid by a similar way for wind as energy source.



Dipl.-Volkswirt (bdvb) Augustin (Political Economist)

I am exten ding this thread a bit to additional energy needs.

There was an article this year saying that the surface of Titan seems to float on a subsurface ocean. There seems to be friction.

What about ways to use this friction?



Dipl.-Volkswirt (bdvb) Augustin (Political Economist)

Geothermal energy? It could work for a colony, but a rover wouldn't be able to use it, as it wouldn't be in one place drilling a hole. Perhaps a Europan subsurface swimmer craft could.

RTGs can't be switched of. They'd still be generating power. Perhaps it could have batteries augmented?

Yeah I think if a rover has an RTG, that RTG will cover its energy needs for its expected life span. ISRU on titan could be interesting for spacecraft refueling and colonies of course, there seems to be plenty of hydrogen, carbon, oxygen and nitrogen.