expanded manned space program

[Curtis Burisch]

>IANAC, but I don't think that "organic" necessarily means "from life",
>but means chemicals based on Carbon.

Organic usually means related to life. The word Organic is also used to
describe a branch of chemistry which deals with carbon-related compounds.
(Coal is made of complex organics, Diamond is a crystal of a single element,
and is not a compound at all.)

Exploiting the hydrocarbons on Titan is about as economically feasible as
walking to Nigeria every time you want a candy bar. It isn't. There is no
oxygen about, so you you'd need to bring it with you -- or else haul these
hydrocarbons all the way back to earth. Not to mention the environmental
catastrophes that would be caused if we tried to burn this stuff in our
atmosphere. Burning our own oil has been proven to be quite bad enough,
without importing thousands of times more from distant planets.

The origin of these organic compounds is not fully understood. There are
some chemical reactions that occur naturally in the presence of ultraviolet
radiation and/or other wavelengths, that turn simple organic molecules into
more complex ones. It could be that something like this is happening. Or it
could be that there is indeed some kind of life on the surface there.

I don't know what IANAC means either, but I got a chuckle from "I Am Not A
Crook!"

Curtis.