Eating Titan's oceans

Imagine a Mark Wattney-like scenario, only on Titan and involving a decent-sized base being isolated instead of a single person. There is not, and never has been, the possibility of growing potatoes. There are "enough" protein packs and vitamin pills for the scenario, but only just enough, and no other existing calorie sources.

What is the minimum tech would someone need to chemically convert the hydrocarbons in the Titanic oceans into sugars, edible oils, possibly even alcohol? What is a plausible time to build a machine to convert those hydrocarbons into edible calories?

If this takes magic space replicators I'll have to think of something else "” I would like something that could, in principle, be done in with early spacelab or space-shuttle era knowledge, if possible.

posted almost 5 years ago

BenRW‭

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