The Captain tells the Europan Station Master, Liom Macgillicuddy, about the lifeboat the JJ picked up in the asteroid belt. The Captain is informed that the automated signals are still being received from the monitoring stations at Neptune and Uranus, but that all human voice transmission stopped three years earlier. The Captain receives instructions from Earth to go inspect the stations. The Europans provision the JJ for the voyage. They have learned to live together despite the harsh conditions and short supplies.
Titan has an ethane ocean with a single prominent continent.
It is the only solar system moon with a significant atmosphere. That atmosphere is like very thick smog composed of molecular nitrogen. Surface pressure is twice that of Earth. Solar winds produce spectacular lighting like streaks through the upper atmosphere, dimly visible at the surface. Although the surface is ice, it is pelted with a constant rain of ethane.