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Mars colonists could create a carbon dioxide plasma in order to supply oxygen to their settlement(s):
The atmosphere on Mars is 96 per cent carbon dioxide, says Vasco Guerra at the University of Lisbon in Portugal. This can be split to extract breathable oxygen and carbon monoxide, a fuel that could give us a "gas station on the Red Planet", he says. He and his team calculate that creating a carbon dioxide plasma — a mush of ions made by passing an electric current through a gas — could split carbon dioxide from oxygen more easily on Mars than on Earth.
The lower atmospheric pressure on Mars would allow us to create plasmas without the vacuum pumps or compressors necessary on Earth. Also, the temperature of around -60°C is just right to let the plasma more easily break one of the chemical bonds that keeps carbon and oxygen tightly bound, while preventing the carbon dioxide from re-forming.
For now, this is largely theoretical, but they say such a system needing only 150 to 200 Watts for 4 hours each 25-hour Mars day could produce 8 to 16 kilograms of oxygen. "The International Space Station currently consumes oxygen in the range of 2 to 5 kilograms per day, so this would be enough to support a small settlement," says Guerra.
The case for in situ resource utilisation for oxygen production on Mars by nonequilibrium plasmas (open, DOI: 10.1088/1361-6595) (DX)
(Score: 3, Interesting) by ledow on Friday October 27 2017, @01:11PM (11 children)
Explosive oxidation gas out of this tube.
Invisible, odourless asphyxiative killer out of the other.
What could go wrong?
That said, I imagine their energy numbers are largely nonsense. You'd need more energy than that to separate 16kg of oxygen from carbon dioxide. They're suggesting, what... less than a KWh? 10p of electricity? If we could make even 8kg of oxygen for that, I think pure oxygen would be much cheaper to buy bottled than it currently is. Especially if all you need do is compress / heat carbon dioxide to get it and the waste product can be made inert quite easily.
I can't do the maths any more but maybe someone else can. This seems a good reference:
http://pubs.acs.org/doi/pdf/10.1021/acs.jpcc.5b07026 [acs.org]
(Score: 2) by requerdanos on Friday October 27 2017, @01:52PM
I know, brilliant, right? This is really the most practical "How To Get Oxygen To Breathe Or Whatever On Mars" that I have ever seen.
But you know, political squabbles over whether Earth or the Martian colonists own the oxygen and/or energy from the reactions, petty bickering among staff isolated and far from home reducing effectiveness and efficiency, even distraction on Mars stemming from the lack of available romantic partners compared to "back home"; so, there are lots of things that could go wrong, and things could blow up. Sigh. We are only human.
(Score: 2, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Friday October 27 2017, @02:11PM (5 children)
Or bring plants to convert CO2 into oxygen, which can also provide food, store energy and has a positive effect on the psyche of the people in the station. No need to handle toxins and dangerous situations.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday October 27 2017, @02:38PM (2 children)
I don't think "toxin" covers it for me when I think about CO.
I think of "toxin" as something where I shouldn't spill it or it will burn my skin.
if a CO container is broken, it means you lose many red-blood cells with every breath (and I'm not sure how many breaths you can take untill you lose all of them). and you need time to make others.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday October 27 2017, @03:01PM (1 child)
Right, and this is where we get to the basics of toxicology. Doses is important in toxicity of a substance (solid, liquid or gas). 5 beers might give you a head ache the day after, someone shoving 1 litre of 70% ethanol through your throat could very well kill you.
(Score: 2) by c0lo on Friday October 27 2017, @03:28PM
Using a shovel on my throat will likely kill me no matter what it's loaded with.
Unless, of course, they'll be using only a small dose of that shovel.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aoFiw2jMy-0 https://soylentnews.org/~MichaelDavidCrawford
(Score: 2) by frojack on Friday October 27 2017, @08:55PM
Bring plants? None of ours are designed to survive -60c.
Maybe we better cultivate martian plants.
Oh wait...
No, you are mistaken. I've always had this sig.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday October 27 2017, @10:14PM
Plants do NOT convert CO2 to oxygen. They combine CO2 with water to make starches, with a release of oxygen from the water ... as confirmed by radioactive isotope tracing of the reaction.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday October 27 2017, @02:49PM
Given that there is a plasma involved, I wonder how much ozone (O3) this process is going to make as a by-product?
I suppose if there was a way to separate O2 out from O3, there is the (minuscule) beginnings of making an ozone layer to protect the Martian surface from UV.
(Score: 2) by DeathMonkey on Friday October 27 2017, @05:44PM (2 children)
Explosive oxidation gas out of this tube. Invisible, odourless asphyxiative killer out of the other.
The same is true of my natural gas stove and yet we survive.
I think they can afford a couple CO sensors...
(Score: 4, Interesting) by ledow on Friday October 27 2017, @07:13PM (1 child)
You aren't running you're natural gas stove in an airtight enclosed space with no method of escape, and no medical assistance for several million miles, are you?
Additionally, your gas line will have odour added for safety.
Also, it's required to vent to the outside air and tampering with the system is illegal (at least in my country) because of how dangerous it is.
Using that as the only source of your life-giving oxygen sounds like it might be a really bad idea in comparison.
(Score: 1) by khallow on Sunday October 29 2017, @05:24AM