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: 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