Stories
Slash Boxes
Comments

SoylentNews is people

posted by martyb on Friday October 27 2017, @01:01PM   Printer-friendly
from the and-make-water-from-hydrazine dept.

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)


Original Submission

 
This discussion has been archived. No new comments can be posted.
Display Options Threshold/Breakthrough Mark All as Read Mark All as Unread
The Fine Print: The following comments are owned by whoever posted them. We are not responsible for them in any way.
  • (Score: 2) by DeathMonkey on Friday October 27 2017, @05:44PM (2 children)

    by DeathMonkey (1380) on Friday October 27 2017, @05:44PM (#588326) Journal

    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...

    Starting Score:    1  point
    Karma-Bonus Modifier   +1  

    Total Score:   2  
  • (Score: 4, Interesting) by ledow on Friday October 27 2017, @07:13PM (1 child)

    by ledow (5567) on Friday October 27 2017, @07:13PM (#588370) Homepage

    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

      by khallow (3766) Subscriber Badge on Sunday October 29 2017, @05:24AM (#588937) Journal
      Sounds better than dying of lack of oxygen. Hazards are relative.