Dick Morris writes:

Henry Spencer wrote:

In article ,
Dick Morris wrote:
The Mars Direct scenario uses only the Mars atmosphere for propellant
production, so it wouldn't be terribly difficult to test the prototype
hardware in a vacuum chamber with a simulated Mars atmosphere.

The biggest question is whether it will work with Mars dust in the air
it's pulling in. That's a little more difficult to simulate, since we
don't *know* the exact composition and characteristics of the dust.

Zubrin addressed the dust issue in TCFM, as I recall. His approach was
to liquify the CO2 under pressure and then purify it by distillation, so
that any dust in the air would remain in the solution.

But there's still that pesky "liquify the CO2 under pressure" bit, which
requires refrigerators and compressors, with the moving parts and the
sliding seals, *before* you get rid of the dust. That machinery can
still get torn up if we underestimate the dust problem.


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