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CO2 as a universal construction material



 
 
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  #1  
Old August 7th 13, 06:29 AM posted to sci.space.policy
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Default CO2 as a universal construction material

Robert Zubrin in his book "Case for Mars" details how a small amount of hydrogen can be used with a small local power supply to convert the CO2 in Mars' atmosphere to Methane and Oxygen propellant to return payloads back to Earth with a minimum of payload dispatched to the red planet.

CO2 and water are both relatively abundant on Mars. So, combined with sunlight, CO2 and water can be used to make acetylene molecules, which can be polymerized into a broad range of plastic polymers. These polymers can be used as construction material, modified to act as insulators, conductors and semiconductors, and be used generally to build anything.

http://www.nanoscribe.de/de/produkte...rofessional-gt

http://www.upi.com/Science_News/2009...0981250619154/

OVERALL
3.143 kg of CO2 and 1.286 liters of water can make 1.000 kg of acetelyne and 3.429 kg of oxygen in the following steps using 93.6 megajoules of sunlight.
CO2 + H2O -- CH2 + 1.5 O2

ADD FRESH WATER TO PROCESS WATER
1.286 liters of water is added to 2.571 liters of water from the process to create 3.857 liters of water
H2O+2H2O -- 3H2O

BREAK WATER DOWN TO HYDROGEN AND OXYGEN
That 3.857 liters of water is broken down to 0.429 kg of hydrogen and 3.429 kg of oxygen using using 93.6 megajoules of sunlight.
3H2O + energy -- 3 H2 + 1.5 O2

ADD FRESH HYDROGEN TO PROCESS HYDROGEN
0.143 kg of process hydrogen is added to 0.429 kg of fresh hydrogen to create 0.571 kg of hydrogen.
3 H2 + H2 -- 4H2

COMBINE CO2 AND HYDROGEN
Take 3.143 kg of CO2 and combine it with 0.571 kg of hydrogen to produce 1.143 kg of methane along with 2.571 liters of process water.
CO2 + 4 H2 -- CH4 + 2H2O

CONVERT METHANE TO ACETYLENE
Take 1.143 kg of methane and break it down to 1.000 kg of acetate and 0.143 kg of process hydrogen.
CH4 -- CH2 + H2

ENERGY

Mars' semimajor axis is 1.52366231 AU. This means that sunlight contains only 589.2 Watts/m2. On Mars the atmosphere is rather clear most days. This means that a parabolic mirror on a 2-axis gimbal can intercept 3.54 kWh per day per square meter. A total of 12.7 MJ per square meter. Thus 7.4 square meters of collector can produce 1 kg of acetate per day along with 3.43 kg of oxygen per day consuming 3.14 kg of CO2 along with 1.29 liters of water each day. A dish 3.06 m in diameter is sufficient to power this setup and produce at this rate.

As mentioned in other posts a total of 180 square meters of enclosed surface is sufficient to support one individual. 90 kg of tough film 200 microns thick is sufficient to create a bag tensioned by a 10 kg plastic hoop 15.2 meters in diameter. Stakes hold the hoop to the ground and the bag is attached to the ring atop a smoothed area and inflated with 20,000 Pa (3 psi) oxygen (with .006 psi CO2 for plant growth)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uPhtoJ_4EXc

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_nl-ALDr374

With 10 kg per day - a person can double their area every two weeks (including fabrics, clothing, furnishings, tools, etc.)

  #2  
Old August 7th 13, 11:03 AM posted to sci.space.policy
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Posts: 481
Default CO2 as a universal construction material

On Wednesday, August 7, 2013 1:29:11 AM UTC-4, wrote:
Robert Zubrin in his book "Case for Mars" details how a small amount of hydrogen can be used with a small local power supply to convert the CO2 in Mars' atmosphere to Methane and Oxygen propellant to return payloads back to Earth with a minimum of payload dispatched to the red planet.



CO2 and water are both relatively abundant on Mars. So, combined with sunlight, CO2 and water can be used to make acetylene molecules, which can be polymerized into a broad range of plastic polymers. These polymers can be used as construction material, modified to act as insulators, conductors and semiconductors, and be used generally to build anything.



http://www.nanoscribe.de/de/produkte...rofessional-gt



http://www.upi.com/Science_News/2009...0981250619154/



OVERALL

3.143 kg of CO2 and 1.286 liters of water can make 1.000 kg of acetelyne and 3.429 kg of oxygen in the following steps using 93.6 megajoules of sunlight.

CO2 + H2O -- CH2 + 1.5 O2



ADD FRESH WATER TO PROCESS WATER

1.286 liters of water is added to 2.571 liters of water from the process to create 3.857 liters of water

H2O+2H2O -- 3H2O



BREAK WATER DOWN TO HYDROGEN AND OXYGEN

That 3.857 liters of water is broken down to 0.429 kg of hydrogen and 3.429 kg of oxygen using using 93.6 megajoules of sunlight.

3H2O + energy -- 3 H2 + 1.5 O2



ADD FRESH HYDROGEN TO PROCESS HYDROGEN

0.143 kg of process hydrogen is added to 0.429 kg of fresh hydrogen to create 0.571 kg of hydrogen.

3 H2 + H2 -- 4H2



COMBINE CO2 AND HYDROGEN

Take 3.143 kg of CO2 and combine it with 0.571 kg of hydrogen to produce 1.143 kg of methane along with 2.571 liters of process water.

CO2 + 4 H2 -- CH4 + 2H2O



CONVERT METHANE TO ACETYLENE

Take 1.143 kg of methane and break it down to 1.000 kg of acetate and 0.143 kg of process hydrogen.

CH4 -- CH2 + H2



ENERGY



Mars' semimajor axis is 1.52366231 AU. This means that sunlight contains only 589.2 Watts/m2. On Mars the atmosphere is rather clear most days. This means that a parabolic mirror on a 2-axis gimbal can intercept 3.54 kWh per day per square meter. A total of 12.7 MJ per square meter. Thus 7.4 square meters of collector can produce 1 kg of acetate per day along with 3..43 kg of oxygen per day consuming 3.14 kg of CO2 along with 1.29 liters of water each day. A dish 3.06 m in diameter is sufficient to power this setup and produce at this rate.



As mentioned in other posts a total of 180 square meters of enclosed surface is sufficient to support one individual. 90 kg of tough film 200 microns thick is sufficient to create a bag tensioned by a 10 kg plastic hoop 15..2 meters in diameter. Stakes hold the hoop to the ground and the bag is attached to the ring atop a smoothed area and inflated with 20,000 Pa (3 psi) oxygen (with .006 psi CO2 for plant growth)



http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uPhtoJ_4EXc



http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_nl-ALDr374



With 10 kg per day - a person can double their area every two weeks (including fabrics, clothing, furnishings, tools, etc.)


In the polymer semiconductors band gap energy and photodiode geometry are built into a birefringent optical bandpass system to efficiently convert 85% of the incident sunlight using techniques described in my patent on the subject;

http://www.scribd.com/doc/21832226/M...ectral-Cooling

The DC electricity is optimally loaded across an electrolytic cell where water is broken down into hydrogen and oxygen with 76.5% efficiency - an overall efficiency of 65.0%

Hydrogen is stored in a large balloon anchored to the ground and feeds a polymer fuel cell array that is 85% efficient. This feeds polymer LEDs that are 85% efficient. An overall efficiency of 47% from sunlight back to LED light.

The advantage of this is that the LED light is chosen specifically to drive photsynthesis efficiently.

http://hyperphysics.phy-astr.gsu.edu...gy/ligabs.html

So, despite the overall loss of efficiency by this process the plant response rises from 2% to 8% so 4x the collector area may be planted and illuminated in this way.

The greenhouse is not transparent! It is a plastic multi-junction photocell layered with a fuel cell storing hydrogen and oxygen in a bubble wrap type arrangement which supports an inner lining of LED grow lights which take 1/4 of the energy absorbed in this way.

The plant are illuminated optimally which takes half the energy over a 24 hour period leaving the other half.

180 square meters per person includes 40 square meters for habitat area and 140 square meters for food production.

589.2 W/m2 x 180 m2 x 47% = 49,846 Watts peak.

With cosine losses and night this averages 17,623 Watts 24/7. 423 kWh/day.

140,000 Watts x sqrt(2)/2 x 12 hrs /4
= 297 kWh/day

So, 70.2% of the energy is used to operate the lights in the green house on Mars. This leaves 126 kWh/0.85 = 148 kWh -- 6.176 kW base load.


  #3  
Old August 7th 13, 11:06 AM posted to sci.space.policy
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Posts: 481
Default CO2 as a universal construction material

On Wednesday, August 7, 2013 6:03:01 AM UTC-4, wrote:
On Wednesday, August 7, 2013 1:29:11 AM UTC-4, wrote:

Robert Zubrin in his book "Case for Mars" details how a small amount of hydrogen can be used with a small local power supply to convert the CO2 in Mars' atmosphere to Methane and Oxygen propellant to return payloads back to Earth with a minimum of payload dispatched to the red planet.








CO2 and water are both relatively abundant on Mars. So, combined with sunlight, CO2 and water can be used to make acetylene molecules, which can be polymerized into a broad range of plastic polymers. These polymers can be used as construction material, modified to act as insulators, conductors and semiconductors, and be used generally to build anything.








http://www.nanoscribe.de/de/produkte...rofessional-gt








http://www.upi.com/Science_News/2009...0981250619154/








OVERALL




3.143 kg of CO2 and 1.286 liters of water can make 1.000 kg of acetelyne and 3.429 kg of oxygen in the following steps using 93.6 megajoules of sunlight.




CO2 + H2O -- CH2 + 1.5 O2








ADD FRESH WATER TO PROCESS WATER




1.286 liters of water is added to 2.571 liters of water from the process to create 3.857 liters of water




H2O+2H2O -- 3H2O








BREAK WATER DOWN TO HYDROGEN AND OXYGEN




That 3.857 liters of water is broken down to 0.429 kg of hydrogen and 3..429 kg of oxygen using using 93.6 megajoules of sunlight.




3H2O + energy -- 3 H2 + 1.5 O2








ADD FRESH HYDROGEN TO PROCESS HYDROGEN




0.143 kg of process hydrogen is added to 0.429 kg of fresh hydrogen to create 0.571 kg of hydrogen.




3 H2 + H2 -- 4H2








COMBINE CO2 AND HYDROGEN




Take 3.143 kg of CO2 and combine it with 0.571 kg of hydrogen to produce 1.143 kg of methane along with 2.571 liters of process water.




CO2 + 4 H2 -- CH4 + 2H2O








CONVERT METHANE TO ACETYLENE




Take 1.143 kg of methane and break it down to 1.000 kg of acetate and 0..143 kg of process hydrogen.




CH4 -- CH2 + H2








ENERGY








Mars' semimajor axis is 1.52366231 AU. This means that sunlight contains only 589.2 Watts/m2. On Mars the atmosphere is rather clear most days. This means that a parabolic mirror on a 2-axis gimbal can intercept 3.54 kWh per day per square meter. A total of 12.7 MJ per square meter. Thus 7.4 square meters of collector can produce 1 kg of acetate per day along with 3.43 kg of oxygen per day consuming 3.14 kg of CO2 along with 1.29 liters of water each day. A dish 3.06 m in diameter is sufficient to power this setup and produce at this rate.








As mentioned in other posts a total of 180 square meters of enclosed surface is sufficient to support one individual. 90 kg of tough film 200 microns thick is sufficient to create a bag tensioned by a 10 kg plastic hoop 15.2 meters in diameter. Stakes hold the hoop to the ground and the bag is attached to the ring atop a smoothed area and inflated with 20,000 Pa (3 psi) oxygen (with .006 psi CO2 for plant growth)








http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uPhtoJ_4EXc








http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_nl-ALDr374








With 10 kg per day - a person can double their area every two weeks (including fabrics, clothing, furnishings, tools, etc.)




In the polymer semiconductors band gap energy and photodiode geometry are built into a birefringent optical bandpass system to efficiently convert 85% of the incident sunlight using techniques described in my patent on the subject;



http://www.scribd.com/doc/21832226/M...ectral-Cooling



The DC electricity is optimally loaded across an electrolytic cell where water is broken down into hydrogen and oxygen with 76.5% efficiency - an overall efficiency of 65.0%



Hydrogen is stored in a large balloon anchored to the ground and feeds a polymer fuel cell array that is 85% efficient. This feeds polymer LEDs that are 85% efficient. An overall efficiency of 47% from sunlight back to LED light.



The advantage of this is that the LED light is chosen specifically to drive photsynthesis efficiently.



http://hyperphysics.phy-astr.gsu.edu...gy/ligabs.html



So, despite the overall loss of efficiency by this process the plant response rises from 2% to 8% so 4x the collector area may be planted and illuminated in this way.



The greenhouse is not transparent! It is a plastic multi-junction photocell layered with a fuel cell storing hydrogen and oxygen in a bubble wrap type arrangement which supports an inner lining of LED grow lights which take 1/4 of the energy absorbed in this way.



The plant are illuminated optimally which takes half the energy over a 24 hour period leaving the other half.



180 square meters per person includes 40 square meters for habitat area and 140 square meters for food production.



589.2 W/m2 x 180 m2 x 47% = 49,846 Watts peak.



With cosine losses and night this averages 17,623 Watts 24/7. 423 kWh/day.



140,000 Watts x sqrt(2)/2 x 12 hrs /4

= 297 kWh/day



So, 70.2% of the energy is used to operate the lights in the green house on Mars. This leaves 126 kWh/0.85 = 148 kWh -- 6.176 kW base load.


Organic Magnets
http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases...1119071918.htm

Organic magnets mean that 3D printers can make actuators, solenoids, motors and so forth. Super conducting materials are also possible to make with plastics.

  #5  
Old August 8th 13, 06:03 AM posted to sci.space.policy
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Posts: 481
Default CO2 as a universal construction material

On Wednesday, August 7, 2013 9:11:05 PM UTC-4, Martha Adams wrote:
On 8/7/2013 7:01 AM, Fred J. McCall wrote:

wrote:




On Wednesday, August 7, 2013 6:03:01 AM UTC-4, wrote:


On Wednesday, August 7, 2013 1:29:11 AM UTC-4, wrote:






And Mookie mooks on, making a mookery of intelligent thought.




================================================== =



I like his chemistry and math *much* better than the above wordplay,

because getting to Mars is a thing we need to *do* not game around with.



I do have a problem on one point, however. The CO2 atmosphere pressure

on Mars is about what you see in a white neon sign (using CO2) which

says to me, the supply on Mars of CO2 is small. As soon as you begin

doing anything major, the pressure of what remains will fall, which

brings in a host of problems including that of landing on Mars from

interplanetary altitude and speed.



Titeotwawki -- Martha Adams [Wed 2013 Aug 07]


The atmosphere on Mars is 25 trillion tonnes compared to Earth's 5,148 trillion tonnes. At 400 ppm Earth's atmosphere contains 3.1 trillion tonnes of CO2. At 95.32% CO2 Mars atmosphere contains 23.8 trillion tonnes of CO2, 7.67x more than Earth.

The process described above would need to make 7,582 billion tonnes of acetylene and 25,996 billion tons of oxygen using 9,749 billion kiloliters of water and 12 weeks of sunlight falling across Mars. The action of photosynthesis makes an even larger biomass available. As pointed out, the Earth's biosphere covering a much larger planet has 1/8th the CO2 of Mars. So, there is sufficient CO2 to support a rich and diverse biosphere on Mars, when combined with the water.

An area of 200 sq meters landed on Mars that is capable of autonomous self-replication once a week would take 39.4 weeks to cover the entire surface. Another 12 weeks would process ALL of the CO2 to polymer, approximately 1,000 tonnes for every man woman and child on the Earth today.

Doubling periods for plants and animals would proceed more slowly, and take a few years to establish themselves.

Taking the 675 billion tonnes of nitrogen and mixing it with 190 billion tonnes of oxygen along with 8.65 billion kiloliters of water vaporized, and 247 million tonnes of CO2 for plant growth, is sufficient to cover the entire surface of the planet with an atmosphere equivalent to that of Earth's 5 meters deep (held in place by a plastic film). Reducing pressure to that found in Denver Colorado increases depth of the planetary roof to 10 meters.

Above this roof would be a thin atmosphere of pure oxygen largely devoid of CO2.

At the crop densities achieved in aeroponic equipment the area of Mars transformed in this way is sufficient to support a population of 556 billion over 100x the carrying capacity proposed for Earth by Malthus and his followers.

There is still over 10 tonnes of plastic per person!

For 10 people to grow to this figure at 1.14% per year growth rate requires 2,182 years.

For 7 billion people to grow to 556 billion people at 1.14% growth rate requires 386 years.

The table below shows that 5.25 billion kiloliters of water exist in the Martian atmosphere. This is small compared to the 505 trillion kiloliters of water have been identified on the surface of Mars. Enough to cover the entire planet to a depth of 35 meters!

More water is likely to be locked away beneath the surface. Bringing it to the surface provides a superabundance of water for Mars.

Gas Abundance Gigaton

CO2 0.9532 23,830
N2 0.027 675
Argon 0.016 400
O2 0.0013 32.5
CO 0.0008 20
H2O 0.00021 5.25
NOx 0.0001 2.5
Neon 0.00000250 0.0625
HDO 0.00000085 0.02125
Xenon 0.00000008 0.002


Mars surface pressure is 600 Pascals (0.087 psi) vs Earth's 100,000 Pascals (14.69 psi) the energy required to increase the pressure of Mars' atmosphere is a small fraction of the total energy required for the processes described above.

http://archive.org/details/electrodeposition00wattrich

Photovolatic driven electrodeposition of materials leached from surface rocks is another powerful means to obtain materials useful to human needs from the surface of Mars.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Composition_of_Mars

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:PI...s-20121203.jpg

Oxygen, Silica, Silicon, Aluminum, Magnesium, Sodium, Salt, Chlorine, Sulfur, Potassium, Calcium, Titanium, Chromium, Manganese, Iron, Nickel, Zinc, Bromine, all appear universally available and easily extracted using photovolatic energy sources or hydrogen derived from these sources.

Hydrogen and Chlorine makes hydrochloric acid. Hydrogen and Sulfur and Oxygen sulfuric acid. Nitrogen and hydrogen, nitric acid. Carbon and Nitrogen, cyanide. All these are useful in creating leachates and electrolytes on Mars with which to process soil into useful products including refractory metals. Soil processed in fused silica pipes produce not only the items mentioned, but also result in purified clays, sand, that when mixed with a growing organic component permit the synthesis of soils suitable for human society and agriculture.
  #6  
Old August 8th 13, 06:41 AM posted to sci.space.policy
[email protected]
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Posts: 481
Default CO2 as a universal construction material

On Thursday, August 8, 2013 1:03:09 AM UTC-4, wrote:
On Wednesday, August 7, 2013 9:11:05 PM UTC-4, Martha Adams wrote:

On 8/7/2013 7:01 AM, Fred J. McCall wrote:




wrote:








On Wednesday, August 7, 2013 6:03:01 AM UTC-4, wrote:




On Wednesday, August 7, 2013 1:29:11 AM UTC-4, wrote:












And Mookie mooks on, making a mookery of intelligent thought.








================================================== =








I like his chemistry and math *much* better than the above wordplay,




because getting to Mars is a thing we need to *do* not game around with..








I do have a problem on one point, however. The CO2 atmosphere pressure




on Mars is about what you see in a white neon sign (using CO2) which




says to me, the supply on Mars of CO2 is small. As soon as you begin




doing anything major, the pressure of what remains will fall, which




brings in a host of problems including that of landing on Mars from




interplanetary altitude and speed.








Titeotwawki -- Martha Adams [Wed 2013 Aug 07]




The atmosphere on Mars is 25 trillion tonnes compared to Earth's 5,148 trillion tonnes. At 400 ppm Earth's atmosphere contains 3.1 trillion tonnes of CO2. At 95.32% CO2 Mars atmosphere contains 23.8 trillion tonnes of CO2, 7.67x more than Earth.



The process described above would need to make 7,582 billion tonnes of acetylene and 25,996 billion tons of oxygen using 9,749 billion kiloliters of water and 12 weeks of sunlight falling across Mars. The action of photosynthesis makes an even larger biomass available. As pointed out, the Earth's biosphere covering a much larger planet has 1/8th the CO2 of Mars. So, there is sufficient CO2 to support a rich and diverse biosphere on Mars, when combined with the water.



An area of 200 sq meters landed on Mars that is capable of autonomous self-replication once a week would take 39.4 weeks to cover the entire surface.. Another 12 weeks would process ALL of the CO2 to polymer, approximately 1,000 tonnes for every man woman and child on the Earth today.



Doubling periods for plants and animals would proceed more slowly, and take a few years to establish themselves.



Taking the 675 billion tonnes of nitrogen and mixing it with 190 billion tonnes of oxygen along with 8.65 billion kiloliters of water vaporized, and 247 million tonnes of CO2 for plant growth, is sufficient to cover the entire surface of the planet with an atmosphere equivalent to that of Earth's 5 meters deep (held in place by a plastic film). Reducing pressure to that found in Denver Colorado increases depth of the planetary roof to 10 meters.



Above this roof would be a thin atmosphere of pure oxygen largely devoid of CO2.



At the crop densities achieved in aeroponic equipment the area of Mars transformed in this way is sufficient to support a population of 556 billion over 100x the carrying capacity proposed for Earth by Malthus and his followers.



There is still over 10 tonnes of plastic per person!



For 10 people to grow to this figure at 1.14% per year growth rate requires 2,182 years.



For 7 billion people to grow to 556 billion people at 1.14% growth rate requires 386 years.



The table below shows that 5.25 billion kiloliters of water exist in the Martian atmosphere. This is small compared to the 505 trillion kiloliters of water have been identified on the surface of Mars. Enough to cover the entire planet to a depth of 35 meters!



More water is likely to be locked away beneath the surface. Bringing it to the surface provides a superabundance of water for Mars.



Gas Abundance Gigaton



CO2 0.9532 23,830

N2 0.027 675

Argon 0.016 400

O2 0.0013 32.5

CO 0.0008 20

H2O 0.00021 5.25

NOx 0.0001 2.5

Neon 0.00000250 0.0625

HDO 0.00000085 0.02125

Xenon 0.00000008 0.002





Mars surface pressure is 600 Pascals (0.087 psi) vs Earth's 100,000 Pascals (14.69 psi) the energy required to increase the pressure of Mars' atmosphere is a small fraction of the total energy required for the processes described above.



http://archive.org/details/electrodeposition00wattrich



Photovolatic driven electrodeposition of materials leached from surface rocks is another powerful means to obtain materials useful to human needs from the surface of Mars.



http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Composition_of_Mars



http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:PI...s-20121203.jpg



Oxygen, Silica, Silicon, Aluminum, Magnesium, Sodium, Salt, Chlorine, Sulfur, Potassium, Calcium, Titanium, Chromium, Manganese, Iron, Nickel, Zinc, Bromine, all appear universally available and easily extracted using photovolatic energy sources or hydrogen derived from these sources.



Hydrogen and Chlorine makes hydrochloric acid. Hydrogen and Sulfur and Oxygen sulfuric acid. Nitrogen and hydrogen, nitric acid. Carbon and Nitrogen, cyanide. All these are useful in creating leachates and electrolytes on Mars with which to process soil into useful products including refractory metals. Soil processed in fused silica pipes produce not only the items mentioned, but also result in purified clays, sand, that when mixed with a growing organic component permit the synthesis of soils suitable for human society and agriculture.


A similar setup on Earth, would provide a decent living standard for people here. Of course, on Earth, we're competing with a biosphere with our technology. Leaching materials from rock with nitric acid, even if cleaned up, and done with solar panels, is a no no on Earth.

I mentioned elsewhere that an 85 kg person carrying 85 kg of equipment and consumables, when undergoing suspended animation, can be sent to Mars. A one way trip requires a hyperbolic excess velocity of 4 km/sec. This is a delta vee requirement of 11.88 km/sec. Adding 1.29 km/sec for air drag and gravity losses during ascent, we have a total delta vee requirement of 13.17 km/sec.

With an exhaust velocity of 4.3 km/sec this requires 95.33% propellant. Dividing this into three stages of 4.39 km/sec requires 63.98% propellant. With a structure fraction of 12% we have a payload fraction of 24% per stage.. So we have

Passenger: 170.00 kg
Stage 3: 708.33 kg 85.00 kg structure 383.47 kg propellant
Stage 2: 2,951.39 kg 269.17 kg structure 1,888.30 kg propellant
Stage 1: 12,297.45 kg 1,121.53 kg structure 7,867.91 kg propellant

TOTAL 1,475.60 kg structure.

To make hydrogen and oxygen needed requires 14,136.09 liters of water. To break this down requires 222.72 gigajoules of energy. Gathered by solar collectors over 2.15 year synodic period requires energy is collected at a rate of 3,282.62 Watts.

A solar panel operated on Earth that's 65% efficient overall in producing hydrogen and receives 1,753 hours of sunlight per year must intercept 25,251 Watts of solar energy and cover an area 25 square meters (5 meters (16.2 ft) on a side).

A comparable area is required to process the 30 cubic meters of rock and soil to build the spacecraft. (3.1 meters (10 ft) on a side)

A doubling period of 3.5 weeks means that starting with one self replicating rocket similar to that described here, we would have 7 billion of them in 2.15 years. It would take another 2.15 years for all to be ready. The first ones would deploy the 200 sq meter self replicating solar panel described previously, and within a year the entire surface of Mars would be rendered habitable. By the time the second synodic period arrived, all 7 billion people would be dispatched to Mars, leaving the Earth uninhabited.

7 billion leach pits each 10 feet square beneath 500 square feet of solar panels, would remain. The machinery that remained would be programmed to clean up after itself and clean up the other remains of human habitation on Earth if desired.

So, this is within the realm of possibility.

Of course Eudaimonism would suggest we use this capacity to make life joyous for all folks on Earth using resources here, and then provide the means for all those who have an interest, to travel to Mars if they desire.

The needs of the ruling oligarchy, and their enforced artificial scarcity, applied due to their superstitious adherence to outdated notions of animal husbandry applied wrongly to humans, prevent this or anything like it from occurring in the present day.
  #7  
Old August 9th 13, 01:10 AM posted to sci.space.policy
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Posts: 481
Default CO2 as a universal construction material

On Thursday, August 8, 2013 1:41:06 AM UTC-4, wrote:
On Thursday, August 8, 2013 1:03:09 AM UTC-4, wrote:

On Wednesday, August 7, 2013 9:11:05 PM UTC-4, Martha Adams wrote:




On 8/7/2013 7:01 AM, Fred J. McCall wrote:








wrote:
















On Wednesday, August 7, 2013 6:03:01 AM UTC-4, wrote:








On Wednesday, August 7, 2013 1:29:11 AM UTC-4, wrote:
























And Mookie mooks on, making a mookery of intelligent thought.
















================================================== =
















I like his chemistry and math *much* better than the above wordplay,








because getting to Mars is a thing we need to *do* not game around with.
















I do have a problem on one point, however. The CO2 atmosphere pressure








on Mars is about what you see in a white neon sign (using CO2) which








says to me, the supply on Mars of CO2 is small. As soon as you begin








doing anything major, the pressure of what remains will fall, which








brings in a host of problems including that of landing on Mars from








interplanetary altitude and speed.
















Titeotwawki -- Martha Adams [Wed 2013 Aug 07]








The atmosphere on Mars is 25 trillion tonnes compared to Earth's 5,148 trillion tonnes. At 400 ppm Earth's atmosphere contains 3.1 trillion tonnes of CO2. At 95.32% CO2 Mars atmosphere contains 23.8 trillion tonnes of CO2, 7.67x more than Earth.








The process described above would need to make 7,582 billion tonnes of acetylene and 25,996 billion tons of oxygen using 9,749 billion kiloliters of water and 12 weeks of sunlight falling across Mars. The action of photosynthesis makes an even larger biomass available. As pointed out, the Earth's biosphere covering a much larger planet has 1/8th the CO2 of Mars. So, there is sufficient CO2 to support a rich and diverse biosphere on Mars, when combined with the water.








An area of 200 sq meters landed on Mars that is capable of autonomous self-replication once a week would take 39.4 weeks to cover the entire surface. Another 12 weeks would process ALL of the CO2 to polymer, approximately 1,000 tonnes for every man woman and child on the Earth today.








Doubling periods for plants and animals would proceed more slowly, and take a few years to establish themselves.








Taking the 675 billion tonnes of nitrogen and mixing it with 190 billion tonnes of oxygen along with 8.65 billion kiloliters of water vaporized, and 247 million tonnes of CO2 for plant growth, is sufficient to cover the entire surface of the planet with an atmosphere equivalent to that of Earth's 5 meters deep (held in place by a plastic film). Reducing pressure to that found in Denver Colorado increases depth of the planetary roof to 10 meters.








Above this roof would be a thin atmosphere of pure oxygen largely devoid of CO2.








At the crop densities achieved in aeroponic equipment the area of Mars transformed in this way is sufficient to support a population of 556 billion over 100x the carrying capacity proposed for Earth by Malthus and his followers.








There is still over 10 tonnes of plastic per person!








For 10 people to grow to this figure at 1.14% per year growth rate requires 2,182 years.








For 7 billion people to grow to 556 billion people at 1.14% growth rate requires 386 years.








The table below shows that 5.25 billion kiloliters of water exist in the Martian atmosphere. This is small compared to the 505 trillion kiloliters of water have been identified on the surface of Mars. Enough to cover the entire planet to a depth of 35 meters!








More water is likely to be locked away beneath the surface. Bringing it to the surface provides a superabundance of water for Mars.








Gas Abundance Gigaton








CO2 0.9532 23,830




N2 0.027 675




Argon 0.016 400




O2 0.0013 32.5




CO 0.0008 20




H2O 0.00021 5.25




NOx 0.0001 2.5




Neon 0.00000250 0.0625




HDO 0.00000085 0.02125




Xenon 0.00000008 0.002












Mars surface pressure is 600 Pascals (0.087 psi) vs Earth's 100,000 Pascals (14.69 psi) the energy required to increase the pressure of Mars' atmosphere is a small fraction of the total energy required for the processes described above.








http://archive.org/details/electrodeposition00wattrich







Photovolatic driven electrodeposition of materials leached from surface rocks is another powerful means to obtain materials useful to human needs from the surface of Mars.








http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Composition_of_Mars








http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:PI...s-20121203.jpg








Oxygen, Silica, Silicon, Aluminum, Magnesium, Sodium, Salt, Chlorine, Sulfur, Potassium, Calcium, Titanium, Chromium, Manganese, Iron, Nickel, Zinc, Bromine, all appear universally available and easily extracted using photovolatic energy sources or hydrogen derived from these sources.








Hydrogen and Chlorine makes hydrochloric acid. Hydrogen and Sulfur and Oxygen sulfuric acid. Nitrogen and hydrogen, nitric acid. Carbon and Nitrogen, cyanide. All these are useful in creating leachates and electrolytes on Mars with which to process soil into useful products including refractory metals. Soil processed in fused silica pipes produce not only the items mentioned, but also result in purified clays, sand, that when mixed with a growing organic component permit the synthesis of soils suitable for human society and agriculture.




A similar setup on Earth, would provide a decent living standard for people here. Of course, on Earth, we're competing with a biosphere with our technology. Leaching materials from rock with nitric acid, even if cleaned up, and done with solar panels, is a no no on Earth.



I mentioned elsewhere that an 85 kg person carrying 85 kg of equipment and consumables, when undergoing suspended animation, can be sent to Mars. A one way trip requires a hyperbolic excess velocity of 4 km/sec. This is a delta vee requirement of 11.88 km/sec. Adding 1.29 km/sec for air drag and gravity losses during ascent, we have a total delta vee requirement of 13..17 km/sec.



With an exhaust velocity of 4.3 km/sec this requires 95.33% propellant. Dividing this into three stages of 4.39 km/sec requires 63.98% propellant. With a structure fraction of 12% we have a payload fraction of 24% per stage. So we have



Passenger: 170.00 kg

Stage 3: 708.33 kg 85.00 kg structure 383.47 kg propellant

Stage 2: 2,951.39 kg 269.17 kg structure 1,888.30 kg propellant

Stage 1: 12,297.45 kg 1,121.53 kg structure 7,867.91 kg propellant



TOTAL 1,475.60 kg structure.



To make hydrogen and oxygen needed requires 14,136.09 liters of water. To break this down requires 222.72 gigajoules of energy. Gathered by solar collectors over 2.15 year synodic period requires energy is collected at a rate of 3,282.62 Watts.



A solar panel operated on Earth that's 65% efficient overall in producing hydrogen and receives 1,753 hours of sunlight per year must intercept 25,251 Watts of solar energy and cover an area 25 square meters (5 meters (16.2 ft) on a side).



A comparable area is required to process the 30 cubic meters of rock and soil to build the spacecraft. (3.1 meters (10 ft) on a side)



A doubling period of 3.5 weeks means that starting with one self replicating rocket similar to that described here, we would have 7 billion of them in 2.15 years. It would take another 2.15 years for all to be ready. The first ones would deploy the 200 sq meter self replicating solar panel described previously, and within a year the entire surface of Mars would be rendered habitable. By the time the second synodic period arrived, all 7 billion people would be dispatched to Mars, leaving the Earth uninhabited.



7 billion leach pits each 10 feet square beneath 500 square feet of solar panels, would remain. The machinery that remained would be programmed to clean up after itself and clean up the other remains of human habitation on Earth if desired.



So, this is within the realm of possibility.



Of course Eudaimonism would suggest we use this capacity to make life joyous for all folks on Earth using resources here, and then provide the means for all those who have an interest, to travel to Mars if they desire.



The needs of the ruling oligarchy, and their enforced artificial scarcity, applied due to their superstitious adherence to outdated notions of animal husbandry applied wrongly to humans, prevent this or anything like it from occurring in the present day.


Consider a 10 meter diameter tube of indeterminant length with spherical end caps. By cutting through this tube we obtain a circle 10 meters in diameter. Placing the center of the circle at the origin, and starting at zero degrees where x=5 meters and y = 0 meters, and proceeding around the circle we have x=0 meters and y = 5 meters at 90 degrees, x=-5 meters and y = 0 meters at 180 degrees, and x=0 meters and y=-5 meters at 270 degrees with 360 degrees bringing us back to x=5,y=0.

Now, from 14 degrees to 166 degrees, we have a solar collector on the outside and LED panels on the inside, with fuel cells, water and air handling, between. From 194 degrees to 346 degrees we have soil processing. The tube sinks into the soil and discharges processed growth medium into the interior until it the tube is fully buried up to the depth of the soil processing section. The regions between 346 degrees and 14 degrees as well as the region between 166 degrees and 194 degrees, form a 2.4 meter tall area that consists of an airlock for access and cross connection to parallel tubes. Also located in this region are attachment points for additional equipment and gear.

The core building material, the back bone, for these tubes are aramid fibers. These have a strength of 3700 giga-pascals and a density of 1.44 kilograms per liter.

To contain a 50,000 pascal atmosphere requires a wall thickness of;

t = pr/sigma -- 0.07 micron thickness

for a 5 meter radius tube with spherical end cap.

An overwrapped pressure vessel consisting of ten primary layers with sensors and self-repair capability uses 30.7 kg of tube length per KILOMETER! This covers a grow area of 9.7 hectares with a similar usable area of solar collectors. Enough area to support 75 people sustainably. At 90 kg of material per person another 6,750 kg is hung on the tube to support human occupancy and farming operations.

Aramids are made by the reaction between an amine group and a carboxylic acid halide group. AB homopolymers look like this:

nNH2-Ar-COCl → -(NH-Ar-CO)n- + nHCl

The most well-known aramids (Kevlar, Twaron, Nomex) are AABB polymers. Nomex, is known as a poly-metaphenylene isophthalamides (MPIA). Kevlar and Twaron are both p-phenylene terephthalamides (PPTA). This is the simplest form of the AABB para-polyaramide. PPTA is a product of p-phenylene diamine (PPD) and terephthaloyl dichloride (TDC or TCl).

To make PPTA you use a co-solvent with an ionic component (calcium chloride (CaCl2)) to occupy the hydrogen bonds of the amide groups, and an organic component (N-methyl pyrrolidone (NMP)) to dissolve the aromatic polymer.

No other way of dissolving the polymer is known. So, a container filled with Martian soil and a weak solution of acids may be made. The container also dissolves rock nearby through controlled discharge and reabsorption of acids providing a wide range of raw materials from Mars' crust.

The end of the tube is fed with materials manufactured in the tube itself which operates a ring like spinner that extrudes more tube material. The spinner also has a large build volume 3D printer that makes a variety of parts which are automatically assembled and plugged into the tube as it builds.

The tube extruder forms a part of a solar powered tractor that is landed on Mars equipped with a 20.7 meter long tube already built. This tube starts the process building another 20.7 meters in 168 hours, and as it lengthens the process speeds up completing the third 20.7 meters in 84 hours and so on completing the first kilometer in 4.5 weeks, the second kilometer in 5.2 weeks, the third kilometer in 5.6 weeks and so on. By the time 8.2 km of tube is built the extruding tractor is moving at 1 km/hour. By the time 123 km of tube is made, the extruding tractor reaches its speed limit of 15 km/hr. The spiral covers an area of 1.193 sq km and is 1.232 km in diameter..

At this point the tractor continues onward, but extra energy and materiel is shunted toward the construction of another lander, which is sent by sub-orbital trajectory to a point equidistant from all other build operations.

In this way, the entire surface is processed in this way.

Sub orbital transports at these points also send spare animal and seed stock to distant points when surplus is available from this source as well.

As the tractor deploys the initial tube from the lander, it begins to spiral outward to cover surface area efficiently. As the build volume increases, smaller tractors operate within the interior to deploy and tend crops. As the length continues to grow, more of these small tractors are released from the grow end which borrow seed from the already established crops. As crops become ready to harvest, animal feed is prepared and animals in suspended animation are awakened and positioned in regions prepared for them. These too have their own tenders and as they have offspring, they are deployed along the tube.

http://www.stuff.co.nz/business/vide...obotic-farmers


Once the polymer is made, fibers must be spun. Aramid fibers are produced by spinning the dissolved polymer to a solid fiber from a liquid chemical blend.

The solvent used for spinning PPTA is sulfuric acid (H2SO4).

Previously I mentioned semiconductive plastics that efficiently absorbed sunlight across the spectrum built into highly absorbent surfaces. The sun side absorbs light, and CO2.

Water from the subsurface is fed to a built in microscale electrolysis unit which is broken down to hydrogen and oxygen.

Hydrogen is combined with CO2 from the atmosphere to create hydrocarbons as described elsewhere.

High pressure hydrogen gas is stored in cavities like bubble wrap, and fed to thin film fuel cells made of organic molecules that feed LEDs made of organic semiconductors whose band gap is designed to efficiently couple with chlorophyl. Nitrogen is separated and pumped to the interior of the tube along with a measured amount of oxygen. Surplus oxygen is pumped out to the atmosphere.

The ground facing surface makes acids which dissolve rocks. The leachate is reabsorbed and electrolytically separated through gel films. Growth medium is extruded to the interior filling the interior and causing the tube to sink into the surface.

As the tube spirals out airlocks connecting it to the outside, and to parallel tubes in the spiral, provide a means to travel radially from the landing site to the periphery.

Periodically roads and housing is erected within these cavities creating a city scape within the growing surface. Periodically air tight structures are erected above the 10 meter mark (4 stories) as well as below surface.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/travel/ul...ted-house.html
  #8  
Old August 9th 13, 01:12 AM posted to sci.space.policy
[email protected]
external usenet poster
 
Posts: 481
Default CO2 as a universal construction material

On Thursday, August 8, 2013 8:10:20 PM UTC-4, wrote:
On Thursday, August 8, 2013 1:41:06 AM UTC-4, wrote:

On Thursday, August 8, 2013 1:03:09 AM UTC-4, wrote:




On Wednesday, August 7, 2013 9:11:05 PM UTC-4, Martha Adams wrote:








On 8/7/2013 7:01 AM, Fred J. McCall wrote:
















wrote:
































On Wednesday, August 7, 2013 6:03:01 AM UTC-4, wrote:
















On Wednesday, August 7, 2013 1:29:11 AM UTC-4, wrote:
















































And Mookie mooks on, making a mookery of intelligent thought.
































================================================== =
































I like his chemistry and math *much* better than the above wordplay,
















because getting to Mars is a thing we need to *do* not game around with.
































I do have a problem on one point, however. The CO2 atmosphere pressure
















on Mars is about what you see in a white neon sign (using CO2) which
















says to me, the supply on Mars of CO2 is small. As soon as you begin
















doing anything major, the pressure of what remains will fall, which
















brings in a host of problems including that of landing on Mars from
















interplanetary altitude and speed.
































Titeotwawki -- Martha Adams [Wed 2013 Aug 07]
















The atmosphere on Mars is 25 trillion tonnes compared to Earth's 5,148 trillion tonnes. At 400 ppm Earth's atmosphere contains 3.1 trillion tonnes of CO2. At 95.32% CO2 Mars atmosphere contains 23.8 trillion tonnes of CO2, 7.67x more than Earth.
















The process described above would need to make 7,582 billion tonnes of acetylene and 25,996 billion tons of oxygen using 9,749 billion kiloliters of water and 12 weeks of sunlight falling across Mars. The action of photosynthesis makes an even larger biomass available. As pointed out, the Earth's biosphere covering a much larger planet has 1/8th the CO2 of Mars. So, there is sufficient CO2 to support a rich and diverse biosphere on Mars, when combined with the water.
















An area of 200 sq meters landed on Mars that is capable of autonomous self-replication once a week would take 39.4 weeks to cover the entire surface. Another 12 weeks would process ALL of the CO2 to polymer, approximately 1,000 tonnes for every man woman and child on the Earth today.
















Doubling periods for plants and animals would proceed more slowly, and take a few years to establish themselves.
















Taking the 675 billion tonnes of nitrogen and mixing it with 190 billion tonnes of oxygen along with 8.65 billion kiloliters of water vaporized, and 247 million tonnes of CO2 for plant growth, is sufficient to cover the entire surface of the planet with an atmosphere equivalent to that of Earth's 5 meters deep (held in place by a plastic film). Reducing pressure to that found in Denver Colorado increases depth of the planetary roof to 10 meters.
















Above this roof would be a thin atmosphere of pure oxygen largely devoid of CO2.
















At the crop densities achieved in aeroponic equipment the area of Mars transformed in this way is sufficient to support a population of 556 billion over 100x the carrying capacity proposed for Earth by Malthus and his followers.
















There is still over 10 tonnes of plastic per person!
















For 10 people to grow to this figure at 1.14% per year growth rate requires 2,182 years.
















For 7 billion people to grow to 556 billion people at 1.14% growth rate requires 386 years.
















The table below shows that 5.25 billion kiloliters of water exist in the Martian atmosphere. This is small compared to the 505 trillion kiloliters of water have been identified on the surface of Mars. Enough to cover the entire planet to a depth of 35 meters!
















More water is likely to be locked away beneath the surface. Bringing it to the surface provides a superabundance of water for Mars.
















Gas Abundance Gigaton
















CO2 0.9532 23,830








N2 0.027 675








Argon 0.016 400








O2 0.0013 32.5








CO 0.0008 20








H2O 0.00021 5.25








NOx 0.0001 2.5








Neon 0.00000250 0.0625








HDO 0.00000085 0.02125








Xenon 0.00000008 0.002
























Mars surface pressure is 600 Pascals (0.087 psi) vs Earth's 100,000 Pascals (14.69 psi) the energy required to increase the pressure of Mars' atmosphere is a small fraction of the total energy required for the processes described above.
















http://archive.org/details/electrodeposition00wattrich















Photovolatic driven electrodeposition of materials leached from surface rocks is another powerful means to obtain materials useful to human needs from the surface of Mars.
















http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Composition_of_Mars
















http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:PI...s-20121203.jpg
















Oxygen, Silica, Silicon, Aluminum, Magnesium, Sodium, Salt, Chlorine, Sulfur, Potassium, Calcium, Titanium, Chromium, Manganese, Iron, Nickel, Zinc, Bromine, all appear universally available and easily extracted using photovolatic energy sources or hydrogen derived from these sources.
















Hydrogen and Chlorine makes hydrochloric acid. Hydrogen and Sulfur and Oxygen sulfuric acid. Nitrogen and hydrogen, nitric acid. Carbon and Nitrogen, cyanide. All these are useful in creating leachates and electrolytes on Mars with which to process soil into useful products including refractory metals. Soil processed in fused silica pipes produce not only the items mentioned, but also result in purified clays, sand, that when mixed with a growing organic component permit the synthesis of soils suitable for human society and agriculture.








A similar setup on Earth, would provide a decent living standard for people here. Of course, on Earth, we're competing with a biosphere with our technology. Leaching materials from rock with nitric acid, even if cleaned up, and done with solar panels, is a no no on Earth.








I mentioned elsewhere that an 85 kg person carrying 85 kg of equipment and consumables, when undergoing suspended animation, can be sent to Mars. A one way trip requires a hyperbolic excess velocity of 4 km/sec. This is a delta vee requirement of 11.88 km/sec. Adding 1.29 km/sec for air drag and gravity losses during ascent, we have a total delta vee requirement of 13.17 km/sec.








With an exhaust velocity of 4.3 km/sec this requires 95.33% propellant. Dividing this into three stages of 4.39 km/sec requires 63.98% propellant.. With a structure fraction of 12% we have a payload fraction of 24% per stage. So we have








Passenger: 170.00 kg




Stage 3: 708.33 kg 85.00 kg structure 383.47 kg propellant




Stage 2: 2,951.39 kg 269.17 kg structure 1,888.30 kg propellant




Stage 1: 12,297.45 kg 1,121.53 kg structure 7,867.91 kg propellant








TOTAL 1,475.60 kg structure.








To make hydrogen and oxygen needed requires 14,136.09 liters of water. To break this down requires 222.72 gigajoules of energy. Gathered by solar collectors over 2.15 year synodic period requires energy is collected at a rate of 3,282.62 Watts.








A solar panel operated on Earth that's 65% efficient overall in producing hydrogen and receives 1,753 hours of sunlight per year must intercept 25,251 Watts of solar energy and cover an area 25 square meters (5 meters (16..2 ft) on a side).








A comparable area is required to process the 30 cubic meters of rock and soil to build the spacecraft. (3.1 meters (10 ft) on a side)








A doubling period of 3.5 weeks means that starting with one self replicating rocket similar to that described here, we would have 7 billion of them in 2.15 years. It would take another 2.15 years for all to be ready. The first ones would deploy the 200 sq meter self replicating solar panel described previously, and within a year the entire surface of Mars would be rendered habitable. By the time the second synodic period arrived, all 7 billion people would be dispatched to Mars, leaving the Earth uninhabited.








7 billion leach pits each 10 feet square beneath 500 square feet of solar panels, would remain. The machinery that remained would be programmed to clean up after itself and clean up the other remains of human habitation on Earth if desired.








So, this is within the realm of possibility.








Of course Eudaimonism would suggest we use this capacity to make life joyous for all folks on Earth using resources here, and then provide the means for all those who have an interest, to travel to Mars if they desire.








The needs of the ruling oligarchy, and their enforced artificial scarcity, applied due to their superstitious adherence to outdated notions of animal husbandry applied wrongly to humans, prevent this or anything like it from occurring in the present day.




Consider a 10 meter diameter tube of indeterminant length with spherical end caps. By cutting through this tube we obtain a circle 10 meters in diameter. Placing the center of the circle at the origin, and starting at zero degrees where x=5 meters and y = 0 meters, and proceeding around the circle we have x=0 meters and y = 5 meters at 90 degrees, x=-5 meters and y = 0 meters at 180 degrees, and x=0 meters and y=-5 meters at 270 degrees with 360 degrees bringing us back to x=5,y=0.



Now, from 14 degrees to 166 degrees, we have a solar collector on the outside and LED panels on the inside, with fuel cells, water and air handling, between. From 194 degrees to 346 degrees we have soil processing. The tube sinks into the soil and discharges processed growth medium into the interior until it the tube is fully buried up to the depth of the soil processing section. The regions between 346 degrees and 14 degrees as well as the region between 166 degrees and 194 degrees, form a 2.4 meter tall area that consists of an airlock for access and cross connection to parallel tubes. Also located in this region are attachment points for additional equipment and gear.



The core building material, the back bone, for these tubes are aramid fibers. These have a strength of 3700 giga-pascals and a density of 1.44 kilograms per liter.



To contain a 50,000 pascal atmosphere requires a wall thickness of;



t = pr/sigma -- 0.07 micron thickness



for a 5 meter radius tube with spherical end cap.



An overwrapped pressure vessel consisting of ten primary layers with sensors and self-repair capability uses 30.7 kg of tube length per KILOMETER! This covers a grow area of 9.7 hectares with a similar usable area of solar collectors. Enough area to support 75 people sustainably. At 90 kg of material per person another 6,750 kg is hung on the tube to support human occupancy and farming operations.



Aramids are made by the reaction between an amine group and a carboxylic acid halide group. AB homopolymers look like this:



nNH2-Ar-COCl → -(NH-Ar-CO)n- + nHCl



The most well-known aramids (Kevlar, Twaron, Nomex) are AABB polymers. Nomex, is known as a poly-metaphenylene isophthalamides (MPIA). Kevlar and Twaron are both p-phenylene terephthalamides (PPTA). This is the simplest form of the AABB para-polyaramide. PPTA is a product of p-phenylene diamine (PPD) and terephthaloyl dichloride (TDC or TCl).



To make PPTA you use a co-solvent with an ionic component (calcium chloride (CaCl2)) to occupy the hydrogen bonds of the amide groups, and an organic component (N-methyl pyrrolidone (NMP)) to dissolve the aromatic polymer.



No other way of dissolving the polymer is known. So, a container filled with Martian soil and a weak solution of acids may be made. The container also dissolves rock nearby through controlled discharge and reabsorption of acids providing a wide range of raw materials from Mars' crust.



The end of the tube is fed with materials manufactured in the tube itself which operates a ring like spinner that extrudes more tube material. The spinner also has a large build volume 3D printer that makes a variety of parts which are automatically assembled and plugged into the tube as it builds.



The tube extruder forms a part of a solar powered tractor that is landed on Mars equipped with a 20.7 meter long tube already built. This tube starts the process building another 20.7 meters in 168 hours, and as it lengthens the process speeds up completing the third 20.7 meters in 84 hours and so on completing the first kilometer in 4.5 weeks, the second kilometer in 5..2 weeks, the third kilometer in 5.6 weeks and so on. By the time 8.2 km of tube is built the extruding tractor is moving at 1 km/hour. By the time 123 km of tube is made, the extruding tractor reaches its speed limit of 15 km/hr. The spiral covers an area of 1.193 sq km and is 1.232 km in diameter.



At this point the tractor continues onward, but extra energy and materiel is shunted toward the construction of another lander, which is sent by sub-orbital trajectory to a point equidistant from all other build operations.



In this way, the entire surface is processed in this way.



Sub orbital transports at these points also send spare animal and seed stock to distant points when surplus is available from this source as well.



As the tractor deploys the initial tube from the lander, it begins to spiral outward to cover surface area efficiently. As the build volume increases, smaller tractors operate within the interior to deploy and tend crops. As the length continues to grow, more of these small tractors are released from the grow end which borrow seed from the already established crops. As crops become ready to harvest, animal feed is prepared and animals in suspended animation are awakened and positioned in regions prepared for them. These too have their own tenders and as they have offspring, they are deployed along the tube.



http://www.stuff.co.nz/business/vide...obotic-farmers





Once the polymer is made, fibers must be spun. Aramid fibers are produced by spinning the dissolved polymer to a solid fiber from a liquid chemical blend.



The solvent used for spinning PPTA is sulfuric acid (H2SO4).



Previously I mentioned semiconductive plastics that efficiently absorbed sunlight across the spectrum built into highly absorbent surfaces. The sun side absorbs light, and CO2.



Water from the subsurface is fed to a built in microscale electrolysis unit which is broken down to hydrogen and oxygen.



Hydrogen is combined with CO2 from the atmosphere to create hydrocarbons as described elsewhere.



High pressure hydrogen gas is stored in cavities like bubble wrap, and fed to thin film fuel cells made of organic molecules that feed LEDs made of organic semiconductors whose band gap is designed to efficiently couple with chlorophyl. Nitrogen is separated and pumped to the interior of the tube along with a measured amount of oxygen. Surplus oxygen is pumped out to the atmosphere.



The ground facing surface makes acids which dissolve rocks. The leachate is reabsorbed and electrolytically separated through gel films. Growth medium is extruded to the interior filling the interior and causing the tube to sink into the surface.



As the tube spirals out airlocks connecting it to the outside, and to parallel tubes in the spiral, provide a means to travel radially from the landing site to the periphery.



Periodically roads and housing is erected within these cavities creating a city scape within the growing surface. Periodically air tight structures are erected above the 10 meter mark (4 stories) as well as below surface.



http://www.telegraph.co.uk/travel/ul...ted-house.html


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EfbhdZKPHro
  #9  
Old August 9th 13, 03:11 PM posted to sci.space.policy
Martha Adams
external usenet poster
 
Posts: 371
Default CO2 as a universal construction material

On 8/8/2013 11:30 PM, Fred J. McCall wrote:
wrote:

On Thursday, August 8, 2013 8:10:20 PM UTC-4, wrote:
On Thursday, August 8, 2013 1:41:06 AM UTC-4, wrote:

On Thursday, August 8, 2013 1:03:09 AM UTC-4, wrote:


Mookie mooking Mookie mooking Mookie....

When someone responds to their own posts over and over, it's a sign
that they're a real fruitcake.

For reference, examine The Guthball's posting patters....


================================================== ===========

Hi, Fred. In my view, no diet is complete without fruitcake, and if
that's your name for Mook's writings, well, it calibrates your self well
enough for practical purposes. Two key points you miss are,

1) The power of compounding / exponential processes. Especially when
digital tech is brought into the picture. It reminds me of a serious
practical problem Simak mentions in his "Time and Again," and of the
cultural strategy required to cope with it. If you can understand this
kind of thinking.

2) The utility of synthesis of organic chemicals. You always need
precursors to build from. Mook talks about *making* those precursor
chemicals. Without the presence of life to do it for you. If you can
understand this kind of thinking.

If!

Titeotwawki -- Martha Adams [Fri 2013 Aug 09]




  #10  
Old August 9th 13, 11:22 PM posted to sci.space.policy
[email protected]
external usenet poster
 
Posts: 481
Default CO2 as a universal construction material

On Friday, August 9, 2013 10:11:17 AM UTC-4, Martha Adams wrote:
On 8/8/2013 11:30 PM, Fred J. McCall wrote:

wrote:




On Thursday, August 8, 2013 8:10:20 PM UTC-4, wrote:


On Thursday, August 8, 2013 1:41:06 AM UTC-4, wrote:




On Thursday, August 8, 2013 1:03:09 AM UTC-4, wrote:




Mookie mooking Mookie mooking Mookie....




When someone responds to their own posts over and over, it's a sign


that they're a real fruitcake.




For reference, examine The Guthball's posting patters....




================================================== ===========



Hi, Fred. In my view, no diet is complete without fruitcake, and if

that's your name for Mook's writings, well, it calibrates your self well

enough for practical purposes. Two key points you miss are,



1) The power of compounding / exponential processes. Especially when

digital tech is brought into the picture. It reminds me of a serious

practical problem Simak mentions in his "Time and Again," and of the

cultural strategy required to cope with it. If you can understand this

kind of thinking.



2) The utility of synthesis of organic chemicals. You always need

precursors to build from. Mook talks about *making* those precursor

chemicals. Without the presence of life to do it for you. If you can

understand this kind of thinking.



If!



Titeotwawki -- Martha Adams [Fri 2013 Aug 09]


Technology not only compounds, it spreads and costs drop.

http://www.aviationweek.com/Article....-02-604832.xml

We are being weighed in the balance Jacob Bronowski once said in his "Ascent of Man" series and book.



 




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