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Station atmosphere experiments ?



 
 
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  #1  
Old September 7th 12, 04:22 PM posted to sci.space.station
Jeff Findley[_2_]
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Posts: 1,388
Default Station atmosphere experiments ?

In article ,
says...

I have a feeling that something like this has been done with animals, after
all you would not really want to be messing about with your crews welbeing
in this way. I was interested in the reasons for not doing the camp out any
more before EVAs and using excercise to help remove nitrogen. one supposes
this must be safe but its a bit risky I'd have thought as long term it
might give rise to issues. Maybe this is why not that many us evas are
planned.


You guys have heard of Skylab, haven't you? If I remember correctly,
even though it was an O2/N2 mix, it's internal pressure was far less
than sea level. A quick web search says:

According to NASA SP-400, "Skylab, Our First Space Station," the
atmosphere was 74% oxygen and 26% nitrogen at 5 psi.

In general though, NASA feels most comfortable with sea level pressure
in spacecraft, perhaps because that's the pressure at KSC and JSC.
Never mind the fact that millions of people on the planet live with far
less than that each and every day. Denver Colorado experiences about
12.1 psi, which is less than sea level which is about 14.7 psi. Note
that Denver isn't even *that* high in altitude at 5431 feet at the
Denver International Airport.

I've hiked, with a 50+ lb backpack, at altitudes of 11,000 feet which is
somewhere around 10 psi. You do get winded faster than at lower
altitudes, and it takes more time to catch your breath, but it certainly
didn't kill me.

Jeff
--
"the perennial claim that hypersonic airbreathing propulsion would
magically make space launch cheaper is nonsense -- LOX is much cheaper
than advanced airbreathing engines, and so are the tanks to put it in
and the extra thrust to carry it." - Henry Spencer
  #2  
Old September 8th 12, 05:23 AM posted to sci.space.station
Brian Gaff
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Posts: 2,312
Default Station atmosphere experiments ?

However as one cannot isolate one countries astronauts, and given the ethos
of Russia to even have normal pressure inside their suits, I suspect that
getting any agreement to do more than small scale tinkering might be a
problem.

brian

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"JF Mezei" wrote in message
b.com...
Jeff Findley wrote:

According to NASA SP-400, "Skylab, Our First Space Station," the
atmosphere was 74% oxygen and 26% nitrogen at 5 psi.


I was under the impression that at 5psi, you needed 100% O2 environment
to allow your lungs to get as much O2 into your blood as with 20% O2 at
14.7 psi.

Now that we have long duration stays where they monitor health and
ability to resume normal life when they come back to earth, I would
think they would do some studies to see if long duration stays would
benefit from a different amount of O2.

For instance, if you reduce pressure or reduce O2 content, you tend to
buidl up more red blood cells to be better at absorbing what O2 the
lungs can suck in. (which is why atletes train at high altitude so that
when they come back, their ability to process O2 is increased)

So, on a 6 month journey to mars, why not use that time to get the
bodies used to lower psi ratings and then boost the psi when they land
so crews feel stronger and mroe capable of doing work.

Seems to me the ISS is the perfect platform to test this.



  #3  
Old September 8th 12, 12:27 PM posted to sci.space.station
[email protected]
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Default Station atmosphere experiments ?

On Sat, 8 Sep 2012 05:23:29 +0100, "Brian Gaff"
wrote:

However as one cannot isolate one countries astronauts, and given the ethos
of Russia to even have normal pressure inside their suits, I suspect that
getting any agreement to do more than small scale tinkering might be a
problem.

brian



Brian

Do you remember the Apollo capsule accident that killed three
astronauts? A pure oxygen atmosphere is an invitation to have a deadly
fire or explosion.

Ed
  #4  
Old September 9th 12, 01:32 AM posted to sci.space.station
Greg \(Strider\) Moore
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Posts: 790
Default Station atmosphere experiments ?


wrote in message ...

On Sat, 8 Sep 2012 05:23:29 +0100, "Brian Gaff"
wrote:

However as one cannot isolate one countries astronauts, and given the
ethos
of Russia to even have normal pressure inside their suits, I suspect that
getting any agreement to do more than small scale tinkering might be a
problem.

brian



Brian

Do you remember the Apollo capsule accident that killed three
astronauts? A pure oxygen atmosphere is an invitation to have a deadly
fire or explosion.


Only if you're running it at 17+ psia.

At the pressures Apollo ran at once in orbit, it was a lot less of an issue.

That said, I don't think anyone was suggesting running pure O2 at high
pressures.

But running at lower pressures does make emergency EVAs easier.


Ed



--
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  #5  
Old September 10th 12, 04:19 PM posted to sci.space.station
Jeff Findley[_2_]
external usenet poster
 
Posts: 1,388
Default Station atmosphere experiments ?

In article ,
says...

wrote in message ...

On Sat, 8 Sep 2012 05:23:29 +0100, "Brian Gaff"
wrote:

However as one cannot isolate one countries astronauts, and given the
ethos
of Russia to even have normal pressure inside their suits, I suspect that
getting any agreement to do more than small scale tinkering might be a
problem.

brian



Brian

Do you remember the Apollo capsule accident that killed three
astronauts? A pure oxygen atmosphere is an invitation to have a deadly
fire or explosion.


Only if you're running it at 17+ psia.

At the pressures Apollo ran at once in orbit, it was a lot less of an issue.


Agreed it was less of an issue during an actual Apollo mission (when
pressure was something like 5 psi), but NASA still chose to move to a
fiarly low pressure O2/N2 mix for Skylab.

That said, I don't think anyone was suggesting running pure O2 at high
pressures.

But running at lower pressures does make emergency EVAs easier.


Agreed.

Jeff
--
"the perennial claim that hypersonic airbreathing propulsion would
magically make space launch cheaper is nonsense -- LOX is much cheaper
than advanced airbreathing engines, and so are the tanks to put it in
and the extra thrust to carry it." - Henry Spencer
 




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