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Airlock substitute
Hi,
I was wondering if we can use plasma shields like "plasma window" or force fields instead of airlocks to let the astronaut get through them without letting air to go out.Although can we use magnetic fields to draw back some of lost air? |
#2
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Airlock substitute
On Mar 17, 10:19 am, Armin wrote:
Hi, I was wondering if we can use plasma shields like "plasma window" or force fields instead of airlocks to let the astronaut get through them without letting air to go out. Plasma is a hot, ionized gas. It is not an ideal pressure barrier, and at about 1 atmosphere of pressure plasma would resemble a very high temperature blow torch. Although can we use magnetic fields to draw back some of lost air? Not really. Oxygen is paramagnetic, so it responds weakly to magnetic fields, but it would require impractically high field strengths. Nitrogen is diamagnetic, so it'd be weakly repelled by strong fields. Mike Miller, Materials Engineer |
#3
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Airlock substitute
Armin:
Although can we use magnetic fields to draw back some of lost air? ----- Sorry, even a few Gs of gravity won't get gas to behave. Best option would be to use a compound turbomolecular pump and compressor to move most of the air into a container before opening up. This assumes an airlock that is not near Earth since the weight/value has to be better than just bringing additional make-up air. A moon base or Mars mission perhaps, but on manned asteroid surveys I would say very likely. |
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