Re: cheap lunar gear & base (spin-off of superhero flight)

Crown-Horned Snorkack <chornedsnorkack@[EMAIL PROTECTED]
> wrote:
> On 16 apr, 00:40, Michael Ash <m...@[EMAIL PROTECTED]
> wrote:
>> Crown-Horned Snorkack <chornedsnork...@[EMAIL PROTECTED]
> wrote:
>> >> CO2 is harder. But easily handled by bubbling air thru a calcium
>> >> hydroxide solution.
>>
>> > Still bad. Because then you will run out of oxygen. Breathing centre
>> > senses excess carbon dioxide, not lack of oxygen.
>>
>> Your breathing is driven by the level of CO2 *in your blood*, which
will
>> still become appreciable even when breathing air which has none. As
should
>> be fairly easy to see, otherwise anyone breathing pure oxygen would
>> suffocate.
>>
>> You still have the problem of detecting when O2 levels become too low,
but
>> that's a separate problem. Starting from a reasonable pressure, you can
>> lose a lot more O2 than you can gain in CO2 before it becomes
dangerous,
>> and if O2 is the only significant input into the system then you can
>> regulate O2 levels simply by monitoring air pressure.
>>
> But if the significant input is air, then you can have oxygen
> exhausted while nitrogen builds up.

Well then, don't do that.

Pure oxygen isn't particularly difficult to obtain. Last time I paid to 
get one refilled I think it was under $20. The tank itself isn't 
particularly cheap but I'm seeing ones targeted toward pilots for under 
$200. I don't know whether medical tanks would be cheaper or more 
expensive, since both "medical" and "aviation" are automatic price 
increasing words. There may be cheaper sources, maybe welding suppliers?

If you do want to use regular air, it's even cheaper to get, so you should

be able to just deliberately vent the room from time to time.

-- 
Michael Ash
Rogue Amoeba Software