Author Topic: new processes, equipment and mission suggestions  (Read 6483 times)

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geoffcartwright

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new processes, equipment and mission suggestions
« on: April 20, 2010, 08:01:57 PM »
a few more processes to think about.

There are several well understood chemical reactions that we can use to produce oxygen, methane, water, and perhaps other materials.

2CO2 --> 2CO + O2
zirconia electrolysis
Oxygen can be produced by passing CO2 through a zirconia electrolysis cell at 800 to 1000deg C.

CO2 + 4H2 --> CH4 + 2H20
Sabatier Reaction

CO2 + 2H2 --> CH4 + O2
Net Reaction

ethylene were produced from hydrogen and a carbon source, polyethylene can be made using technology available today. This material, or other carbon-based polymers, can then be extruded or molded to form habitats, furniture, pipes, and a variety of useful items



Using water to convert carbon dioxide to methane also yields carbon monoxide, a reducing agent that reacts with rust to produce carbon dioxide and free iron.A chemical reactor could process Mars' air and soil into rocket propellant and into rectenna parts. The iron would be rolled up as strips to make dipoles and wire to form a mesh reflector behind the dipoles. the waste, or slag, would formed into insulator strips going between the dipoles.

http://spacescience.spaceref.com/newhome/headlines/mars/refine.jpg

another possibility is a co2 pump in the greenhouse to increase co2 conc for plant growth.

be kinda cool and realistic to have a processing hab.

industry hab...
    *  CO2 (carbon dioxide) and N2 (nitrogen) from the atmosphere of Mars
    * H2O (water), NaCl (salt), and hydrated CaSO4 (gypsum), silica, alumina, magnesia from the regolith of Mars
    * CO (carbon monoxide), CH4 (methane) from the making* of methane fuel
    * H2 (hydrogen) and O2 (oxygen) from the electrolysis* of water to obtain oxygen

    *  polyethylene for piping and a variety of general storage containers. A pellet extruder and die system will be used to produce piping and joints, blown bottles, and other structural shapes from extruded sheet and assembled by thermal welding.
    * polyester to provide a matrix for glass fiber reinforced composites used for habitat module construction. Glass reinforced polyester matrix composites will be used where structural strength is critical such as in the habitat pressure vessels. The cylindrical pressure vessel structures will be fabricated in a wet filament winding machine and the polyester matrix will be cross-link cured at room temperature.
    * epoxy for use as a structural adhesive for metal, glass, and composite joints.

The route to polymer precursor formulation uses syntheses that do not rely on a petroleum precursor, the basis for much of today’s chemical industry.

http://www.authorstream.com/Presentation/Teobaldo-38925-Mars-Homestead-Polymers-Polymer-Synthesis-Manufacturing-SystemsFrank-Crossman-Robert-marshomestead-p-Entertainment-ppt-powerpoint/

was thing along the line of post mining hab and the minerla ore we have collected...process into component to be used in production of materials and not just raw materials.
therefore another hab unit to be utilised down stream from the mining / processing hab but knowing hyper already in...

Missions.
1) mission map a route to the poles to collect ice water. could set up remote automatic trains.
2) mine enought mineral to get credits to purchase equipment i.e nuclear power unit and processing hab
3) establish a chemical processing and polymer manufacturing plant to provide materials for construction of habs etc on mars ( credits )

Formation of a Mars based Company : staff wanted for hazardous operations on mars

Mars Mineral is the leader in agitation agglomeration - the conversion of fine powders and dusts into spherical pellets. We've provided equipment, services and single-source systems for the steel, foundry, chemical, mining, cement, lime and fertilizer industries, and consumer products manufacturers.

equipment:
Ampel Horizontal Pelletizer
The Mars Mineral Ampel Horizontal Pelletizer is a rapid-agitation device used to mix, condition and pelletize dust, fine powders and other materials. This equipment produces either a conditioned, wetted product or a granular, free-flowing

pellitised minerals etc could be sold on the market for credits, this utilises the current trading system but incorporates the raw materials being further processed
« Last Edit: April 21, 2010, 06:24:42 PM by geoffcartwright »

profit004

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Re: new processes, equipment and mission suggestions
« Reply #1 on: April 21, 2010, 05:24:40 AM »
I know there is already a Sabatier Reaction in the game..

As for the rest.. Probably will make it in if there is a place for it... Don't see any glaring logic flaws, or anything exceedingly hard to program...

Ivanpet

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Re: new processes, equipment and mission suggestions
« Reply #2 on: April 21, 2010, 08:56:33 AM »
nice post geoff , so are you chemist engineer in RL ?   ;D

thedubman

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Re: new processes, equipment and mission suggestions
« Reply #3 on: April 21, 2010, 02:35:38 PM »
nice post geoff , so are you chemist engineer in RL ?   ;D

Agree there, Nice work- impressive stuff :)

pad69

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Re: new processes, equipment and mission suggestions
« Reply #4 on: April 26, 2010, 12:00:45 PM »
Great Ideas! ;D
Murphy's Law applies "Anything that can possibly go wrong, does." or some say it this way "If anything can go wrong, it will.

Marco2001

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Re: new processes, equipment and mission suggestions
« Reply #5 on: June 28, 2010, 08:07:06 PM »
I finished studying some new Mars ISRU methodes on the internet and I must say I like your ideas Geoff. :-)
I just wanted to post some new ideas, when suddenly I realized "Wait...I remember geoff typing a similar topic!" and that's how I ended up here.  :)

I just wanted to elaborate some new ideas....mainly the "zirconia electrolysis". It's important! As far as I read it's possibly the most important reaction in Permanent Mars Colonisation!

2CO2 --> 2CO + O2

Martian air has ~95% CO2. All you have to do to gather it is to just compress it, and it will liquify (and cleaned out off pollution!). The next stepp is to just take that CO2, pass it through the zirconia reaction and *PUFF* YOU HAVE OXYGEN to breathe and to use as a fuel in various reactions. And all that out off martian air! No constant search for watter that could be electrolyzed. Only electric power.

But why isn't the zirconia reaction very popullar? Well.....there is a good reason for this.
You see....to operate a typical "Zircon electrolyser" in Mars condition you would need a large power supply (much larger that those you can archieve i Mars Colony right now). You would need a better power source - more solar cells, small nuclear reactor or something like that.

Let me Quote something about it:

Quote
" Oxygen can be produced by passing CO2 through a zirconia electrolysis cell at 800 to 1000deg C. Twenty to thirty percent of the CO2 dissociates into oxygen and carbon monoxide. Separation is accomplished by electrochemical transport of oxide ion through a membrane. A prototype reactor using this chemistry has been run for over 1000 hours. Using such a scheme, we could bring a small unit to the surface of Mars which would then continuously make oxygen for life support, propellant use, or further processing. The only additional item we would need to supply is the power to run it: a 12kW unit would produce about one metric ton of oxygen per month.

This oxygen can be converted into water if we also bring a small supply of hydrogen. Since the molecular weight of hydrogen is 2 and the molecular weight of water is 18, we can leverage 2 kilograms of hydrogen into 18 kilograms of water. The mass savings would, at some manufacturing rate, pay back the mass of the oxygen production unit. After that, we would get water for only the price of getting the hydrogen to Mars.

2CO2 --> 2CO + O2
zirconia electrolysis"

NASA is doying great research on that reaction for first Mars flight. They see a bright future in this technology. As far as I know, they mannaged to minimalyse the equipement so that it may be carried by a space vessel, but the low efficiency, and high energy consumptions are still a problem. Mars Colony game is set in some near future. It is therefore possible to assume that those problems are goying to be resolved.

As far as I can see it, in Mars Colony players have an ultimate goal to be independant of Earth support.
And what can be more independant here that beying able to produce your own air for a large scale settlement?
Players goal would be to archieve proffit by mining, discovering and reasearching, and use that money to buy "Zircon electrolyser" and a reactor or solar panners that would power-it up.
It's even possible that one base could sell liquid oxygen to other, near-by bases.

Poland here. My time: GMT + 1h
Writing a book about Mars. Any ideas? Type to me.
I'am an Astrobiology/Biology student.

thedubman

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Re: new processes, equipment and mission suggestions
« Reply #6 on: June 29, 2010, 07:55:42 PM »
A mini unit (either portable or fixed to a rover for example) like the above ran using a RTD, could be usefull in making a emergency supply of O2 (like 1-2kg O2 in a game hour)...
« Last Edit: June 30, 2010, 09:17:53 AM by thedubman »

Marco2001

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Re: new processes, equipment and mission suggestions
« Reply #7 on: June 30, 2010, 11:54:47 AM »
Even setting asside the difficoulties of miniaturisation, there wouldn't be enough fuel in the rover to power-up the O2-making device.  :(

Poland here. My time: GMT + 1h
Writing a book about Mars. Any ideas? Type to me.
I'am an Astrobiology/Biology student.

profit004

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Re: new processes, equipment and mission suggestions
« Reply #8 on: June 30, 2010, 01:34:04 PM »
Even setting asside the difficoulties of miniaturisation, there wouldn't be enough fuel in the rover to power-up the O2-making device.  :(

Yeah but since it technically only needs heat....   Why use the rovers fuel, instead use one or two of these ->


This is a thermally isolated lug of plutonium that is heating due to radioactive decay.  It will continue throwing out more than 50% of this amount of heat for the next 92 years.  There is no reason to waste time, effort, and weight with using fuel from the rover.


Marco2001

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Re: new processes, equipment and mission suggestions
« Reply #9 on: June 30, 2010, 02:06:22 PM »
They are expensive :D

Poland here. My time: GMT + 1h
Writing a book about Mars. Any ideas? Type to me.
I'am an Astrobiology/Biology student.

thedubman

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Re: new processes, equipment and mission suggestions
« Reply #10 on: July 01, 2010, 04:27:12 PM »
Even setting asside the difficoulties of miniaturisation, there wouldn't be enough fuel in the rover to power-up the O2-making device.  :(

Very true, but I was thinking a RTD (its a mini reactor) but thats is a little overboard., come to think of it the rover could be possibly powered by a RTD maybe.. but that would take the fun/challenge out.
Your research into the proccess is impressive and I can see it being used as a secondary system in the Mining functions. The Furnace/proccessor uses a RTD  and O2 proccessor using the zirconia electrolysis process could be powered by it also,..

profit004

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Re: new processes, equipment and mission suggestions
« Reply #11 on: July 01, 2010, 05:41:25 PM »
They are expensive :D

No they arnt =p  They are actually super cheap and just usually buried as they are a major component in nuclear waste.

But since they are an alpha emitter they do not need hardly any radiation shielding.. Couple sheets of foil are more than enough....