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Re: [PSUBS-MAILIST] life support method?
but there is a problem, as the hull cools so will the air, and the air will shrink.. and then you'll end up with excessively high 02..... you'd need somethign to compensate for air temprature changes... so that throws this idea out the window.... unless you want to setup a computer to add n2 to compensate for temprature.
*********** REPLY SEPARATOR ***********
On 8/4/00 at 9:54 AM Alan D. Secor wrote:
>You are right, I just didn't follow though with my explanation...the
>bottom line is your body uses O2 and expels CO2...if the CO2 is removed
>and the O2 isn't replaced, the net result is a reduction of cabin
>pressure.
>
>Al
>
>>
>>> 2.) If no supplemental O2 were added, the cabin
>>> pressure would gradually
>>> decrease due to the O2 in the air being metabolized
>>> by your body. You
>>> are correct in assuming that if O2 were released
>>> into the cabin at the
>>> rate our body metabolized it, the system would
>>> remain fairly balanced.
>>
>>Actually,
>>
>>The decrease in pressure in the cabin is NOT caused by
>>the "metabolism" of 02 by the body, but rather by the
>>conversion of the CO2 to a non-gasous state in the
>>form of a chemical compound formed between the
>>absorbant and the CO2 (hence the heat/H20 emitted).
>>Respiration requires 02, but yields as a product CO2,
>>which results in no net change in air pressure. It is
>>the scrubber which is decreasing the air pressure, not
>>the person.
>>
>>FOR INSTANCE: (Boring Biology stuff for most)
>>If you lock a person such as yourself in an airtight
>>room, they will eventually die because their bodies
>>expel C02 (a product of catabolic metabolism) and
>>convert oxygen to H20 by dumping electrons onto it at
>>the end of the electron transport chain within the
>>mitochondria of their cells. When you open the door of
>>the room, the air will be saturated with CO2, but the
>>pressure will still be at or very, very near 1 atm.
>>Most people think that the CO2 a person breathes out
>>is the oxygen they breathed in with a C attached to
>>it. Actually, it is a completely different oxygen that
>>was stripped of a carbohydrate during a catabolic
>>reaction.
>>
>>
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>
>--
>Alan D. Secor
>e-mail: secor@btv.ibm.com