In the news this week was that Perseverance on mars generated some
"breathable" Oxygen (I guess there are brands of O2 that are not
breathable :-)

The article I read mentioned that there is Carbon Monoxyde as by
product. (not quite breathable(.

Out of curiosity, what sort of combination of CO2 yields CO and O2 ?

From a "make Mars liveable" point of view, shouldn't any conversion of
CO2 avoid creating CO which isn't good for one's health?

And something which has bugged me: Carbon fibre is some of the strongest
and solid materials. And Carbon is also gaseous in methan/natural gas.

When present in oil, is it considered liquid or "solid dust" floating in
liquid?

Is there a process that produces carbon dust and O2 ? Does solidifying
carbon result in a great release of energy (going from gas to solid
generally involves releasing energy, right? )

Or in this case since CO2 is result of combustion which released energy,
one would need to put the energy back in to "unburn" the Carbon?

And back on Earth, republicans speak of carbon capture as a means to
justify continued support of the fossil fuel industry that support their
campaigns.

If capturing carbon results in production of carbon monoxyde, isn't that
much worse?

Or is carbon capture just taking CO2 and pumping it into pressurize
cartridges that cyclsist use to pump up tires afer a flat?

Just curious if these processes ever result in carbon solid being
produced along with the gaseous O2.

On 2021-04-24 9:23, JF Mezei wrote:
> In the news this week was that Perseverance on mars generated some
> "breathable" Oxygen (I guess there are brands of O2 that are not
> breathable :-)

Ozone is a form of oxygen that is not recommended for breathing.

> The article I read mentioned that there is Carbon Monoxyde as by
> product. (not quite breathable(.
>
> Out of curiosity, what sort of combination of CO2 yields CO and O2 ?

You take one molecule of CO2, and use electrolysis to rip off one atom
of O, leaving one molecule of CO. Do it twice and you get one O2 and two CO.

MOXIE uses a solid-oxide electrolysis process. This is not the Sabatier
process that SpaceX plans to use for producing methane and oxygen from
Martian CO2 and Martian water.

> From a "make Mars liveable" point of view, shouldn't any conversion of
> CO2 avoid creating CO which isn't good for one's health?

If the CO is vented into the Martian atmosphere, no-one will try to
breathe it for a *long* time to come. But of course any plan for
terraforming Mars would have to avoid putting *large* amounts of CO into
the atmosphere.

> Or in this case since CO2 is result of combustion which released energy,
> one would need to put the energy back in to "unburn" the Carbon?

That is where the electricity for the electrolysis goes.

Niklas Holsti <niklas.holsti@tidorum.invalid> writes:

> On 2021-04-24 9:23, JF Mezei wrote:
>> In the news this week was that Perseverance on mars generated some
>> "breathable" Oxygen (I guess there are brands of O2 that are not
>> breathable :-)
>
>
> Ozone is a form of oxygen that is not recommended for breathing.

True but technically ozone is O3 not O2. Atomic oxygen O is likely to
react in an unpleasant way with your nasal passages long before it gets
to your lungs and hemoglobin, i.e. atomic oxygen burns. No one on Earth
has ever been exposed to enough atomic oxygen to be burned by it, its
hard to do because O+O even reacts with itself to make O2. It is however
in some abundance in LEO and the extreme upper atmosphere where low
density and UV radiation from the Sun blasts O2 molecules apart and they
have enough volume at the edge of space to stay apart. Troublesome enough
that NASA has conducted research on how atomic oxygen affects satellites
and the space shuttle while in orbit. Some of their research has led to
novel cleaning approaches:

> https://www.nasa.gov/centers/glenn/business/AtomicOxRestoration.html

Dave

On 2021-04-24 21:54, David Spain wrote:
> Niklas Holsti <niklas.holsti@tidorum.invalid> writes:
>
>> On 2021-04-24 9:23, JF Mezei wrote:
>>> In the news this week was that Perseverance on mars generated some
>>> "breathable" Oxygen (I guess there are brands of O2 that are not
>>> breathable :-)
>>
>>
>> Ozone is a form of oxygen that is not recommended for breathing.
>
> True but technically ozone is O3 not O2.

JZ Mezei was trying to joke about the inexistence of "oxygen" that is
not "breathable". It was Mezei who misunderstood "oxygen" as meaning O2.

Is Photosynthesis the only known process that takes gaseous carbon and
creates solid carbon?

I can understand Sabatier helping SpaceX refuel rockets with methane and
a bit of o2 as a side effect to help humans surfive.

But longer term, if there is to be a colony on Mars where breathable OI2
is primary requirement, wouldn't photosynthesis end up being the more
efficient process to create O2 from CO2 ? Is there a way to
artificially make this chemical reaction happen or are plants the only
known way to do this? (with the need for space, water, care and
relatively slow production).

On Apr/25/2021 at 18:18, JF Mezei wrote :
> Is Photosynthesis the only known process that takes gaseous carbon and
> creates solid carbon?
>
> I can understand Sabatier helping SpaceX refuel rockets with methane and
> a bit of o2 as a side effect to help humans surfive.
>
> But longer term, if there is to be a colony on Mars where breathable OI2
> is primary requirement, wouldn't photosynthesis end up being the more
> efficient process to create O2 from CO2 ? Is there a way to
> artificially make this chemical reaction happen or are plants the only
> known way to do this? (with the need for space, water, care and
> relatively slow production).

There are other processes to make O2 from CO2, but the nice thing about
photosynthesis is that you can have a by-product that is generated
through the process, food.

Alain Fournier