Dry Ice Freezer for Earth ** and ** Mars

tahanson43206 · 2021-05-20 09:30:45

Discussion of use of Dry Ice on Mars in other topics in the forum inspired this new concept for a consumer product for both Earth ** and ** Mars.

At this time (2021 on Earth) there are a wide variety of consumer freezers available at a range of price points.

I invested in a floor standing consumer grade freezer for the kitchen six years ago, and the freezer lasted five years. It's warranty was for three years.

The failure mode was interesting (to me for sure) ... I discovered the unit had failed when a puddle of melt water appears on the carpet under the unit.

It was so quiet in operation that I had no way of knowing if was running or not. At the low price point I chose, there were no signal lights of any kind.

I'm holding off on buying another freezer, after reviewing the many choices that are available in the market place.

At higher price points, I found that there might be a minimal light to indicate power is supplied to the unit, but nothing more than that.

** This ** topic is about a consumer product that might be practical on Earth, even at lower price points, but I would expect it to be quite practical on Mars, where Dry Ice is part of the landscape.

The proposal is to build a freezer so that a wall of dry ice surrounds the food storage cavity. Cooling coils would keep the ice frozen.

There are two advantages that I can think of now, and there may be others.

The food cavity will be maintained at a temperature below the usual setting for a consumer grade freezer.

The unit will have persistence when power goes out, superior to that of the typical freezer of 2021 on Earth.

Sensors would detect pressure changes of CO2 gas that sublimates from the dry ice solid, and engage the cooling mechanism.

(th)

SpaceNut · 2021-05-20 17:10:56

A walk in freezer that attaches to the habitat but is mostly external on mars will not need any real cooling from dry ice but will utilize heat exchanger coils to the outside to regulate the internal temperature with in the freezer unit. There are several working fluids to use in the tubing that will bring the warmer air from the inside of the freezer to the to the outside cold especially at night when its coldest.

One could use a human powered crank to move the pump system to make the fluid move through the tubing to save on power.

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#1 2021-05-20 09:30:45