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http://www.space.com/scienceastronomy/m … .html]Read me
*Wow, this is an interesting article. Mars may -stink-? Since it also deals with the smell of Lunar dust as well, I'm making a new thread for it:
"For one, hydrogen sulphide (H2S) is a gas encountered worldwide here on Earth. Drilling formations with the presence of H2S can encounter some very serious problems. While it gives off an unpleasant odor and can stir up a headache, it is also explosive and poisonous..."
::EDIT:: Also discusses jarosite and possible "long exposures to water."
"Sulfur, acids, magnesium, iron -- all put together under the carbon dioxide-rich skies of Mars -- could just reek."
Here's the item about Lunar dust (fascinating; I'm not sure I've read this before):
"After bouncing about on the Moon and crawling back into their lunar module, several Apollo astronauts noticed they had tracked back into their home-away-from-home rock and dust particles. In doffing their helmets, the smell was likened to wet ashes in a fireplace, even spent gunpowder from a just fired shotgun."
--Cindy
P.S.: Actually, I always sort of liked the smell of "spent gunpowder" from a shotgun; it's a very unique odor (I used to accompany my father on his pheasant hunting; and no, I never shot anything myself...I'm too much of a "softie").
We all know [i]those[/i] Venusians: Doing their hair in shock waves, smoking electrical coronas, wearing Van Allen belts and resting their tiny elbows on a Geiger counter...
--John Sladek (The New Apocrypha)
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Weird the did not state that H2S gives off the typical rotten-eggs smell... You know the stuff they also use in those liquid 'stink-bomb' capsules...
Indeed it is noxious, never mind the smell. We use the stuff... or better it get released when we use Sulphur-based toner for photographs (gives the sepia tint) After a while you don't mind the smell, but you get a *serious* headache if someone 'accidentally' turns off the fume hoods from outside the darkrooms... Some people think they're being funny when they do that :angry:
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Does H2S burn easily? What are the by-products?
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Urghl...
(As if the stuff isn't hideous enough, i now see it burning, with a thick brown acrid smoke...)
But a good question, I remember it is quite reactive, add some O2... it burns like hell, and mixed with corrosive stuff it's an explosive, but wait..
Quick browse in my Hazardous chemicals folder: [http://ull.chemistry.uakron.edu/erd/che … /6579.html]Indeed: BOOM!
(EDIT)
In fact, a very 'interesting' chemical... For explosions, scroll towards the end: "Explodes on contact with oxygen difluoride, bromine pentafluoride, chlorine trifluoride, dichlorine oxide, silver fulminate May react similarly with other powdered metals Reacts exothermically with bases"
But you can use it for a lot of other things, too
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Urghl...
(As if the stuff isn't hideous enough, i now see it burning, with a thick brown acrid smoke...)
But a good question, I remember it is quite reactive, add some O2... it burns like hell, and mixed with corrosive stuff it's an explosive, but wait..
Quick browse in my Hazardous chemicals folder: [http://ull.chemistry.uakron.edu/erd/che … /6579.html]Indeed: BOOM!
(EDIT)
In fact, a very 'interesting' chemical... For explosions, scroll towards the end: "Explodes on contact with oxygen difluoride, bromine pentafluoride, chlorine trifluoride, dichlorine oxide, silver fulminate May react similarly with other powdered metals Reacts exothermically with bases"But you can use it for a lot of other things, too
Marsian petroleum! Call Halliburton quick!
Could you design an internal combustion SUV to run on H2S oxidized by a tank of cryogenic O2? How about a power generator for electricity? Might need a ceramic engine. ???
Astronauts need to live inside sealed habitats anyways, they never need to smell the stuff, just burn it.
= = =
The space.com article is pretty sketchy, how much "smelly stuff" might there be available for drilling?
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Astronauts need to live inside sealed habitats anyways, they never need to smell the stuff, just burn it.
*True, but wouldn't a stench eventually -permeate- the habs? My parents once lent a metal pressure cooker to neighbors, who had it for a week...it came back reeking of cigarette smoke, although it was made entirely of metal and hard rubber! :-\ And it stank for a long time afterwards as well...
Of course, I have no idea about Mars and habs, which is why I mention it.
--Cindy
We all know [i]those[/i] Venusians: Doing their hair in shock waves, smoking electrical coronas, wearing Van Allen belts and resting their tiny elbows on a Geiger counter...
--John Sladek (The New Apocrypha)
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Astronauts need to live inside sealed habitats anyways, they never need to smell the stuff, just burn it.
*True, but wouldn't a stench eventually -permeate- the habs? My parents once lent a metal pressure cooker to neighbors, who had it for a week...it came back reeking of cigarette smoke, although it was made entirely of metal and hard rubber! :-\ And it stank for a long time afterwards as well...
Of course, I have no idea about Mars and habs, which is why I mention it.
--Cindy
That may be a really big problem, no mater what. Seals and seal technology will need lots of development.
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Read the Sheet (and my 'story'): you don't smell it after awhile (makes it dangerous)
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Actually, Mars will smell just like us.
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*This thread came back to mind. I've lived in the desert for 12 years now, and occasionally I'm reminded at the lack of smells. On the other hand, I recall all the intense fragrances and aromas of living in the humid Midwest -- particularly as flowering plants and flowers go, etc. Not to mention the wonderful scent of freshly-mown thick grass (smells like watermelon).
I've noticed that smells carry more strongly during hot weather here in the desert than during cool weather. And also, when we've had one of our rare rains the scent-factor increases during that time.
So I wonder just how much Mars may actually smell, as it's so dry and etc. And doesn't have much of an atmosphere anyway. But not sure how all these may or may not factor in together...
--Cindy
We all know [i]those[/i] Venusians: Doing their hair in shock waves, smoking electrical coronas, wearing Van Allen belts and resting their tiny elbows on a Geiger counter...
--John Sladek (The New Apocrypha)
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Dust will be a problem for long stays of humans on the Moon or Mars. I read somewhere that NASA was studying this problem. I'll have to search the net and see if I can find anything.
"Run for it? Running's not a plan! Running's what you do, once a plan fails!" -Earl Bassett
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