From: "John Creighton"
Does anyone know what is in the Martian air besides 95.3% carbon
dioxide,2.7% nitrogen, 0.15% Oxygen, 1.6% argon.
Which totals 99.75 for those interested.
Still begs the question about the last 0.15%
And for those who might ask why we care about the 15/100th of a percent ...
after you extract the 95% CO2 to volume percentages shift up dramatically.
Which totals 99.99452 (and yes I rounded the numbers)
(and yes I did not extract all the CO2, I left 32/100th percent)
Q:... once you liquify out the CO2, only 40% of the left over air is accounted
for. I would like to know at least what 80% of the left over air is
composed of (If that is possible).
A: Looks like N2, Ar, CO2, O2, and CO by volume accounts for 99.37% plus the
other trace elements H20,Ne,Kr,Xe,O3 for another 62/100th.
I didn't realize there was that much N2, that has lots of other neat
implications.
Q:BTW I know there is water in the air.
A: Yes, but at 3/100th (raw) 61/100th (first process) I wouldn't expect serious
effects. (somebody prove me wrong, I can take it)
Q: At 7 bars in Martian ambient temperature how will the water behave?
A: Still looking, most of the water state tables I've seen don't go much beyond
2 bars.
Q: Will it dissolve in the liquid CO2? If it does is this a problem for ISPP?
A: This shouldn't be a problem for the ISPP since a direct byproduct of the
reaction is water anyway. CO2 + 4H2 -> CH4 + 2H2O (CFM p150)
I did some surfing and found some additional statistics at
