[Mars] production plant

[Mars related topics]

Hi all

OK, moving forward!

After reading the relevant pages of The Case For Mars over again, it 
seems simple enough.  In simplest terms it is a Sabatier reactor and a 
water separator to reclaim the hydrogen from the 'wast' water of the 
reactor and run the hydrogen back through the reactor again.

He (Zubrin) states that they got one of the key components from a 
laboratory hydrogen generator.  So I thought, ya, build from off the 
shelf components as much as possible, makes things simpler.

So, I went looking on ebay and found one (and only one) such unit:
http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=180059430536
Which I purchased for $1800 w/shipping.  The fellow said he would ship 
it out by Fed Ex ground either today or tomorrow, so I should have it by 
new years.

Now for the other main component, the Sabatier reactor... as yet I have 
not found a ready made one.  However, from the description it sounds 
simple to make, the only catch seems to be the catalyst...
Dr. Zubrin states in his book that they used ruthenium as it works best, 
but that is very expensive, I checked, very very expensive.  He also 
states though that one can use nickel, though it does not work as well, 
it does work, and nickel I can afford.  So unless someone has some 
ruthenium they can lay their hands on, then we will go with nickel.

The rest of the system is simple plumbing and valves mostly, he does 
also mention a computer to control the whole process, but I'm a computer 
geek so that should not be too challenging.

So, does one of you want to build the reactor?  It sounds like a small 
section of pipe with some nickel wool in it.

Make it a great day

-- 
Terry Mackintosh <terry at mackintoshweb.com>
http://www.mackintoshweb.com/mars/ Mars Society, FL chapter.
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