Low landers can adapt to living and working at altitude given time and patience (a few weeks)
I have to admit I don't really understand why the air pressure is such an issue. We need to design in safety factors anyway, so why not design for full pressure, and over time optimise for lower pressure if it turns out to be useful or beneficial? Creating the atmospheres for habitats will not be a major energy drain on the colony, compared to fuel and food production.Yes, lower pressure would allow for less massive habitats, but using in situ resources is that an issue? What construction problems does a 30% lower pressure solve, or even 50% lower? Isn't radiation protection more massive than whatever structural element is used anyway?
what was the pressure limit for no prebreathing? I know it is up thread someplace.
If you are going to design for a civilization and not an outpost, then you need to be at 9 psi or higher. Why? Because we literally have thousands of examples of towns and cities here on Earth where the cutoff is at 9 psi. People just don't breed and live at lower pressures. It's ok temporarily, but not for living.
But just for personal interest, if 9psi is reasonable on earth, then about what would you end up with if you kept the same partial pressure of oxygen while lowering the total pressure.. to exactly the point where the fire risk rises to again equal earth sealevel?
I wonder if a higher O2 PP will help increase tolerance of relatively high CO2. It seems to me CO2 scrubbing will be an ongoing concern, and if tolerance for it can be increased it can mitigate some risk.
Quote from: Jcc on 02/04/2017 02:28 pmI wonder if a higher O2 PP will help increase tolerance of relatively high CO2.[...] However, what leads you to believe that higher O2 would combat CO2 toxicity?
I wonder if a higher O2 PP will help increase tolerance of relatively high CO2.