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The Right Angle

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The Absolut vodka has 45% alcohol. Together with its reflection it makes 90 degrees. The right angle, as at 100 deg. Celsius it boils.

Martian colonist will need a liquid fuel for their engines. Not just for rockets, but also for internal combustion engines. Hydrogen, as a fuel, has problems.
According to NASA, “Hydrogen is a very bulky substance, requiring large tanks. The dead weight of these tanks partly offsets the high specific impulse of the hydrogen propellant.”
Also, an open container of hydrogen will boil away on Mars as surely as it does on Earth.

So, how about ethyl alcohol? It is also called ethanol, “torpedo juice”, “white lightning” or Absolut depending on its manufacturer.

It makes a good rocket fuel with a “specific impulse” of 250-270 when used with liquid oxygen. The Explorer satellite, America’s first, was put into orbit using LOX/Alcohol.

The first Martian colonist will face their own “open container law”. No, not the kind you face if pulled over by a traffic cop for drinking while driving, but a much more basic law. What they will need on Mars is a liquid fuel which can be easily stored.
Even at the low Martian atmospheric pressure of 7.8 mm of mercury (or Torr), ethanol won’t boil away if stored below –5.6 degrees C. So most of the places and most of the time on Mars, an open container of Absolut will be right where you left it. Just to be safe, don’t store it in the direct sunlight. And don’t tell your buddies where you left your stash of hooch.

Which brings us to the obvious alternative uses of ethanol: it is a good disinfectant. Still used in hospitals all over Earth. Nothing like a good alcohol-rub, either. Kills the smell of those nasty bodies and those spacesuits.
Taken externally, it cleanses the body.
Taken internally, it cleanses the mind.
Ethanol has a density of about 0.79 grams per cubic centimeter. The tankers arriving from Earth should bring tons of it. Maybe, if NASA is long-sighted, the rocket engines on those tankers will run on it. Colonists can also easily make it by fermenting waste vegetable matter.

So, Absolut has a place on Mars. Absolutely.
Image size
2592x3888px 3.63 MB
Make
SONY
Model
DSC-R1
Shutter Speed
10/500 second
Aperture
F/16.0
Focal Length
28 mm
ISO Speed
200
Date Taken
Jun 12, 2008, 6:21:18 AM
© 2008 - 2024 ahermin
Comments17
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Access-Deni-ed's avatar
Very lovely !!!!!!!!!!!