Argon on the Moon? Options

[ngunn]

the relative narcotic potency of different gases

Ah, thanks. Only marginally more potent than oxygen though, I see. Maybe something like 30 percent oxygen 70 percent argon at, say, 0.7 atmospheres would work?

[Greg Hullender]

. . . you can dissipate heat over the entire surface area of a container/structure instead of building an overly elaborate radiator system that has to work through structural penetrations.

I'm starting to worry that we may be wandering too far off-topic for UMSF (if not totally violating the rules against blue-sky engineering), but this is an interesting idea. So are you suggesting that for, say, metallurgy on the moon, eliminating waste heat simply through radiation may be too slow, and building a radiator with big cooling fins might be too expensive and/or cumbersome. So, given cheap, local argon, you might fill a large bubble with argon, do the work inside the bubble, and let the heat radiate out through the (much larger) surface. Is that the general idea?

I know that some metallurgy on Earth is done under an argon blanket (as Mike described using) to control the amount of oxygen reaching the metals, so I suppose there might be other advantages.

--Greg

[ngunn]

too far off-topic for UMSF

True. I'm dropping out of this one now, but thanks for all the interesting replies up to this point.

[stevesliva]

Argon-filled balloons are kinda neat. They drop right to the floor.

You know you're a geek when you mention "neat" balloons and they're not filled with He or N2O.

[Vultur]

Ah, thanks. Only marginally more potent than oxygen though, I see. Maybe something like 30 percent oxygen 70 percent argon at, say, 0.7 atmospheres would work?

Quite possible - anyway, 3 psi oxygen isn't a total requirement, otherwise anyone who climbed a hill would suffer anoxia. Plenty of people in mountainous regions get 2.5 psi or less.