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I love how he ends it with “thinking about space habitats” as I immediately thought: “well, if you can trap it and compress it, you’ll have enough briquettes fo

I love how he ends it with “thinking about space habitats” as I immediately thought: “well, if you can trap it and compress it, you’ll have enough briquettes for a weekly bbq”. He obviously knows this too. Dealing with human waste/by-product is a real challenge. Far more so in space than on an ocean or in an RV. We humans need to learn to use everything and not let anything go to waste. Else we have nothing left to waste.

Sharlin 1y ago
Luckily there are these things that take in CO2 and turn it into polymer structures with many uses such as food, fuel, and construction.
- cnity 1y ago
  Not to mention the oxygen we breathe to stay alive.
jvanderbot 1y ago
If only we could turn that CO2 into food (C chains) and oxygen (O2) via some self sustainable self healing reproducing system that has an extremely low starting mass. A "co2 food producing seed" or something.
- cnity 1y ago
  I love this idea. If in some way the system produced more of the "seeds", and each of those "seeds" resulted in slightly different carbon chains, we could increase the diversity of the food in interesting ways. And if the system is large enough, and could be made beautiful, one could take a walk through the system. Call it a "forest".
  - sambapa 1y ago
    And it would be mad if these "forests" would grow on a planet-sized spaceship with atmosphere and plenty of water, how cool and scifi would be that!
- bestouff 1y ago
  We already have a (kinda magical) device which does that. It's also clean to build, can self-build and self-copy, is edible. It's called a vegetable.
  - seec 1y ago
    Most veggies are mostly water by weight/volume so it wouldn't be a good deal. They also have very little actual calories. What you want is actually cereal. They probably absorb a bit let CO2 than trees but at least you can eat them so that's more useful.
nayuki 1y ago
> if you can trap it and compress it, you’ll have enough briquettes for a weekly bbq Compressing CO2 will not create briquettes of combustible charcoal. You still need a way to chemically remove the oxygen from CO2.
- reactordev 1y ago
  Yes, electrolysis, which would be readily available with solar and batteries up there in space… James Miller from Arizona State University’s Global Institute of Sustainability and Innovation is working on just such a thing.
goda90 1y ago
I recently picked up a video game called Oxygen Not Included. Obviously it's a fantastical game not a simulation, but you're managing a colony in an asteroid and it makes you deal with all sorts of waste including CO2.
- reactordev 1y ago
  It’s a good game ;)
aaron695 1y ago
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Sharlin 1y ago

Luckily there are these things that take in CO2 and turn it into polymer structures with many uses such as food, fuel, and construction.

cnity 1y ago
Not to mention the oxygen we breathe to stay alive.

jvanderbot 1y ago

If only we could turn that CO2 into food (C chains) and oxygen (O2) via some self sustainable self healing reproducing system that has an extremely low starting mass. A "co2 food producing seed" or something.

cnity 1y ago
I love this idea. If in some way the system produced more of the "seeds", and each of those "seeds" resulted in slightly different carbon chains, we could increase the diversity of the food in interesting ways. And if the system is large enough, and could be made beautiful, one could take a walk through the system. Call it a "forest".
- sambapa 1y ago
  And it would be mad if these "forests" would grow on a planet-sized spaceship with atmosphere and plenty of water, how cool and scifi would be that!
bestouff 1y ago
We already have a (kinda magical) device which does that. It's also clean to build, can self-build and self-copy, is edible. It's called a vegetable.
- seec 1y ago
  Most veggies are mostly water by weight/volume so it wouldn't be a good deal. They also have very little actual calories. What you want is actually cereal. They probably absorb a bit let CO2 than trees but at least you can eat them so that's more useful.

nayuki 1y ago

> if you can trap it and compress it, you’ll have enough briquettes for a weekly bbq Compressing CO2 will not create briquettes of combustible charcoal. You still need a way to chemically remove the oxygen from CO2.

reactordev 1y ago
Yes, electrolysis, which would be readily available with solar and batteries up there in space… James Miller from Arizona State University’s Global Institute of Sustainability and Innovation is working on just such a thing.

goda90 1y ago

I recently picked up a video game called Oxygen Not Included. Obviously it's a fantastical game not a simulation, but you're managing a colony in an asteroid and it makes you deal with all sorts of waste including CO2.

reactordev 1y ago
It’s a good game ;)

aaron695 1y ago

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