Humans exhale carbon dioxide when they breathe. If the concentration of carbon dioxide in the air that
people breathe gets too high, it can be fatal. Therefore, in space shuttles, submarines, and other sealed
environments, it is common to use "air scrubbers" to remove carbon dioxide from the air. The air
scrubbers on the space shuttle remove carbon dioxide by using lithium hydroxide (LiOH). The reaction
the air scrubbers is shown below:
CO2 + 2LIOH → Li2CO3 + H2O
Each astronaut produces 8.8 x 102 g CO2 per day that must be removed from the air on the shuttle. If
typical shuttle mission is 9 days, and the shuttle can carry 3.50
OH, what is the maximum
number of people the shuttle can safely carry for one mission?

So, we first need to know how much of CO₂ will be neutralized by this mass. This can be done calculating the moles of LiOH, and then, the moles of CO₂

The molecular weight of LiOH is 23.94 g/mol and for CO₂ is 44 g/mol so:

CO₂ + 2LiOH -------> Li₂CO₃ + H₂O

moles of LiOH = 3.5x10⁴ / 23.94 = 1461.988 moles

We have a mole ratio of 1:2 so the moles of CO₂:

moles CO₂ = 1461.988 / 2 = 730.994 moles

The mass of CO₂ for the 9 days will be:

m CO₂ = 730.994 * 44 = 32163.74 g

Now, let's see how much it has to be used per day:

m CO₂/d = 32163.74 / 9 = 3573.75 g per day

This means that we can only take a few astronauts, and this number is:

n° astronaut = 3573.75 / 8.8x10²

Respuesta :

n° astronaut = 4.06

In other words, only 4 astronaut

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