Ship's Locker: Out of the Closet

[Condottiere]

You can compress oxygen as far as your equipment allows, with no theoretical limit other than the strength of the container and pressure-generating equipment. As oxygen gas is compressed, it will eventually liquefy or solidify, and at extremely high pressures, it can even become a solid, exhibiting different phases. Practical limits are determined by the strength of the cylinder or container and the pressure you can safely generate.

How oxygen is compressed

• Gas to liquid:
  At room temperature, oxygen can be compressed until it liquefies. This requires high pressure, but the gas will not turn into a liquid "per se" until it is cooled below its critical temperature.
  
• Supercritical fluid:
  If you continue to compress it above its critical temperature, it will become a supercritical fluid, which is denser than a gas but does not have a distinct liquid-gas boundary.
  
• Solidification:
  With extremely high pressure, oxygen can become a solid, undergoing phase transitions into different solid states.
  

What are the practical limits?

• Container strength:
  The primary limit is the strength of your container. The higher the pressure, the sturdier the container must be to prevent a rupture.
  
• Equipment capability:
  The maximum pressure you can generate is limited by the capacity of your hydraulic press or other compression equipment.
  
• Safety:
  High-pressure oxygen can be extremely flammable and dangerous. In a compressed gas cylinder, the stored energy is significant. If the cylinder is damaged or the valve is broken off, it can become a projectile.
  

How much can you compress oxygen?

• In practice:
  High-pressure gas cylinders can hold gases at pressures that are around 160 times the internal volume of the cylinder.
  
• In a lab:
  Experiments can achieve pressures of tens of thousands of atmospheres, which can even cause gases to become solid.
  

• What's the minimum volume that one kg of oxygen can safely ...
  02.04.2023 — 1 kg of O2 = 31,25 mol which would be 700 liters at STP. Compress this to 1000 bar and you have 700 cm3, therefore more ...
  

AI responses may include mistakes.


Bonded superdense canisters.

That makes the breathing part independent from stateroom general life support.

We don't know how much oxygen scrubbing equipment costs or weighs, but, if the crew is willing to carry around oxygen cans, we can drop this aspect of operating costs, and use television meals.

 

[Sigtrygg]

You already have huge tanks of liquid hydrogen, cool the oxygen and store it as liquid, that way you don't need the pressure.

One displacement ton of liquid oxygen is 15,974 kg... which expands to 12,000 cubic metres or 12,000,000 litres...

 

[Condottiere]

Pretty sure we could compress gas close to black hole pressure in Traveller.

But, I'm thinkin', portability.

Puffs of oxygen directly into the air mix in a rebreather mask, should be the easiest efficient way, to replace that transformed to carbon dioxide.

Bleeding off the excess shouldn't significantly change the air pressure onboard the spacecraft.

The point is to separate life support (costs) from stateroom occupancy.

 

[Condottiere]

This Gun is a Mechanical Marvel

The information contained in this video is for educational or artistic purposes only. It is not intended to be a substitute for professional firearms training or instruction. Safety is paramount when handling firearms. Always follow the four rules of firearms safety:

Additionally, it is important to be a law-abiding citizen when owning and using firearms. This includes understanding and complying with all applicable laws and regulations. If you are considering purchasing or using a firearm, please seek out qualified instruction from a reputable firearms instructor. BY WATCHING THIS VIDEO, YOU AGREE TO THE FOLLOWING: You are of legal age to own and use firearms in your jurisdiction. You understand and will follow all applicable laws and regulations related to firearms.

1. Assuming it works as designed.

2. Fixed magazine.

3. Looks like a bullpup.

4. Snap open.

5. You could catch the ejected casings.

 

[Condottiere]

The Biggest City Concept Ever (Coruscant Explained)

What happens when a city never ends? No farmland. No oceans. Just planet-wide urbanization — endless towers stacked 5,000 levels deep. This video dives into the concept of the ecumenopolis — first theorized in the 1960s by Greek architect–planner Constantinos Doxiadis, who believed humanity might one day urbanize the entire Earth.

We use Coruscant from Star Wars and Trantor from Isaac Asimov’s Foundation as cinematic case studies — both depicting fully urban planets housing over a trillion people. But beneath the spectacle lies a question: is this actually possible — or fundamentally doomed to collapse?

We break down how Coruscant is built layer by layer — from political “Emergent Layer,” to the industrial Underworld, down to heat-choked machine levels — exposing the terrifying logistics of feeding, cooling, moving, and saving a planet made entirely of city.

Doxiadis offered a radically different alternative: a human-scaled ecumenopolis, grown through fractal Ekistics logic — based on walking distance, multiple cores, and planned “green lungs.” We contrast centralized empire logic vs. distributed Tokyo-like networks, asking:

Could a planet-city work — if we design for flexibility rather than total control?

Or would it, like Rome, collapse the moment the grain stops flowing?

1. Vertical trap.

2. Walking radius.

3. Shouldn't stacking increase the planet diameter?

4. Thus hundred diameter limit and local gravity?

5. Magic word: logistics.

6. Orbital waste disposal.

7. Waste heat.

8. Strata trap.

9. Time cages.

A. Transit hubs.

B. Fractal planning.

 

[Condottiere]

Oxygen Enemas Could Save Lives

Scientists have known for some time that certain animals can breathe using their butts, but now, researchers have determined that certain mammals can too! And in very much other news, researchers in Washington state have developed a new method for turning waste plastics into something useful!

Capacity
Absorptive capacity: The large intestine can absorb up to 5 liters of fluid per day under normal circumstances.
Volume capacity: The capacity to hold waste before elimination is much smaller, with studies showing normal volumes ranging from 0.6 to 3.0 liters, and an average of about 1.45 liters.

The life support belt is an alternative or temporary system thin enough to allow comfortable seating or to wear all day. The belt contains an oxygenated gel and a sophisticated rebreather system to allow full life support for a reasonable period of time. At TL10 the belt will sustain life for one hour, at TL12 it will support life for two hours and the TL15 version does no better but is considerably thinner and available in a bandolier-like form, giving the user the option of wearing two or three of these advanced belts.