Word: nitrogen
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Dates: during 1960-1969
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...Nevada and JPL, who helped design Mariner II's infra-red experiment, thinks that at ground level, Venus' atmospheric pressure may be 10 to 20 times that of Earth. Its dry, unbreathable air contains perhaps 10% carbon dioxide (v. .03% for Earth) and probably a little nitrogen. The clouds are so dense that the surface is probably dark. Radar waves bounced off Venus indicate rather uncertainly that there may be both mountains and smooth places, as on the earth...
...diameter, 11 ft. long, and weighing about 1,000 lbs. Inside will be an airtight capsule large enough to hold one man lying face down. A crewman bailing out will crawl into the capsule and detach the lifeboat from the spaceship. As soon as it is clear, nitrogen gas from a pressure vessel will inflate a pair of winglike spars made of heat-resistant woven-wire cloth. As the wings expand, the cylinder will split, forming a heat shield that will protect the leading edges of the wings. The inflated lifeboat will be an air-and space-worthy paraglider...
...Eliot indulges himself in many a long reach. Aphrodite, goddess of love, was able to renew her virginity simply by bathing in the sea. Now "astrophysicists relate that our life-giving sun renews its virginity also, by dint of a circular chain reaction. Every nucleus of carbon and nitrogen in the sun returns to its pure state once in five million years." This is ingenious rather than convincing, provocative rather than wise. And in his secret heart, Eliot knows it for the word game it is. But like the juggler who danced before the altar, Eliot is giving praise...
Using this system of "ion synthesis." R.P.I, chemists have taken nitrogen dioxide gas (NO2) and ionized it by squirting it against an electrically charged metal plate at one end of a vacuum tube. As soon as the gas molecules pick up electric charges, they respond to electrical forces and are whisked through a charged grid at a predetermined speed. After traveling a short distance, they hit molecules of vaporized benzene (C6H6) and stick to them, forming nitrobenzene (C6H5NO2). The hydrogen atoms left out of the combination form gaseous hydrogen...
...reactor hit uranium atoms in the capsule, they caused the atoms to fission, or split. The atomic fragments shot apart with enormous energy (200 million electron volts per fission), splintering ammonia molecules and knocking them in every direction. The fragments recombined at once. Some formed gaseous hydrogen (H2) or nitrogen (N2). But about half the ammonia that reacted formed the much-desired hydrazine (N2H4...