Word: oxygenator
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Dates: during 1960-1969
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...specter of fire in a man-carrying spacecraft has long haunted NASA scientists. In the pure-oxygen cabin atmospheres of U.S. craft, it seemed all too probable that a random spark from electrical equipment or insulation overheated by a short circuit might touch off fires that would blaze with explosive fury...
...simulate fires in orbit, the scientists loaded test chambers containing high concentrations of oxygen into KC-135 jet transports and flew them through parabolic arcs, creating 30 seconds of zero gravity during each maneuver. In the brief period of weightlessness, they ignited a variety of materials within the test chambers and took color movies of the results. Though the fires lit up promptly, the flames began to die down within 1½ seconds; they simply smoldered or went out completely during the remaining period of weightlessness. Scientists estimated that the burning rates of test materials were reduced by as much...
Eventually, persistent oxygen starvation can cause gangrene; fingers or toes may have to be amputated. One familiar treatment, an operation to cut nerve trunks and thus inactivate the nerves that control the stretching and shrinking of small arteries, is a painful failure in a majority of cases...
...remain naggingly familiar. The victim is usually a ma ture woman, who first notices the trou ble in her 20s. The slightest chill can slow her peripheral circulation until her hands, feet, the tip of her nose and the edges of her ears turn blue and ache excruciatingly from oxygen shortage...
...concentration of hydrogen compounds in its atmosphere 1,000 times greater than the earth's. Those compounds probably include methane derivatives and possibly methane itself-a finding that could be significant because methane, or "marsh gas,"* is produced on earth by anaerobic bacteria, which do not require oxygen to exist. Even if the Martian methane is not produced by living organisms, Kaplan says, its presence along with other hydrocarbons detected in the spectrograms strongly suggests the existence of free hydrogen and a chemical environment from which life could evolve...