OP
OP
rhizotron
Active Member
This is still at prototype stage, but I have a start on this new speculative astrobiology project.
I'm building an airtight enclosure where I can control gas composition to model alternative chemistries and metabolisms. My current favorite idea is a reducing atmosphere with H2 and other gases. Use of hydrogen gas has some serious potential hazards, but I have several layers of safety redundancy in mind. For starters, I'll plan to add the H2 as probably only 1% or 2% of the gas mixture.
The setup will join a large (2.75" X 36") tube and smaller (2" X 12") tube with airline hose and recirculate/mix gas with a small air pump. The small tube will hold the air pump along with MQ gas sensors, while the larger one will contain most of the gas atmosphere along with a volume of water and a water pump. I will probably put a few inches of plastic bioballs in the bottom of the 2.75" cylinder for microbial colonization.
Everything will hang up on the wall as a display with my wall-mount hardware.
My O-ring seals leak, a lot. So I'm going to have to problem solve some more and make new top & bottom caps. O-ring seal design actually is more complex than it would seem. I cut those round shapes with holes for the push-connect fittings on the CNC router, then flipped them up vertically to cut the O-ring grooves on the table router. But the table router bit left conspicuous tool marks where water easily gets around the O-rings. One idea I have for improving the seal is to just stick the cap in a vice, then pull a length of abrasive cord through the groove to flatten out the tool marks. I'll have to shop around some to find a cord with a wide diameter and fine grit.
I'll keep working on this and try to have an update in a week or two.
I'm building an airtight enclosure where I can control gas composition to model alternative chemistries and metabolisms. My current favorite idea is a reducing atmosphere with H2 and other gases. Use of hydrogen gas has some serious potential hazards, but I have several layers of safety redundancy in mind. For starters, I'll plan to add the H2 as probably only 1% or 2% of the gas mixture.
The setup will join a large (2.75" X 36") tube and smaller (2" X 12") tube with airline hose and recirculate/mix gas with a small air pump. The small tube will hold the air pump along with MQ gas sensors, while the larger one will contain most of the gas atmosphere along with a volume of water and a water pump. I will probably put a few inches of plastic bioballs in the bottom of the 2.75" cylinder for microbial colonization.
Everything will hang up on the wall as a display with my wall-mount hardware.
My O-ring seals leak, a lot. So I'm going to have to problem solve some more and make new top & bottom caps. O-ring seal design actually is more complex than it would seem. I cut those round shapes with holes for the push-connect fittings on the CNC router, then flipped them up vertically to cut the O-ring grooves on the table router. But the table router bit left conspicuous tool marks where water easily gets around the O-rings. One idea I have for improving the seal is to just stick the cap in a vice, then pull a length of abrasive cord through the groove to flatten out the tool marks. I'll have to shop around some to find a cord with a wide diameter and fine grit.
I'll keep working on this and try to have an update in a week or two.
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