Notes from the Martian by Andy Weir 🌱

Watney wants to make water from hydrazane fuel which is (N2H4)

N2H4 –> N2 + 2H2

2H2 + O2 –> 2H2O

In the book he made the first reaction occur somehow and then he burned the hydrogen when there was oxygen in the air to make water

• How do you extract the N2 and 2H2 separately and store it?
• How do you harness the individual elements and put them together to make this reaction happen?
• What happens to the nitrogren?

• Does it matter what form the elements are in (liquid oxygen for example)?

• add energy (you can do by adding heat) to break chemical bonds

• do something to each component that reacts differently to like and then get the remaining individual component.

• Stable: electron shells are full (not looking for electrons to fill its gaps or release)
  • valence electron shell (usually 8 is full)
• Entropy favored and enthalpy favored

Farther from earth (high altitude) –> less gravity –> fewer air molecules bound to earth (more will escape into space)–> less air pressure (air pressure can be thought of as thetotal weight of the air above a unit area at any elevation), less oxygen –> cooler temperatures since the heat is more spread out in the thinner atmosphere due to lower air pressure and also the atmosphere has less ability to absorb the warmth of the sun because they have fewer air molecules/gases (think of how space is really cold)

Waters deep in the ocean are cold despite being closer to earth’s core because water is a slow conductor of heat, the heat from the core doesn’t conduct that far since titanic pressures at the core keep the heat at the core, and partly because of thermal equilibrium (the layers above the core would have to be much cooler than the core).