Digest Number 713

On Monday 29 September 2003 16:38, Al Globus wrote:
> On Saturday, September 27, 2003, at 03:09 AM, Michael wrote:
> > How do you propose extracting and purifying the metals in a zero-G
> > environment?
>
> One interesting proposal is to heat the metals (or anything else) until
> it's a gas, then heat them some more until you strip off a few
> electrons. You can then use electric fields to guide them where you
> want them; the difference in charge between elements allowing quite a
> bit of control, at least in principle. Obviously, a little R&D may be
> necessary to make this really work.
(...)

Also, you wouldn't do the separation in zero g unless you want to. You would
have centrifuge gravity and then you would be able to use the *same*
separation process as on Earth. (With possible advantages, like eliminating
air contamination by running vacuum-exposed separations.)

Lucio Coelho