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Posting-Version: version B 2.10 5/3/83; site utzoo.UUCP
Path: utzoo!henry
From: henry@utzoo.UUCP (Henry Spencer)
Newsgroups: net.space
Subject: Re: next generation shuttle: electrically assisted
Message-ID: <6438@utzoo.UUCP>
Date: Wed, 26-Feb-86 14:09:48 EST
Article-I.D.: utzoo.6438
Posted: Wed Feb 26 14:09:48 1986
Date-Received: Wed, 26-Feb-86 14:09:48 EST
References: <8602232211.AA22855@s1-b.arpa>
Organization: U of Toronto Zoology
Lines: 26

> People can be launched at hundreds or thousands of g's if they
> are immersed in a fluid of the same density as the body.  The fluid
> must permeate the lungs to prevent internal damage.  Fortunately,
> fluids such as perfluorocarbons can dissolve large amounts of oxygen,
> so you don't suffocate...

This is speculation, not established fact.  Nobody has yet produced such
a fluid which has adequate capacity for *both* oxygen and carbon dioxide,
as I recall.  Getting it in (without triggering cough reflexes) and getting
it out again afterwards are also problematic.

> Another idea is to use highly compressed xenon gas (it's expensive, though).

It's also an anesthetic even at ordinary pressures, and its physiological
effects at high pressure are uncertain.

There is also a potential problem with the muscular effort needed to breathe
liquids or very-high-pressure gases; work has been done on this for
deep-diving operations.  The last report I saw estimated maximum dive depth
of about 1 mile, limited by the effort needed to breathe.  That would be
about 160 atmospheres.  This was with the lightest mix they could get --
oxygen in hydrogen (!) -- to reduce the breathing effort to the absolute
minimum.
-- 
				Henry Spencer @ U of Toronto Zoology
				{allegra,ihnp4,linus,decvax}!utzoo!henry