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From: REM%IMSSS@SU-AI.ARPA (Robert Elton Maas)
Newsgroups: net.space
Subject: fossil fuels, space station
Message-ID: <8603031904.AA09006@s1-b.arpa>
Date: Mon, 3-Mar-86 15:21:13 EST
Article-I.D.: s1-b.8603031904.AA09006
Posted: Mon Mar  3 15:21:13 1986
Date-Received: Wed, 5-Mar-86 04:05:07 EST
Sender: daemon@ucbvax.BERKELEY.EDU
Organization: The ARPA Internet
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But if you find massive amounts of methane, and you burn it to make
energy, you deplete the oxygen in the atmosphere, replacing it by
carbon dioxide and water vapor. You have to get rid of that carbon
dioxide, for example by dissolving it in water and letting it combine
with minerals to form carbonate, or by having a great increase in
plant life so that the carbon dioxide gets incorporated in biomass and
then the plants die and sink to the bottom of the ocean, but in either
case then you have an atmosphere with neither oxygen nor carbon
dioxide in it, just 99% nitrogen and 1% argon etc.

Space platform to fasten things to will prevent them drifting
aimlessly and needing individual tracking and re-rendezvous. Therefore
I'm in favor of immediate construction of a space platform to fasten
things to between the time they're launched and the time they're
fitted together. Pressurized crew quarters, power bus, etc. can be
added to the platform later as needed. But a canonical place to stash
things so they don't drift around and collide with each other or other
things (STS) or get lost, seems first priority in the "space station" category.