Question

Each astronaut produces 8.8 × 102 g CO2 per day that must be removed from the air on the shuttle. If a typical shuttle mission is 9 days, and the shuttle can carry 3.50 × 104 g LiOH, what is the maximum number of people the shuttle can safely carry for one mission?

Answer 1

The reaction of removing CO2 using LiOH is the following:

2 LiOH + CO2 -----> Li2CO3 + H2O

By solving the amount of CO2 the LiOH can scrub:

(3.50 × 10^4 g LiOH) (1 mol LiOH/ 24 g LiOH) ( 1 mol CO2 / 2 mol LiOH) ( 44 g CO2 /1 mol CO2) = 32, 083.33 g CO2 it can scrub

Since number of astronaut = 32, 083.33 g / 9 (8.8 × 10^2) = 4 astronaut