Saw some in transit on a highway yesterday. What do they do?
I was wondering if there are any good research papers with regards to producing heavy gases that could be used to create small pockets of a thicker atmosphere.
One of the main benefits of course is the density of gaseous SF6, which is about 6.17kg/m3 versus 1.5kg/m3 for pure O2.
Imagine if we built our bases in the canyons or craters of Mars.
If the depth of such a canyon or crater was just 2000m, then the atmospheric pressure by filling such a hole with SF6 would be around 45kPa, which is almost half of our surface pressure on Earth.
Though not breatheable, it would make a lot of things easier. Not having to wear as bulky pressurized suits is one of the benefits to this idea.
Mineralogical surveys of Mars that estimate the elemental presence of fluorine in the bulk composition of Mars at 32 ppm by mass (as compared to 19.4 ppm for the Earth).
So besides setting up the needed infrastructure to produce CFC's on Mars, the resources could theoretically be abundant enough for production.
What are your thoughts? Do you think it would be insanely stupid to try and change the atmospheric conditions in small pockets around the planet? The heavier gases wouldn't be blown away as easily either so perhaps it could be sustainable to produce?
For fun, what it their were random chance (similar to mactera spawn, golden bugs, etc) of all the voice audio being either really squeaky or really low?
