The air scrubbers on the space shuttle remove carbon dioxide by using lithium hydroxide (LiOH). The reaction in the air scrubbers is shown below:

CO2 + 2LiOH -- Li2CO3 + H2O

Each astronaut produces 8.8 × 10^2 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 × 10^4 g LiOH, what is the maximum number of people the shuttle can safely carry for one mission?

Question

The air scrubbers on the space shuttle remove carbon dioxide by using lithium hydroxide (LiOH). The reaction in the air scrubbers is shown below:

CO2 + 2LiOH --> Li2CO3 + H2O

Each astronaut produces 8.8 × 10^2 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 × 10^4 g LiOH, what is the maximum number of people the shuttle can safely carry for one mission?

anonymous · Answer

How far did you get? What does your setup look like?

perl · Answer

(8.8*10^2 g CO2 / day) * 9 days = 7920 grams CO2 per astronaut 

divide
3.50 * 10^4 g LiOH/ (7920 g / astronaut)= 4.419 astronauts

so since we can't have 4.4 humans, round down to 4 astronauts