P3_8 Elysium: How Fast Did the Atmosphere Escape?

Abstract

In this paper, the rates at which the atmosphere of the roofless Elysium space-station would escape for var- ious atmospheric angular velocities were considered. The resulting relative mass flow rates were calculated to be between 3.6 × 10⁻⁵ - 2.4 × 10⁻⁴M/s. From these, the times over which the entire atmospheric mass, M, would be replenished ranged between 1.2 - 7.8 hours, leading to an impractical space-station.