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To: Red Badger
The sand temperature on Arrakis is 345° to 350°K (72-77°C), dropping by 25° above the sand ground level and by 55° underground. Shade reduces the temperature by approximately 18°. Survival on the surface of Arrakis is borderline impossible on the open desert without the use of a stillsuit, a special survival mechanism which reduces body temperature to survivable levels and includes a near-perfect water recycling system.

This is a physical impossibility to survive without exterior energy sources or significant water.

The temperature of the air is given at about 72 degrees minus 25 degrees Celcius. That is 48 degrees C or 118 degrees F. When the air temperature is above 100 degrees F, the body cannot cool itself by conduction. It has to cool itself by radiation or evaporation of water.

With the ground temperature much higher than the air temperature, cooling by radiation is essentially nil. It is far more likely heat would be *gained* by reflective radiation from the ground, not to mention solar energy.

That leaves evaporation, which is the major mechanism for human bodies to cool. It requires the evaporation of water. The evaporated water carries the heat away into the atmosphere. If the water is condensed, the heat of evaporation is returned to where it is condensed.

Thus, a "stillsuit" receives the heat the body has dumped, and has to release that heat to the environment, without giving it back to the body.

I suspect clever engineering with a compact, high energy source, could do it, perhaps by radiating the heat from a very hot radiator, shielded from the body. But, it requires a lot of energy to do it.

You cannot do it with muscle energy from the same body you are trying to cool.

It is just another suspension of disbelief, piled on many others in the novel. Good science fiction has one, around which the story is built.

I suppose it was a good fantasy novel, with quite a bit of magic disguised as technology.

48 posted on 05/20/2021 11:32:14 AM PDT by marktwain (President Trump and his supporters are the Resistance. His opponents are the Reactionaries. )
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To: marktwain

Could not the energy of heat be recycled as well?

Thermoelectric devices are common. I use one at work every day, both thermocouples and a thermoelectric heat/cool device in our products we sell to government, civilian and military use all over the world.

One device gets very hot when DC voltage is applied in one direction, and gets freezing cold when applied in the other direction.


49 posted on 05/20/2021 11:46:45 AM PDT by Red Badger (Jesus said there is no marriage in Heaven. That's why they call it Heaven.....................)
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