Skip to main content
Space Exploration

You are not logged in. Your edit will be placed in a queue until it is peer reviewed.

We welcome edits that make the post easier to understand and more valuable for readers. Because community members review edits, please try to make the post substantially better than how you found it, for example, by fixing grammar or adding additional resources and hyperlinks.

22
  • 14
    $\begingroup$ Each day, roughly 43.3 (metric) tons of meteoric matter enters the Earth's atmosphere. That material is ~1.72% nickel. So we get ~740 kg of nickel per day from natural sources. (FWIW, there's a fairly wide range of values for the total meteoroid flux on the Net, ranging from 10⁷ to 10⁹ kg/year, but the value I used seems to be the one most frequently used in recent work). $\endgroup$
    – PM 2Ring
    Commented Mar 13, 2021 at 12:13
  • 3
    $\begingroup$ Note that the batteries on ISS were nickel-hydrogen, not nickel-metal-hydride. They contained gaseous hydrogen. $\endgroup$
    – Tristan
    Commented Mar 14, 2021 at 6:04
  • 4
    $\begingroup$ Wait. So let me get this. We're getting Nickelback? No, somebody stop the music :D $\endgroup$
    – user39728
    Commented Mar 15, 2021 at 2:59
  • 4
    $\begingroup$ I actually worked with Nickel in the lab in grad school. The pure metal oxidizes super fast in the atmosphere at high temperatures (e.g., if it's burning like a meteorite). We'll get lots of Nickel oxide, but probably no metallic nickel is my guess. $\endgroup$
    – user39728
    Commented Mar 15, 2021 at 3:02
  • 2
    $\begingroup$ It actually depends on the oxide film that forms. If it were aluminum, the film would block the diffusion of oxygen through the metal, so the oxidation would stop and the rest of the metal would be protected and stay pure. If it were iron, the oxide would form porous scales through which oxygen would diffuse to keep eating away at the iron inside until eventually only iron oxide was left. I think Nickel is more like iron than aluminum, but I don't remember. $\endgroup$
    – user39728
    Commented Mar 15, 2021 at 3:44