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posted by janrinok on Thursday September 29 2016, @07:35PM   Printer-friendly
from the worth-a-try dept.

Submitted via IRC for Bytram

Researchers led by NASA's former chief technologist are hoping to launch a satellite carrying water as the source of its fuel. The team from Cornell University, guided by Mason Peck, want their device to become the first shoebox-sized "CubeSat" to orbit the moon, while demonstrating the potential of water as a source of spacecraft fuel. It's a safe, stable substance that's relatively common even in space, but could also find greater use here on Earth as we search for alternatives to fossil fuels.

Water is a way around this issue because it is essentially an energy carrier rather than a fuel. The Cornell team isn't planning to use water itself as a propellant but to rather use electricity from solar panels to split the water into hydrogen and oxygen and use them as the fuel. The two gasses, when recombined and ignited will burn or explode, giving out the energy that they took in during the splitting process. This combustion of gasses can be used to drive the satellite forward, gaining speed or altering its position in orbit of whichever desired planet or moon is the target.

Solar panels, with high reliability and no moving parts, are ideally suited to operate in zero gravity and in the extreme environments of space, producing current from sunlight and allowing the satellite to actively engage on its mission. Traditionally this energy is stored in batteries. But the Cornell scientists want to use it to create their fuel source by splitting the on-board water.

Source: http://phys.org/news/2016-09-space-rocket-fuel-power-revolution.html


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  • (Score: 3, Funny) by aristarchus on Friday September 30 2016, @06:27AM

    by aristarchus (2645) on Friday September 30 2016, @06:27AM (#408266) Journal

    Wow! Who knew there were so many ways to split water? I am partial, however, to "Water splitting by Iridium complexes", because Iridium, as we all know, is the primary material used to tip the nibs of fountain pens. And the inks used by fountain pens are almost entirely water. So do we have an energy source, and an output of good literature?

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