New Technology Would Halve the Weight of Hydrogen and Oxygen Production in Microgravity

There are a number of obvious tech protocols that are simple, but die on the design board because of hardware overhead.  just think about steam engines.

So we have a new tech pathway that just could make a real difference and that is good news.

At .least no one is  suggesting we master a black hole today.

New Technology Would Halve the Weight of Hydrogen and Oxygen Production in Microgravity

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• New Technology Would Halve the Weight of Hydrogen and Oxygen Production in Microgravity
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• January 7, 2024 by Brian Wang
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• A new approach would use a magnetohydrodynamic electrolytic cell to extract and separate oxygen and hydrogen gas without moving parts in microgravity. This removes the need for a forced water recirculation loop and associated ancillary equipment such as pumps or centrifuges. Preliminary estimations indicate that the integration of functionalities leads to up to 50% mass budget reductions with respect to the Oxygen Generation Assembly architecture for a 99% reliability level. These values apply to a standard four-crew Mars transfer with 3.36 kg oxygen consumption per day.
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• A NASA NIAC Phase 1 study will analyze the feasibility of the concept and its integration into a suitable oxygen production architecture, motivating this proposal. Its successful development would effectively enable the recycling of water and oxygen in long-term space travel. Additional technologies of interest to NASA and the general public, such as water-based SmallSat propulsion or in-situ resource utilization, would also benefit from the concepts introduced here.