“buyonant”
“the the”
I remember when the Scientific American was a great science magazine. Now, it could use a little proofreading by someone who speaks English.
How much sun/star light are you going to get when you’re halfway to Alpha Centauri? Better bring some Duracells.
You don’t “make oxygen from water.”
A molecule of water is an oxygen atom bonded to two hydrogen atoms.
You can break the bonds of two water molecules and get an O2 molecule and 2 H2 molecules, but the oxygen already existed and was not made, which would require a nuclear reaction.
Use a centrifuge.
And the problem of the weight to carry enough water for water needs and to convert it to Oxygen??
70 gallons of water at room temp weighs about 600 pounds. And how many gallons of water would a long distance space vehicle have to carry - for water and for oxygen?? So their is a weight issue.
Then at what temperature will it be kept. If a gallon of water is not kept warm in a space vehicle it could freeze. Then you have a different problem. A gallon of water turned to ice has more volume than it had as water - it needs more room. The practical implication of that adds to the size of the vehcile needed.
Then whether the weight of the water or the mass of the ship large enough to carry it, you have a question of the additional energy meeded to lift and propel a ship that can carry all that water in space. That requirement has to be considered also.
Splitting the atoms may actually turn out to be the easier thing to do than the practicality of employing it for spaceflight.
I don’t get the suspense.
Make the foam in 0-gee, move the container to a centrifugr. Or just accelerate it and pull it back like a pump.
Sure is a lot of propaganda in SA these days. Remember when it was a solid ecience mag.
I forget - dont the different gasses go to opposite electrodes (+/-) ??
So even if the bubbles dont rise, a constant flow of water from each separate electrode into a mesh filter (catching the respective bubbles) should work.
no?
centrifuge motion (someone else mentioned) also should separate gas from liquid