NASA flub on TV

[Michaeljp86]

I was watching the news about that test they did to look for water on the moon. They talked to a guy from NASA and asked why they want to find water on the moon. He said for drinking water for a space station and the hydrogen in water can be used to fuel rockets. Anyone else see that? Im wondering if NASA knows how to use water as fuel.

[Philldpapill]

What do you mean "use water as a fuel"? Water is essentially "hydrogen ash". It has no chemical energy in it, and requires energy to turn it back into a fuel, hydrogen/oxygen.

[Michaeljp86]

What do you mean "use water as a fuel"? Water is essentially "hydrogen ash". It has no chemical energy in it, and requires energy to turn it back into a fuel, hydrogen/oxygen.

But if they plan on using water to fuel rockets they must know how to split the water efficiently.

[Buster]

I believe it's always sunny on the moon!

[Helz_McFugly]

thats a big "Roger" "Roger" The sun is-a-shining all the time up there. unless you travel to far in any direction youll find darkness, but you dont want to do that or Ozzy will be there to grab you. but yea michael I saw a program about that before they shot the moon. Im sure they are going to use it for way more then rocket fuel. the one i saw said they would use it as "fuel" (H2) and air to breath (O2). and they can lay acres of solor panels.

[Michaeljp86]

thats a big "Roger" "Roger" The sun is-a-shining all the time up there. unless you travel to far in any direction youll find darkness, but you dont want to do that or Ozzy will be there to grab you. but yea michael I saw a program about that before they shot the moon. Im sure they are going to use it for way more then rocket fuel. the one i saw said they would use it as "fuel" (H2) and air to breath (O2). and they can lay acres of solor panels.

There was some guy I seen on TV and his house was all powered and heated by water. He had solar panels that split the water and he stored the HHO in tanks. Then ran the gas through a fuel cell to make electricity. I wish we could see nasas method, Im sure they know how to split water way better then we do.

[Philldpapill]

They do. It's called "thermolysis" - basically high temperature electrolysis. I'm no expert, but from what I've read, it's a fairly simple process...

Rather than trying to convert ALL of the solar radiation to electricity to run electrolysis, they use a parabolic reflector to focus a large amount of sunlight onto the "reactor"(modified electrolysis cell). This gets the water SUPER hot, THEN they run normal electrolysis on it. The reason that it works so well, is that you are supplying a large amount of the energy required to break the H20 apart, as heat. On the moon, heat is super cheap and this method takes alot less space and cost. Pretty cool, IMO, but I doubt we could do it as hobbyists. The temperatures involved are higher than the melting point of lead. Much higher.