How long will it take for humans to travel long distances in space?

With the discovery of more and more Earth-like planets near the stars, long-distance space travel is one of the wishes that human beings look forward to. After that, various space agencies and private companies have advanced plans to send humans to Mars in the next few years-final colonization. This sci-fi scene seems to be within reach.

However, it is not easy for human beings to survive in space for a period of time. One of the main problems of ultra-long-distance space travel is to transport enough oxygen for astronauts to breathe, and to provide enough fuel for some complex equipment. Unfortunately, there is only a little oxygen in space, and the distance is too long, so it is difficult to replenish oxygen quickly.

But now a new study published in Nature News shows that it is possible to extract hydrogen (for fuel) and oxygen (for life) only from water. Semiconductor materials and sunlight (or stellar light) in zero gravity make continuous space travel a real possibility.

With our gradual shift from oil to renewable energy, researchers have made a decisive study on the possibility of using hydrogen as fuel, and using unlimited solar resources to provide energy for our daily life is one of the biggest difficulties on earth.

the best way is to decompose water (H2O) into its components: hydrogen and oxygen. This can be done by electrolysis, which involves running an electric current through a water sample containing some soluble substances. Electrolyte. This will decompose water into oxygen and hydrogen, which will be released at the two electrodes respectively.

although this method is technically feasible, there is no ready-made method on earth. Because we need more hydrogen infrastructure, such as hydrogen charging stations, to enlarge it.

Hydrogen and oxygen produced from water in this way can also be used as fuel on spacecraft.

In fact, launching rockets with water is much safer than launching more rocket fuel and oxygen on board, because it may be explosive. Once in space, special technology can decompose water into hydrogen and oxygen, and then use hydrogen and oxygen to maintain life or provide electricity for electronic equipment through the following ways.

In a new study, the researchers abandoned all the experimental devices of photocatalysis, and reduced it by 12 meters.

the falling tower creates a microgravity-like environment. When an object accelerates towards the earth in free fall, the effect of gravity will be weakened, because the force exerted by gravity will be offset by equal and opposite forces due to acceleration.

researchers try to prove that it is indeed possible to split water in this environment. However, when water is split to produce gas, bubbles are formed.

it is very important to remove bubbles from the catalyst material-bubbles hinder the process of gas generation. On earth, gravity makes bubbles float to the surface automatically (water near the surface is denser than bubbles, which makes them buyers)-freeing up space on the catalyst to produce the next bubble.

under zero gravity, this is impossible, and bubbles will stay on the catalyst or float around at will. However, scientists adjust the shape of nano-scale features in catalysts by creating pyramidal regions, in which bubbles can easily separate from the top and float into the medium.

but there is still a problem. In the absence of gravity, bubbles will remain in the liquid-although they are forced to leave the catalyst itself. The gas allowed by gravity can easily escape from the solution, which is very important for using the energy of pure hydrogen and oxygen. If there is no gravity, no bubbles will float to the surface and separate from the mixture-on the contrary, all gases will produce more bubbles.

this greatly reduces the efficiency of the process because it blocks the catalyst or the electrode. The engineering solution around this problem will be the key to the successful realization of space technology-one possibility is to separate the gas from the solution by using the centrifugal force generated by the rotation of the spacecraft.

However, due to this new research, we are one step closer to long-distance space travel by manned spaceflight.