Honda is seeking to the celebrities for its subsequent hydrogen breakthrough.
The automaker is teaming up with area tech firms Sierra Area and Tec-Masters to check its high-differential strain water electrolysis system on the Worldwide Area Station. The check is a part of Honda’s imaginative and prescient to assist life on the Moon and elsewhere in area utilizing regenerative gas cell expertise that repeatedly produces hydrogen, oxygen, and electrical energy.
It’s one other dangerous transfer from Honda, which is extra bullish on hydrogen than most different automakers. Hydrogen-powered automobiles have traditionally confronted a number of hurdles, together with fueling challenges and pricing pressures. However Honda is relying on hydrogen to assist it decarbonize its automobile fleet by 2040. And now it desires to faucet into essentially the most plentiful factor within the universe to energy its push into area.
Honda says it envisions its hydrogen-powered regenerative system as a part of a human settlement on the lunar floor. Nevertheless it additionally hopes that by stress testing the expertise on the Moon, it may well show its utility on Earth.
It’s one other dangerous transfer from Honda, which is extra bullish on hydrogen than most different automakers
Right here’s how Honda’s system works: in the course of the lunar day, the system will use electrical energy generated by photo voltaic panels capturing daylight. The corporate’s high-differential strain water electrolysis system will then produce hydrogen and oxygen from water. When the Moon rotates away from the Solar, a number of the oxygen will probably be used for astronauts, with the remaining put towards producing electrical energy. The one byproduct of the electrolysis course of is water, which is recycled again into the regenerative system, making a closed-loop power cycle.
Honda plans on testing the method within the microgravity atmosphere on the ISS. The corporate says it’ll work with NASA to move the tools on Sierra Space’s Dream Chaser spaceplane, with Tec-Masters because the ISS expertise professional.
Making a dependable supply of oxygen and electrical energy in area would assist people set up livable habitats off-Earth in an period when area journey appears extra achievable than ever. Whereas the science group has explored using electrolysis as a way to maintain life within the vacuum of area, it has discovered that low gravity environments could have some impact on the gas-evolving course of. A study published in 2022 concluded that round 11 p.c much less oxygen was created by electrolysis in a lunar atmosphere as in comparison with the gravity of Earth.