With the smooth launch of the Shenzhou 14th spacecraft, astronauts Chen Dong, Liu Yang, Cai Xuzhe successfully entered the Tianhe core module and began a half-year on-orbit work and life. At this time, many friends will be curious. Astronauts live in orbit for up to half a year, and the cargo spacecraft only delivers supplies once every half a year. So where does the air that astronauts breathe in space come from? Could it be that it was brought up from the earth? That is definitely impossible. Let’s find out with the editor below.
Everyone knows that the space station is very far away from us. If the oxygen on the earth is continuously transported to the space station, the time and cost required in the middle will be huge. More importantly, this wave of air may not be there yet. When I sent it over, the previous wave of air had already been used up. Some scholars have calculated that a normal adult should inhale around 20 kilograms of air every day, and among these kilograms of air, about 1 kilogram of oxygen will be consumed by people. If calculated this way, the consumption of three astronauts in space for a day is close to 3 kilograms of . Since transportation is not possible, what other options are there?
Of course, do you remember a course called chemistry in junior high school? In the chemistry class, we learned that the composition of water is composed of H2O, and water can produce a small amount of oxygen through a violent electrolytic water reaction, and it is completely feasible in the experimental stage. I believe that if you like science, you must have tried the experiment of electrolyzing water when you were a child.
Once we understand this chemical equation, it is easier to understand how oxygen appears in space station . Whether H2O passes through electrolysis or other chemical reactions, eventually every two water molecules can automatically generate two hydrogen and an oxygen. According to currently known data and data published in some places, after one liter of water is completely electrolyzed, the oxygen obtained can be more than 600 liters. In other words, only one liter of water is enough to meet the total oxygen consumption required by an adult for a day.
At this time, you will definitely say that it is so difficult to transport oxygen to space. Isn’t it equally difficult to transport water? Of course, this is not easy, but it is much less difficult than transporting dozens of kilograms of air. And the water transported to the space station is not purely consumable, because water can achieve a certain degree of self-circulation in space.
In order to achieve long-term economic operation, the Chinese space station under construction in our country adopts the environmental control and life protection system to achieve the recycling of space station materials as much as possible. The environmental control and life protection system also plays a huge role in water recycling. Relying on the environmental control and life-saving system, the water vapor exhaled by astronauts can be collected through the condensation drying component on the space station, and then converted into drinkable recycled water through the purification device. Urine can also be collected and processed into drinkable pure water. According to the law of human body parameters, an astronaut produces about 2.0 kilograms of urine and flushing water in a day in orbit. During a day of activities, the human body discharges about 1.8 kilograms of moisture into the cabin. The astronaut's urine and the water in the cabin are The condensed water and are collected and then purified, which can be used as one of the important sources of water in the space station.
In addition to water, electrolyzing water also requires another important factor, which is electric energy. In fact, the easiest thing to solve in space is electric energy. In addition to the electric energy of the space station itself, what is more important is the sunlight that the space station can absorb. The power generated by light and other functions, so if the power of the space station itself is used reasonably and compliantly, theoretically it will be within a controllable range.
Of course, it is not enough to have the above electrolyzed water in the space station. After all, if there is an emergency, emergency oxygen must be available to provide breathing, so for the space station, there are some pressurized oxygen tanks and solid fuel oxygen generator is still very necessary.
This will inevitably involve chemical reaction equations, so I won’t go into details. In short, through violent reactions, a large amount of oxygen can be generated for the astronauts in the space station to breathe.
In the course of human history, external exploration has been driving the continuous progress of human society. External exploration here includes not only efforts to explore space exploration, ocean exploration, and other unknown areas.
The emergence of the space station will allow humans to continue exploring areas beyond the earth for more and longer periods of time. While satisfying human curiosity, it will also promote human progress as much as possible.
pays high respect to the International Space Station , the domestic space station, the astronauts on the space station and the scientists behind it .
