05. Can we make the air we breathe? (RR) (A K2S Question)

From The Space Library

In some cases we can make air. Water as we know it is made up of hydrogen and oxygen. If we pass electricity through water it breaks up the molecule and we get hydrogen and oxygen. So that's another way to bring air with us—carry water up there. When humans travel back to the Moon or to other planets like Mars they will need oxygen to breathe. They can either carry up pure oxygen which is heavy and expensive to do or they can carry up water and make oxygen like the Shuttle and Space Station do today, or they can do something called in-situ resource utilization. In-situ means they might be able to make their oxygen from water that is found on the planet instead of bringing the water with them.

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Answer provided by Lonnie Moffitt & Russell Romanella

Question and Answer extracted from the book Kids to Space - by Lonnie Schorer

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