SPACE TECHNOLOGIES APPLIED ON THE EARTH By Aizul Fahmi Bin Nor Azurish
INTRODUCTION In the world of spaceflight, one of the greatest challenges for the people is the water supply. Human beings cannot survive without water. In the early days, people travel into space with the supply of all the water they need. The problem is, water is heavy and it occupies a large storage volume.
An astronaut with bags full of water at ISS PROBLEMS IN SPACE Space is another type of world for humans. There are too many things that outer space does not have compared to the Earth where everything that we need is available. When considering what astronauts have to take with them on a crew vehicle, we first must focus on what the astronauts need to stay alive. Some the basic items that a crew needs are air, water, and food. Water is separated into two categories, portable water (for drinking) and hygiene water (for bathing). The amount of mass that is carried on board is called the payload. (Solar System Math) Approximately 21,000 liters of water from earth would be required to supply a minimum of four crew members in space for a year. The cost for transporting one liter of water to ISS would be about $33,000 and the total for one year would be $690 million. This is a huge amount of money. Only for the water itself, millions of dollars have been spent which does not include the other costs. It is not reasonable and there should be resolutions in order to fix this problem. The best solution would be to recycle all the waste and reuse it again and again. One of the ways to keep the water supply for the crew members is by purifying the urine. (Patrick L. Barry)
URINE INTO WATER About 95% of the urine is water and another 5% for other waste products such as urea, sodium, potassium and etc. It means that we can extract the water from the urine and reuse it. (Anne Marie Helmenstine) The name of the process is called Forward Osmosis. The term osmosis describes natural process of water diffusion through a semipermeable membrane from a solution of lower concentration to the solution of higher concentration. Just like reserve osmosis, it uses a semi-permeable membrane to separate water from dissolved solutes effectively. The semipermeable membrane acts as a barrier that only allows small molecules such as water to pass through while blocking larger molecules like salt, sugar, starch, protein, virus, bacteria, and parasite . Forward osmosis occurs because of the potential difference of the salt water and the pure water while reserve osmosis requires force to make the water pass through the membrane. Figure 1 shows the difference between forward osmosis and reserve osmosis. (Hydration Technology Innovation)
SALTWORKS TECHNOLOGIES One of Vancouver’s clean-tech companies, Saltworks Technologies, has landed a contract with NASA to develop a water recovery system for the International Space Station. Saltworks Technology is a globally recognized water treatment solutions company, in Vancouver, Canada. With multiple products based on the proprietary technologies of the company, they provide innovative, energy efficient and low cost solution for the water treatment. (Bennett)
The water recovery system used in International Space Station made by Saltworks Technologies
FROM SPACE TO THE EARTH The concept is the same. We can purify the water on earth into clean water just like what has been done in space. On Earth, we have enough water but the matter is how clean the water that we have and how safe it would be for us to consume. Countries like Africa and Somalia do not have enough clean water supplies and sometimes they need to walk hundreds of miles just to get to the place where the
NASA’s Space shuttle Technology of purifying water
NASA’s Space Shuttle technology that was used for commercialized purifiers have been successfully implemented worldwide. For example, in 1994, the prime minister of Vietnam made up an order for 10,000 of the iodine-base purification units and was estimated to provide clean water to 50 to 70 million people. In 1998, a company which is under the NASA technology reported over $10 million in sales of these purifiers since their introduction. Other companies have continued to improve the technology. In 2006, a non-profit organization called Concern for Kids “CFK” purchased a modernized purification unit and installed it in the village of Kendala, Iraq with the help of NASA engineers who were designing the next production of water purification systems for space travel. CFK members noticed about the clean water failure in the tiny Kurdish village of Kendala, which left its citizens without access to drinkable water. The population quickly decreased from 1,000 residents to 150 residents. Those remaining were forced to use a nearby river that contained water contaminated by livestock, which they filtered through fabric to remove dirt and debris. Todd Harrison was president of CFK's board of directors at the time and strongly empathized with the people of Kendala. He set out on a mission to revive this community by improving the poor conditions. The solution came in the form of a familial connection that put Harrison in touch with NASA engineers who developed technology to provide clean water aboard the space station. (Arun Joshi)
The collaboration of Saltworks Technologies and USC Canada
The staffs of Saltworks Technologies together with the USC Canada volunteered themselves on a mission to raise funds for two water projects in Phapharbari, Nepal on February 2013. The projects will help two towns of 200 citizens gain access to safe and clean water and sanitation by the construction of water infrastructure. The local communities will be involved in the planning and construction and they will own the system. Kate Green, the manager of the USC’s Nepal program said, "When people half a world away, who truly know water and water issues, can partner with a remote communities to help secure clean local water systems, it is truly a global partnership,". "We are extremely proud of our team for helping raising these funds that will improve the health and welfare of residents in Phapharbari, Nepal while also providing valuable employment opportunities during the construction period." commented by Ben Sparrow, The Saltworks’ Chief Executive Officer.
About USC Canada
USC Canada’s mission is to promote good lives for family farms and rural communities and have healthy ecosystems around the world. The Canadians that engaged in this mission partners with people in Africa, Asia and Latin America , they support programs, trainings and policies that strengthen biodiversity, health recovery, and the rights of those at the heart of resilient food systems - women, indigenous peoples, and small-scale farmers. (Saltworks Technologies raises funds with USC Canada to support Nepal water projects)
FUTURE WORLD (RECYCLING)
The water issue will never end. The consumption of water in our daily lives is approximately 410,000 million gallons per day for a country. Actions that we will take are the things that can determine the
future of the civilization of people. If the water issue is still going on, in the future people will fight to get clean water. Maybe people would do business without using money anymore, they will use clean water instead. A car would probably cost you 300 litres of clean water, not 300 thousand dollars anymore. That is how the world would change when the clean water is more valuable than anything else. While recycling has become part of the daily routine for many people, the full importance of recycling is not always understood. In general, people do understand that recycling helps to minimize the overuse of the limited resources of our planet. However, there are several other factors that make recycling important. One of the great things about recycling is that the process helps to minimize the presence of waste materials in our communities. Since most of the people are not interested in having garbage dumps located near their homes or offices, recycling makes it possible to avoid creating newer and larger landfills that would be necessary to accommodate all the waste. While many people realize that recycling is good for the environment in terms of easing the demand on our limited resources, they may not realize that choosing to reuse and recycle items also make it possible to cut the cost of producing products. It would take from 73% to 95% less energy to produce aluminium cans from recycled products than it does to create them from raw materials. Therefore, the importance of recycling not only for preserving natural resources but also to easing the energy needed to manufacture various goods. (What Is the Importance of Recycling?)
CONCLUSION Every person in this world plays an important role in shaping the future. It would not be for us but for our next generation where they will live in the same planet and reuse everything that has been used by us. By learning the concept, we can start making some changes just by practicing the 3R which are reduce, reuse and recycle. It is our choice to choose to live in a better life.
References Anne Marie Helmenstine, Ph.D. About.com Chemistry. <http://chemistry.about.com/od/biochemistry/f/What-Is-The-Chemical-Composition-OfUrine.htm>. Arun Joshi, International Space Station Program Science Office. Advanced NASA Technology Supports Water Purification Efforts Worldwide. <http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/station/research/benefits/water_purification.html>. Bennett, Nelson. Vancouverâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Saltworks Technologies lands NASA contract. April, 2012. <http://www.biv.com/article/20120402/BIV0112/120409992/-1/BIV/vancouver-8217-s-saltworkstechnologies-lands-nasa-contract>. Hydration Technology Innovation. 2010. <http://www.htiwater.com/technology/forward_osmosis/>. NASA Science News. NOVEMBER, 2000. <http://science1.nasa.gov/science-news/science-atnasa/2000/ast02nov_1/>. Patrick L. Barry, Dr. Tony Phillips. "NASA Science News." 2 Nov , 2000. NASA. 28 Oct, 2013 <http://science1.nasa.gov/science-news/science-at-nasa/2000/ast02nov_1/>. Saltworks Technologies raises funds with USC Canada to support Nepal water projects. February, 2013. <http://www.saltworkstech.com/news_20130219>. "Solar System Math." Analyzing Payload Size and Cost. NASA Explorer Schools Pre-Algebra Unit , April, 2007. Struthers, Jason. Sterlitech September 2012 Newsletter. September, 2012. <http://www.sterlitech.com/news/sep-2012.html/>. What Is the Importance of Recycling? <http://www.wisegeek.com/what-is-the-importance-ofrecycling.htm>.