Author Topic: Out of this world: Inside Japan's space colony centre  (Read 980 times)

Offline JQP

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Out of this world: Inside Japan's space colony centre

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A newly created Space Colony Research centre led by Japan's first female astronaut is bringing cutting-edge technology to bear on one of mankind's greatest questions: Can we live in space?

Tucked away in high-tech laboratories at the Tokyo University of Science, a team of 30 researchers directed by Chiaki Mukai are studying new ways to keep humans alive on a potential moon or Mars colony.

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One of her team's innovations is a unique food production system using liquid plasma created by passing high-voltage electricity through a saline solution.

This reduces the damaging algae usually formed in water when growing crops, and tests simulating conditions in space have shown that potatoes can be grown quicker and more efficiently using this system.

The Space Colony Research Centre has also developed a system to create electricity using tiny thermoelectric sensors about the size of an iPod Nano that could be attached to a potential colony.

The colony would be kept at comfortable room temperature, but outside it would vary between 130 degrees Celsius (266 Fahrenheit) during the day and -230 at night.

The technology harnesses the difference in temperature—heat flux—between inside and outside to create enough electricity to "power an entire space colony," said Tsutomu Lida, in charge of the project.

"The same device can be used for day and night. There are no moving parts, so there is no maintenance required," said Lida.
« Last Edit: 03/31/2018 05:34 pm by JQP »

Offline Elmar Moelzer

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Re: Out of this world: Inside Japan's space colony centre
« Reply #1 on: 03/31/2018 02:10 pm »
Hmm, the link seems to be broken?

Offline JQP

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Re: Out of this world: Inside Japan's space colony centre
« Reply #2 on: 03/31/2018 05:34 pm »
Fixed. Sorry about that.

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