The Raelian Movement
for those who are not afraid of the future : http://www.rael.org
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Life on earth could be transformed by NASA space technology
http://www.physorg.com/news/2010-10-life-earth-nasa-space-technology.html
October 21, 2010 By Ruth Dasso Marlaire
For years, NASA has been developing technology to establish
long-duration human presence in space. As part of this ongoing effort,
NASA developed a closed-loop system that recycles urine and gray water
into drinking water. In addition, recent research suggests that it
also may be used to generate and store energy, which would not only
benefit space habitats and travel, but may have application on Earth
as well.
Recently, the U.S. Congress passed the 2010 NASA Authorization Act (S.
3729), which establishes a commitment to human exploration for our
nation's civilian space program. According to lawmakers, technologies
developed for space may help motivate and accelerate the development
of technologies and industrial capabilities for widespread
applications. As part of NASA's life support research, scientists at
NASA's Ames Research Center, Moffett Field, Calif., have started
developing the needed infrastructure for sustainable economic
activities in space.
"Our initial interest was recovering drinking water from hygiene
(gray) water," said Michael Flynn, a research scientist at Ames. "By
collaborating with outside entities, an off-the-shelf forward osmosis
membrane was developed that we later used to recover drinking water
from wastewater and grow algae in seawater as a biofuel. Today, we are
researching power generation from the forward osmosis process."
Results of these findings were recently presented at the International
Conference on Environmental System in Barcelona Spain.
Sponsored by the Exploration Technology Development Program in NASA's
Exploration Systems Mission Directorate, Ames scientists have been
researching forward osmosis (FO) technology. It is a process that
purifies water by drawing it through a membrane, leaving behind
organics and dissolved solids.
Originally developed for NASA's exploration life support water recycle
hardware, this technology is called the Direct Osmotic Concentration
system (DOC). The DOC membrane also was used to examine and develop
short mission commercial products for emergency and contingency water
recovery. Soon after the initial prototype was delivered to Ames, NASA
targeted the DOC technology for rapid development.
NASA was not the only entity to use these commercial FO membrane
products, which also were used for disaster relief, military
operations and recreational wilderness travel applications. These
products use the principle of forward osmosis to draw water from a
contaminated source across a cellulose triacetate membrane into a
sugar solution that is then safe to drink.
The success of the DOC project soon lead to the development of the
Light Weight Contingency Water Recovery System (LWC-WRS) project,
which recovers water from urine. By adding activated carbon to the
forward osmosis process, this new system removes the majority of
organic carbon impurities from urine. The treated water then becomes a
refreshing, thirst-quenching drink for any human on Earth, or floating
in space.
As these space technologies continue to evolve, they also are being
repurposed for application on Earth. An example is NASA's
Sustainability Base, a candidate for the Leadership in Energy and
Environmental Design (LEED) platinum-certified office building being
constructed at Ames. A modified water recovery system will be
installed to reduce water consumption. The new system will filter the
building's gray water so it can be used for irrigation and toilets.
"Sustainability Base will be a showcase of NASA technologies," said
Steve Zornetzer, associate director at Ames. "NASA is leading the way
with its innovation and ideas that have the potential to transform our
country's overall energy and environmental performance."
Sponsored by a Google Inc. Green Technology Grant, the latest concept
for osmotic technology is the Pressure Retarded forward Osmosis power
with Tertiary Treatment, referred to as PRO/TT. This new technology
not only not only treats water, but it also generates power.
In the PRO/TT process, wastewater is placed on one side of a membrane
and seawater is placed on the opposite side. This develops an osmotic
potential across the membrane, which causes water from the wastewater
to pass through the membrane and dilute the seawater. This filtered
water increases the pressure of the diluted seawater until the osmotic
potential is equalized. Energy from the increased pressure then can be
harvested as hydraulic power through a turbine.
"It's like the energy created from a dam. The water's pressure spins a
turbine to create energy," said Flynn.
Perhaps like the Hoover Dam that has improved millions of Americans'
lives by generating power for homes and industry, NASA technology may
be re-used to improve conditions and life on Earth by solving some of
our country's environmental challenges.
Provided by JPL/NASA (news : web)
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"Ethics" is simply a last-gasp attempt by deist conservatives and
orthodox dogmatics to keep humanity in ignorance and obscurantism,
through the well tried fermentation of fear, the fear of science and
new technologies.
There is nothing glorious about what our ancestors call history,
it is simply a succession of mistakes, intolerances and violations.
On the contrary, let us embrace Science and the new technologies
unfettered, for it is these which will liberate mankind from the
myth of god, and free us from our age old fears, from disease,
death and the sweat of labour.
Rael
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