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From: mears@hpindda.cup.hp.com (David Mears)
Newsgroups: sci.space.shuttle
Subject: Re: Re:  Water dump...
Message-ID: <3330034@hpindda.cup.hp.com>
Date: 20 Dec 90 23:30:37 GMT
References: <10212@jarthur.Claremont.EDU>
Organization: HP Information Networks, Cupertino, CA
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> / jdishaw@cbrown.claremont.edu (Pom Ac Comp Staff) /  8:42 am  Dec 20, 1990 /
> 
> I know some of the water waste from the fuel cells gets reclaimed for
> use by the astronauts as their water supply and the rest gets dumped.
> Why don't they split the water back into hydrogen and oxygen and use it
> for the fuel cells again?  I know this isn't 100% efficient process, but
> I would think there would be some benefits.
> 
> James R. Dishaw

It seems to me like it would be a self-defeating process.  In order to
split it up again, you need energy.  To get the energy, you run the
fuel cells which produce more water.  Because it takes more energy
to split than you get when you recombine, you end up with more water
than you started with.  As they say, 1) you can't win, 2) you can't
break even, 3) you can't get out of the game.

David B. Mears
Hewlett-Packard
Cupertino CA
hplabs!hpda!mears
mears@hpinddf.cup.hp.com