Honda links arms with JAXA to prepare humans for life in outer space with 'circulative renewable energy system'

Honda and the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) have agreed to embark on a joint feasibility study to supply oxygen, hydrogen, and electricity to humans and rovers in outer space. The circulative renewable energy system is the subject of a three-year research agreement signed in November 2020 and intended for use on …

[Anonymous Coward]

Question

For a Lunar base, assuming a Lunar source of water, H2O to H and O makes sense, just as Perseverance's MOXIE experiment (Martian air CO2 to C and O) makes sense.

But I fail to see the utility for the Lunar Gateway. I suppose you can mine Lunar water and ship it to the Lunar Gateway for electrolysis but solar panels on the Moon can generate much more electricity so, to me, it would make sense to put your kit on the Moon and ship the finished product to the Gateway.

In any case, I wish the boffins well because 1) space and 2) I want a hydrogen car.

[lglethal]

Re: Question

The Lunar Gateway is a stepping stone. Basically, we know how to make a space station. We know how to work and live, and keep astronauts alive on a space station. So it makes sense to start by having a space station. And then to start with the lunar bases.

It also makes sense to have a handy escape location should things start going wrong in said lunar base. The energy required to get up to the Lunar gateway is bugger all compared to the energy that would be required to get all the way back to Earth if things go pear shaped. It's also a good idea to have a close location to fall back to if things start looking hairy, for the Astronauts to be safe and able to think clearly, and then plan what needs to be done to repair the problems, restock and head back down. Heading all the way back to Earth first and then back again would be a much more expensive and much longer time period before you get back to fix the problems, and much more likely to no longer be salvagable by the time you get back...

[gandalfcn]

"Car maker" ? Please, please try and be a bit less partisan / bigoted.

[lglethal]

Huh?

OK i suppose if you wanted to get more precise you could say "Car, Truck and Motorcycle maker". But Honda dont really export much more than that, at least not under the name Honda. And that is definitely where the majority of their profits come from. So I really have no idea what you're objecting to.

No doubt Honda do research in other things (like fuel cells), but those are primarily to help advance their Car business.

It's like objecting to calling Google an Ad-slinger. Sure they have a few other products around (Search, Nest, various IoT bollocks), but they make the vast majority of their money slinging Ads, and most of those other products are designed to gather info on you to feed back into their Ad algorithms, so by sure they are nothing more than an Ad Slinger. Everything else is just semantics...

[gandalfcn]

Honda is better known as a motorcycle manufacturer and they are also famous for robotics and AI. Its robotics research has helped medical science.

[Francis Boyle]

How about?

Honda, creator of the worlds most useless robot.

[gandalfcn]

Re: How about?

Bless. I suggest you actually learn something about ASIMO and the spin-offs.

[Spherical Cow]

Carbon?

To be a truly circular system they need to do something with the carbon breathed out by the humans. Growing food is one obvious option but needs big infrastructure.