Alt text:

At least they’re not alone down there.

https://explainxkcd.com/2978/

You are viewing a single thread.
View all comments View context
1 point

But not all water is useful.

We have a lot of non useful water on Earth in the oceans that has too much salt.

Water from non-Earth sources might contain dissolved minerals at poisonous levels for agriculture, much less human consumption.

And if there’s liquid water from a non-Earth setting, there might be some kind of unknown exo-organisms living in it.

permalink
report
parent
reply
1 point
*

Water from non-Earth sources might contain dissolved minerals at poisonous levels for agriculture, much less human consumption.

Oh yeah, it’s practically guaranteed to contain nasty stuff! We’re gonna drink it anyway though.

Most of that water on earth that we’d consider “not useful” would fall into the “100% useful” category if found in space. As long as the contaminants have a different boiling temperature from water, you can always boil the water into steam in order to separate it. Or you could also use electrolysis to separate out the hydrogen and oxygen and then recombine then in clean tanks.

These are expensive methods of purification, energy intensive, but solar panels really well with no atmosphere and 24/7 sun exposure, so this is all feasible.

permalink
report
parent
reply

xkcd

!xkcd@lemmy.world

Create post

A community for a webcomic of romance, sarcasm, math, and language.

Community stats

  • 1.7K

    Monthly active users

  • 196

    Posts

  • 1.4K

    Comments

Community moderators