Astronauts in space may be able the breathe easy using oxygen with magnets, here’s how

It is a complicated and costly process to keep astronauts breathing aboard the International Space Station (ISS) and other space vehicles. An international team of scientists has proposed using magnetism to create oxygen for astronauts in space. Let’s learn more about it!

About the discovery

A study published in the journal npj Microgravity demonstrates for the first time in microgravity that gas bubbles can be ‘attracted to and repelled from’ a simple neodymium magnet by immersing them in various types of an aqueous solution. The findings could pave the way for scientists and engineers working on oxygen systems, as well as other space research involving liquid-to-gas phase changes. On the ISS, oxygen is produced by an electrolytic cell that splits water into hydrogen and oxygen, but those gases must then be removed from the system.

NASA currently uses centrifuges to force the gases out, but these machines are large and require a lot of mass, power, and upkeep. Meanwhile, the team has conducted experiments that show magnets can achieve similar results in some cases. Although diamagnetic forces are well known and understood, engineers have not fully explored their use in space applications because gravity makes the technology difficult to demonstrate on Earth.

The team successfully conducted experimental tests at a special drop tower facility that simulates microgravity conditions during the study. They devised a method for separating gas bubbles from electrode surfaces in microgravity environments created for 9.2 seconds at the Bremen Drop Tower.

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