Can water be use as propulsion in a form of steam?

Question

Let say NASA built a space ship, assemble it in space, can water be use as propusion in a form of steam? It can be easily heated in space to form a steam, pls don't vent your steam on me tnx. ;-)

Correct me if im wrong, the space station uses some type of ammonia to cool down the modules. This means that is not that hard to boil water on space. You can divert water in special tank (BOILER) no need to have flame to turn that water to steam, and just divert that steam towards the back of the space ship. If this tank is position stratigecally being exposed to the sun light, diverting a gallon of water to that tank, will turn that water into steam in second?

Answer 1

Certainly, practically anything can if it's put under pressure!

Answer 2

I thought about this myself a while back, steam could possibly be used directional thrusters but not as a lifting force to carry a spaceship out into space, i had a dream about living on a comet and mining ice from the comet to use as fuel for the steam rockets that would be used to change the course of the comet ever so slightly, also ice mined from the comet could be broken down into oxygen and hydrogen and hydrogen can be used a fuel to produce energy to run the electronics and life support if there was a colony on the comet, oxygen could come from the ice as well and as the comet travels it could be used as a slow boat to anywhere.

Answer 3

Yes, if it is under alot of pressure because in space if you just push something little bit it will travel forever until it is stoped by a force equall and opposite to it.

Answer 4

It could certainly be a good propellant. But if they had to use fossil fuels to heat it up, it might not be worth while.

and if there ever is a large human presence in space, water to drink might be a big piority. If that's the case they might need to look to other propellants.

Answer 5

yes. but it still needs an energy source to heat the water.

Answer 6

Steam is used to drive about all ships.
In space, finding water might be unlikely. As for hydrogen, it is supposed to be fairly common.
It is something that has been considered as possible source of propulsion for interstellar craft.

Answer 7

I'm not an expert on the subject but I know that water only exists as water and not ice or gas on earth because of atmospheric pressure. Do you think that would propose a problem being that the spaceship is in outerspace? If it could be used as a form of propulsion in outerspace it would seem largely innefficient to me. Just my opinion.

Answer 8

Yes, and it would be a good idea if water wasn't so dense and an incompressible liquid that expands when it freezes.

One boat motor uses water as an impellor to push itself forward. The water is taken on board compressed by the engine and thrown out the rear to send the boat forward. This idea could be used in space, but not with water; instead hydrogen is a much better fuel. The Bussard Ramjet engine uses a magnetic field to gather in hydrogen to feed a fusion engine to run the spacecraft.

Nuclear reactors use water as a coolant and to create steam to turn a turbine. We use water on earth because it can be easily turned into a liquid and a gas. In space with different temperatures it would be wiser to use a different material. The advantage of water is that on Earth you can find it easily and it is easy to design for the increase in volume and pressure since we have been using steam engines for so long.

Water is fairly common in space (rings and on comets), but not common enough to use as fuel. Instead it is much more valuable because we need it to drink. We can also use water to be broken down and provide valuable oxygen and hydrogen that you can burn in an engine. Water is much too valuable to simply toss out the rear of a spacecraft.

NASA is spending a lot of time and money to try and find water on the Moon and Mars because it would vastly simplify any manned expedition to either place and it is a valuable requirement before a permanent camp can be established.

Water is so valuable that in a few science fiction stories astronauts go as far as the rings of Saturn to tow it back so that it can be used on Mars or in Earth orbit. It costs a huge amount of energy to lift water into space and NASA does what it can to conserve it on the International Space Station to keep costs in line.

The ion engine is based on something similar to what you have in mind. It uses a small amount of metallic powder that can be ionized and fired out the rear at great speed. This is what is propelling the current probe to Pluto. The ion engine is very slow, but it can provide acceleration over a long period of time and now that probe is the fastest moving object ever invented by man. Before that the record was held by the Voyager probes and they got most of their acceleration by gravity slingshots, their rockets are only there to make course adjustments.

- A nuclear reactor would supply more than enough heat to create steam. This heat can also create high pressure steam. In a vacuum the boiling points would drop since it is dependent on pressure, but you would want to heat your water so you can keep the steam pressure high.
- Rockets burn hydrogen and oxygen and don’t use water, but the fuel can be made out of water. The combustion of the hydrogen, which can’t be done without oxygen, is what propels them.
- True there is no oxygen in space, that is why rockets have to carry it with them.
- Compressed gas can be used as a propellant and most satellites store nitrogen for attitude correction, however you get much more energy if you burn the fuel.

Answer 9

sure it can, we've been doing that for quite a while, its called a steam engine, or even more recently, the mechanical parts of a nuclear reactor.

but the question is how much steam do you need? In the case of space it would have to be a loss system, aka, you would have to leave steam so that your rocket could push against it with more steam, so how much water do you plan on bringing along to waste as steam?

you would be better off bringing a chemical that expanded a heck of a lot more than water when you convert it to a gas, like maybe, ROCKET FUEL, so that when it oxidizes it expands to many, many more times its volume than liquid water to steam...

simply put, more bang for buck with rocket fuel.


what I think your confusing is that in space the exhaust from the rocket is essential for the rockets propulsion, a closed steam engine wouldn't have any exhaust, and as such, the rocket wouldn't move, no matter how much steam drove the propeller ;)))

Answer 10

Compressed gas (air, steam, or anything else) can be used for propulsion. However, the energy density is very low compared to rocket fuel. 100 pounds of compressed gas will have less stored energy than 100 pounds of rocket fuel, unless the gas is stored at incredibly high pressure (making it difficult to contain).

Since rockets must be as light as possible to make it into orbit, compressed gas contains too little energy to be a viable option.

Answer 11

Yes, and that has been proposed as a propulsion mechanism for the eventual Mars missions, but not as steam. The hydrogen ions from the water would be separated and used as a propellant. It was also considered because of the possibility of carrying no return fuel, but converting Martian ice to hydrogen fuel on the planet's surface and then using that to fuel the return trip, cutting down on the initial payload, currently projected as broken into three launches, assembled at the International Space Station.