9 technology from the movie "The Martian" that exist already

Today, October 8, in rolling out the film Ridley Scott's "Martian." The picture shows the technology, which seems to be, we can only dream of. In fact, many of them in one form or another have been developed NASA, the other - scientists will bring to mind for 20 years. The fact that today is a reality and not a fantasy, we tell in this article.

Residential unit

The film's protagonist, Mark Watney, is in a residential unit, when it leaves the team. NASA astronauts for 14 days bezvylazno live in HERA module, training for long-term space travel.

space farm

The film Watney grows potatoes in a residential block. In August 2015, astronauts on the ISS for the first time and tried a salad grown. And it was wonderful. The next step - tomatoes, radishes and cabbage.

ion engine

The crew of the film uses ion propulsion to reach Mars faster. In September 2007, scientists have used the ion engine to the automatic interplanetary station «Dawn» (Dawn), in order to minimize fuel consumption while traveling to dwarf planet Ceres. Now scientists are perfecting Hall-effect thruster.

Getting water

urine processing system on the ISS provides the cleanest water. She cleaner of any water that is available on Earth, says Jennifer Pruitt - Senior Engineer at NASA transformation urine into drinking water. For cleaning of the bacteria in the water was added a drop of iodine, why it becomes slightly sick flavor. But easy to get used to this.

As the Martian Mark Watney, researchers at the ISS recycle every drop of urine, sweat, tears and water used in drinking.

production of oxygen

Oxygen Generation System cleaves the used water into oxygen and hydrogen.

rover

Several rovers have traveled the world. But NASA improves the design to travel to Mars and nearby asteroids.

armor

NASA employees working on spacesuit Z-2, which is pretty strange looks, but it will allow people to explore the red planet. The main advantage of Z-2 - its reinforced top needed to work in open space.

Thanks to a luminous inserts, astronauts can be seen from afar. Scientists have provided the folds to the astronauts could bend the arms and legs. Rotating bearings and wear-resistant panel makes the suit more secure and mobile than previous models.

The radioisotope thermoelectric generator (RTG)

The generator utilizes thermal energy which is released during the natural decay of plutonium [328], and converts it into electricity. RTG is installed on board the Mars rover Curiosity. It produces 110 watts - enough to light a bulb.

The output power of the generator is small, but it is simpler and more compact than a nuclear reactor, using a chain reaction. The RTGs are no moving parts, it requires no maintenance and works for decades.

Solar panels

Solar cells - a reliable and well-proven alternative provision of energy of the spacecraft.

Finally, we offer you to watch the trailer of the film "Martian", which shows some of the above technologies.

(via)