Space station crew looks at starting fires with water

Given what usually happens when fire and water come together, the idea of using water to help start fires may seem contrary to reality. However, a science experiment on the International Space Station is demonstrating that when we push reality to its limits, we can get some very interesting and beneficial results.

This video from the people at NASA explains how this 'counter-intuitive' science is conducted, and shows the benefits we can reap from this promising research:

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Whenever the subject of the International Space Station comes up, there are always those who say that the amount of money and effort put into the program is wasteful and frivolous; that we should be putting that money and effort towards cleaning up our planet, helping the sick and feeding the hungry. Since much of the science that typically gets reported on tends to be about sparking the interest of school children in space, or it's about things far-removed from normal life, like the search for dark matter, that might be understandable.

However, while science is certainly conducted there for those purposes (which are far from frivolous or wasteful!), there is far more going on there than we typically hear about, and experiments like this supercritical water one are a great example of exactly how all that money and effort is going into cleaning up our planet.

To see what other kinds of experiments are being performed on the International Space station, and to see what kinds of benefits they could offer us, check out the full list on NASA's website (click here).

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