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The dwarf planet Ceres, one of the most intriguing objects in the solar system, is gushing water vapour from its unusual ice-covered surface, scientists said on Wednesday in a finding that raises the question of whether it might be hospitable to life.

Bringing water to that supercritical phase (high pressurization and temperature) renders it into an oxidation agent of organic material with pure CO_2 and H2O as products. Less waste volume in the ISS. Also, all contained salts precipitate out at that phase.

Droplets already bounce off water-repellent surfaces, but scientists have engineered materials that speed up the bounce to repel water faster. Even the brief contact time between a surface and a droplet that bounces off it can allow water to freeze or collect on the surface and cause damage.

interesting initiative - also with respect to "space and water" a theme we should explore a bit better in my view ...

cool let's go find life on enceladus! oh no we are going to Jupiter first... no more saturn before... 20...30...years !?

On the basis of molecular dynamics simulations, we propose a design for a molecular water pump. The design uses a combination of charges positioned adjacent to a nanopore and is inspired by the structure of channels in the cellular membrane that conduct w

what to think about that? spoiling important ressources, smart idea?, and is it really cheap?

Technology/Robotics Scientists have developed an octopus-like robot, which can zoom through water with ultra-fast propulsion and acceleration never before seen in man-made underwater vehicles. Most fast aquatic animals are sleek and slender to help them move easily through the water but cephalopods, such as the octopus, are capable of high-speed escapes by filling their bodies with water and then quickly expelling it to dart away.

Sorry, did not see your entry when posting mine ...

"Roughly one quarter of all the water that humans take from the planet goes into food that nobody eats"... and such

"Cast your name into deep space in style!"

Interesting approach, but with 99.9% probability they will miserably fail (at least in terms of their time schedule) simply because the technology is untested. I haven't read the refs (which miss by the way important works of E. Ahedo et al. on magnetic nozzle acceleration by ambipolar effects), but 1. using water means that you produce oxygen radicals which will erode chamber walls (ionisation efficiency is not 100% and experimental tests haven't been performed yet). 2. Electronic excitation (and radiation), rotational excitation, vibrational excitation, and dissociation are all processes which consume energy and reduce ionisation efficiency drastically. 3. It is a miniaturised Helicon thruster. Theoretical analysis probably does not consider near field effects. Far field models are probably not applicable due to the size of the thruster. I expect some surprises during thruster testing. In any case - good luck!

Apparently, there is only one qualification constraint regarding CubeSat propulsion which is related to volatile propellant. Since they use water as propellant and are also the owner of the CubeSat it is actually up to them how they qualify their thruster. Given that it is also possible to qualify the thruster within 18 months - since they define what "qualification" means.

An hypothesis for explaining missing shoreline traces of ancient water ocean on mars: Some 3.4 billion years ago, giant meteoroids slammed into a frigid ocean covering Mars's northern hemisphere. The impacts kicked up enormous waves that raced across the water and swamped the shoreline, research suggests. On the scale of planetary catastrophes, such tsunamis would have dwarfed most Earthly ones.

Water-soaked grains of carbon superconduct at room temperature, claim a team of physicists from Germany

Two independent teams have made ultrathin, cabon-based membranes with extraordinary properties that could be used in a range of applications, from water filtration to petroleum processing.

The WorldView2 satellite has a maximum 50 cm resolution and a water penetrating coastal band in the far-blue part of the spectrum that allows it to see deeper into the water column. Using an image covering 113 km2, we identified 55 probable whales and 23 other features that are possibly whales, with a further 13 objects that are only detected by the coastal band.

The underground lake is big enough to cover Kenia's water need for the next 70 years