Since its inception in 1958, NASA has been harnessing the unique properties of hydrogen to conduct missions. NASA's hydrogen and fuel cell technologies are used for many purposes.
- NASA Home
- > News & Features
- > News Topics
- > NASA Technologies
- > Hydrogen
Did You Know?
› NASA is the largest consumer of liquid hydrogen in the United States.
› NASA uses approximately 10 million pounds of liquid hydrogen per year at six locations in five states.
› In the past 45 years, NASA has purchased more than 350 million pounds of hydrogen and transported it safely across millions of miles by truck, rail and barge.
Overview
Hydrogen and Fuel Cells at NASA
Space Applications
-
NASA Develops Fuel Cells for Planetary Rovers →
NASA engineers at the Glenn Research Center are developing a fuel cell that will let planetary rovers operate longer, making possible, for example, exploration of shaded areas on Mars.
-
J-2X Powerpack Completes 2012 Testing Ahead of SLS Role →
The powerpack assembly for the Pratt & Whitney Rocketdyne (PWR) J-2X engine has completed its year of testing at NASA's Stennis Space Center in Mississippi.
-
NASA's Space Launch System Core Stage Passes Major Milestone, Ready To Start Construction
The team designing America's new flagship rocket has completed successfully a major technical review of the vehicle's core stage. NASA's Space Launch System (SLS) will take the agency's Orion spacecraft and other payloads beyond low-Earth orbit, providing a new capability for human exploration.
-
Liquid Hydrogen--the Fuel of Choice for Space Exploration
Liquid hydrogen is the signature fuel of the American space program.
Resources
Related NASA Links
Aeronautics/Ground Applications
-
NASA Partners with Community to Demonstrate Hydrogen Bus
NASA's Glenn Research Center partners with Cleveland Regional Transit Authority (RTA), the Cleveland Foundation, the Ohio Aerospace Institute and several technology development companies, to add a hydrogen-fueled demonstration bus to the RTA fleet and a hydrogen fueling station at an RTA garage.
-
NASA's Kennedy Space Center, Fla., Breaks Ground for New Liquid Hydrogen Test Site
Kennedy Space Center, Fla., Engineering Directorate has broken ground for an advanced liquid hydrogen systems test site. The site was built with a view to reducing the cost of ground hydrogen processing operations supporting both NASA and commercial launches.
-
Electric Bus Quietly Tours NASA's Kennedy Space Center, Fla.
Kennedy Space Center, Fla., has had demonstrations of many alternatively fueled vehicles in the past decade, but this was a first: an all-electric bus, which provided a quiet ride as center, state and local officials toured NASA's launch site.
-
NASA's Kennedy Space Center, Fla. looks to the Future: Energy Research, Commercial Partnerships
"There's a lot of potential for Kennedy and the workforce to be engaged with commercial partnerships," said Robert Hubbard, Partnership Development manager at Kennedy Space Center, Fla. Cella research on hydrogen storage is just one of many energy research partnerships at KSC.
-
Measuring Air Leaks into the Vacuum Space of Large Liquid Hydrogen Tanks →
NASA's Kennedy Space Center, Fla. has developed a technique to sense fill levels in large cryogenic hydrogen tanks, the purpose of which is to reduce the time between leak occurrence and leak detection.
-
Fuel Cell/Electrochemical Cell Voltage Monitor →
A concept has been developed at Johnson Space Center for a new fuel cell individual-cell-voltage monitor that can be directly connected to a multi-cell fuel cell stack for direct substack power provisioning.
-
Imidazolium-Based Polymeric Materials as Alkaline Anion-Exchange Fuel Cell Membranes →
Polymer electrolyte membrane fuel cells can be used for portable power sources. At room temperature, the new membranes developed at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) outperformed commercially available membranes by a large margin.