Any Star Wars fan worth his shipment of spice will, of course, recognize the tall, white object in the photo above: it’s a moisture vaporator, a marvelous machine that pulls fresh water out of the very air and enables human life to survive on the desert planet Tatooine. Nifty idea, but it’s just science fiction, right?
Apparently not… Wired.com is reporting that a company called Aqua Sciences has developed a machine that does exactly what Uncle Owen’s condensor units supposedly did, and cheaply to boot (about 25 cents to the gallon, according to the company’s website). Naturally, the first customer is the Pentagon, which has long sought a way to keep U.S. troops easily supplied with a sustainable water source while operating in arid places like Iraq.
The company spokesman quoted in the article is coy about how the thing works — it’s apparently got something to do with salt — but the gadget is described as a “20-foot machine [that] can churn out 600 gallons of water a day without using or producing toxic materials and byproducts.” In addition, the machine is not dependent on humidity, like other types of condensation-type technology. Very cool… the only thing I find disappointing is that the actual units look more like ordinary reefer trailers than anything Luke Skywalker ever tinkered with. Ah, well… that’s the curse of being a science-fiction fan, I guess: nothing ever looks as cool when it’s finally invented for real as it did when it was imagined in the movies.
