# Would liquid water from another planet be drinkable? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [April 2, 2019, 1:41am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/would-liquid-water-from-another-planet-be-drinkable/831900 "2019-04-02T01:41:40Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![XT](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/xt/32/456_2.png) [@XT](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/XT)\ **Post date:** [April 2, 2019, 1:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/would-liquid-water-from-another-planet-be-drinkable/831900/21 "2019-04-02T13:33:12Z")
I’m going to go out on a limb here, but if we manage to get astronauts to another planet they will have a water filter with them. 😉 So, yes…it would be safe to drink the water, since it would just be water. ---
**Author:** ![Tim\_T-Bonham.net](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/46a35a/32.png) [@Tim\_T-Bonham.net](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tim_T-Bonham.net)\ **Post date:** [April 2, 2019, 8:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/would-liquid-water-from-another-planet-be-drinkable/831900/22 "2019-04-02T20:10:59Z")
> [@Czarcasm](#): > > “Liquid water”? Here in Minnesota, we are well acquainted with the concept of non-liquid water. Even in April, we still have piles of it at various locations. ---
**Author:** ![Tim\_T-Bonham.net](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/46a35a/32.png) [@Tim\_T-Bonham.net](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tim_T-Bonham.net)\ **Post date:** [April 2, 2019, 8:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/would-liquid-water-from-another-planet-be-drinkable/831900/23 "2019-04-02T20:15:16Z")
> [@CalMeacham](#): > > In Arthur C. Clarke’s book _2061; Odyssey Three_, an astronaut drinks water made from melted comet ice. The only result is a case of diarrhea. > > I personally wouldn’t drink untreated comet ice. It’s _known_ to harbor other, possibly toxic chemical compounds, including ammonia and (IIRC) cyanides. But Clarke evidently thought they’d be too diluted to cause problems. Theoretical plans for colonizing the moon, Mars, etc. often include capturing ice comets as a source of water for terra-forming the area. (Turns out the problem is _keeping_ the liquid water there, in low gravity.) But presumably there would be filtering plants before drinking the water. After all, we do that with the water here on Earth, too. ---
**Author:** ![Czarcasm](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/czarcasm/32/4050_2.png) [@Czarcasm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Czarcasm)\ **Post date:** [April 2, 2019, 8:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/would-liquid-water-from-another-planet-be-drinkable/831900/24 "2019-04-02T20:26:59Z")
> [@Tim\_T-Bonham.net](#): > > Here in Minnesota, we are well acquainted with the concept of non-liquid water. Even in April, we still have piles of it at various locations. I know all the forms of water, but when the subject is _drinking_ water, does it really need to be preceded by the word “liquid”? ---
**Author:** ![Stranger\_On\_A\_Train](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/13edae/32.png) [@Stranger\_On\_A\_Train](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Stranger_On_A_Train)\ **Post date:** [April 2, 2019, 8:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/would-liquid-water-from-another-planet-be-drinkable/831900/25 "2019-04-02T20:30:32Z")
> [@Tim\_T-Bonham.net](#): > > Theoretical plans for colonizing the moon, Mars, etc. often include capturing ice comets as a source of water for terra-forming the area. (Turns out the problem is _keeping_ the liquid water there, in low gravity.) But presumably there would be filtering plants before drinking the water. After all, we do that with the water here on Earth, too. Assuming that you have an essentially unlimited supply of (solar) energy, separating and purifying water is straightforward. Although the particular techniques have not been developed or proven out, evaporation and distillation can produce virtually pure water. Stranger ---
**Author:** ![Tim\_T-Bonham.net](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/46a35a/32.png) [@Tim\_T-Bonham.net](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tim_T-Bonham.net)\ **Post date:** [April 2, 2019, 8:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/would-liquid-water-from-another-planet-be-drinkable/831900/26 "2019-04-02T20:42:48Z")
> [@Czarcasm](#): > > I know all the forms of water, but when the subject is _drinking_ water, does it really need to be preceded by the word “liquid”? You don’t put ice in your drinks? What are you, some Englishman who drinks warm beer? 🙂 And don’t say that they don’t drink it until it’s melted. I once worked next to an annoying co-worker who crunched ice all day long. ---
**Author:** ![Atamasama](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/atamasama/32/12961_2.png) [@Atamasama](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Atamasama)\ **Post date:** [April 2, 2019, 9:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/would-liquid-water-from-another-planet-be-drinkable/831900/27 "2019-04-02T21:08:01Z")
> [@Tim\_T-Bonham.net](#): > > Here in Minnesota, we are well acquainted with the concept of non-liquid water. Even in April, we still have piles of it at various locations. Also, dehydrated water comes in powder form. ---
**Author:** ![XT](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/xt/32/456_2.png) [@XT](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/XT)\ **Post date:** [April 2, 2019, 9:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/would-liquid-water-from-another-planet-be-drinkable/831900/28 "2019-04-02T21:10:55Z")
> [@Atamasama](#): > > Also, dehydrated water comes in powder form. That is brilliant! You just add water and you have real, clean, cold water! Someone should market this! ---
**Author:** ![TroutMan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/troutman/32/6721_2.png) [@TroutMan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TroutMan)\ **Post date:** [April 2, 2019, 9:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/would-liquid-water-from-another-planet-be-drinkable/831900/29 "2019-04-02T21:31:45Z")
> [@Derleth](#): > > Heavy water is only mildly toxic. > > [ThoughtCo](https://www.thoughtco.com/can-you-drink-heavy-water-607731):So you’d need to live on it for a little while before it became a problem. [Tritiated water](https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/is-radioactive-hydrogen-in-drinking-water-a-cancer-threat/) (i.e., water with tritium, or [sup]3[/sup]H) is radioactive, and would take much less to cause problems for humans. The only stable isotopes of Oxygen are O-16, -17, and -18. All of theses could presumably be found at significant concentrations on a planet depending on the planet’s sun. But I can’t find anything about the toxicity of water with O-17 or O-18. ---
**Author:** ![engineer\_comp\_geek](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/engineer_comp_geek/32/504_2.png) [@engineer\_comp\_geek](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/engineer_comp_geek)\ **Post date:** [April 2, 2019, 9:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/would-liquid-water-from-another-planet-be-drinkable/831900/30 "2019-04-02T21:58:47Z")
> [@XT](#): > > That is brilliant! You just add water and you have real, clean, cold water! Someone should market this! It’s currently selling for $10 per can on Amazon. That’s pretty good marketing, IMHO. ---
**Author:** ![GreysonCarlisle](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/a87d85/32.png) [@GreysonCarlisle](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GreysonCarlisle)\ **Post date:** [April 2, 2019, 10:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/would-liquid-water-from-another-planet-be-drinkable/831900/31 "2019-04-02T22:16:10Z")
There may be cases where, due to temperature and pressure, the water is liquid on the planet but freezes or boils when brought inside the human-friendly living space (let alone when put inside a human). For instance, because of the atmospheric pressure of the planet, the water is liquid but it’s also 300 degrees C, so it’d immediately boil (or explode) when brought inside where the pressure is more Earth-like. ---
**Author:** ![XT](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/xt/32/456_2.png) [@XT](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/XT)\ **Post date:** [April 2, 2019, 10:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/would-liquid-water-from-another-planet-be-drinkable/831900/32 "2019-04-02T22:32:12Z")
> [@engineer\_comp\_geek](#): > > It’s currently selling for $10 per can on Amazon. That’s pretty good marketing, IMHO. Absolutely. And a bargain at double the price! I’m going to order a case of it, in the event of a power failure or the end of the world I’ll always have water I can mix up with just some water! I’m set! ---
**Author:** ![Folly](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/folly/32/3219_2.png) [@Folly](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Folly)\ **Post date:** [April 2, 2019, 10:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/would-liquid-water-from-another-planet-be-drinkable/831900/33 "2019-04-02T22:43:12Z")
> [@XT](#): > > Absolutely. And a bargain at double the price! I’m going to order a case of it, in the event of a power failure or the end of the world I’ll always have water I can mix up with just some water! I’m set! I’m going to sell my own with a little salt at the bottom and call it dehydrated mineral water… ---
**Author:** ![am77494](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/d2c977/32.png) [@am77494](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/am77494)\ **Post date:** [April 3, 2019, 2:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/would-liquid-water-from-another-planet-be-drinkable/831900/34 "2019-04-03T02:11:06Z")
> [@Stranger\_On\_A\_Train](#): > > Assuming that you have an essentially unlimited supply of (solar) energy, separating and purifying water is straightforward. Although the particular techniques have not been developed or proven out, evaporation and distillation can produce virtually pure water. > > Stranger Agree; however water can form Azeotropes, which can be broken but it is non-trivial. The most popular Azeotrope is water-ethanol which normal distillation is not able to break. Here are a list of other water Azeotropes : [Azeotrope tables - Wikipedia](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Azeotrope_tables) There is also the possibility that water comes with something very corrosive like Hydrogen-fluoride or nitric acid which will be a nightmare to separate in space (it could be done but it’s not trivial). Also I know some planets have ammonia and raises the possibility of having hydrazine too. So if you an explosive compound like hydrazine, distillation again will be non trivial. ---
**Author:** ![eburacum45](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/eburacum45/32/8690_2.png) [@eburacum45](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/eburacum45)\ **Post date:** [April 3, 2019, 6:47am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/would-liquid-water-from-another-planet-be-drinkable/831900/35 "2019-04-03T06:47:45Z")
The liquid water that exists in our solar system is nearly all salty, so would be undrinkable without treatment. Europa is covered in brown discolouration that seems to come from salt deposits on the surface, probably sodium chloride but there may be other materials there as well. Maybe the ice in a comet would be more pure, but that seems unlikely, since many comets are coated with a tar-like carbonaceous residue. Mars water will probably be contaminated with some nasty stuff, like calcium and magnesium perchlorate. So the outlook for fresh water in the Solar System looks grim. The largest reservoirs of water in the system may be inside Uranus and Neptune; current theories include a mantle of high-pressure ice inside each giant, mostly water but also including ammonia and methane ices. These reservoirs of material are very inaccessible, and would be in a particularly dangerous state in situ - if you could teleport the ice straight out of Neptune’s ice mantle, it would be at such a high temperature and pressure that it would immediately boil explosively. ---
**Author:** ![HeyHomie](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/heyhomie/32/207_2.png) [@HeyHomie](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/HeyHomie)\ **Post date:** [April 3, 2019, 3:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/would-liquid-water-from-another-planet-be-drinkable/831900/36 "2019-04-03T15:41:17Z")
If I could cabbage a related question onto this one: Is it possible to produce chemically pure H2O (as in, no adulterants of any kind) in a laboratory? Is it safe to drink? Is this “distilled” or “purified” or “whatever” water you buy at the grocery store chemically pure H2O? ---
**Author:** ![Stranger\_On\_A\_Train](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/13edae/32.png) [@Stranger\_On\_A\_Train](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Stranger_On_A_Train)\ **Post date:** [April 3, 2019, 4:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/would-liquid-water-from-another-planet-be-drinkable/831900/37 "2019-04-03T16:09:31Z")
> [@HeyHomie](#): > > Is it possible to produce chemically pure H2O (as in, no adulterants of any kind) in a laboratory? Is it safe to drink? Is this “distilled” or “purified” or “whatever” water you buy at the grocery store chemically pure H2O? There are differing grades of purity as designated by standards established by the American Society for Testing and Materials (ASTM), Clinical and Laboratory Standards Institute (CLSI), the American Chemical Society (ACS), US Pharmacopeia (USP), the International Standards Organization (ISO), and others. The required standard and means to achieve it depend on the particular application. The stuff you purchase in thr grocery store as distilled water is basically the poorest grade of purified water (not counting filtered bottled drinking water that is advertized as “purified” even though it meets no particular standard) and is contaminated just by virtue of being stored in high density polyethylene jugs. Chemically pure H[SUB]2[/SUB]O poses no health risks beyond that it will tend to more aggressively bond and remove alkali salts simply because it isn’t carrying any. You’d have to drink a considerable amount of water without replacing those compounds from food for this to become an issue. Stranger ---
**Author:** ![DesertDog](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/desertdog/32/11503_2.png) [@DesertDog](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DesertDog)\ **Post date:** [April 3, 2019, 4:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/would-liquid-water-from-another-planet-be-drinkable/831900/38 "2019-04-03T16:25:04Z")
> [@Atamasama](#): > > I can already see bottled Space Water on grocery store shelves and in hipster cafes. This? Oh, it’s just water from BD+49 828 b – you wouldn’t have heard of it. ---
**Author:** ![Scumpup](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ce73a5/32.png) [@Scumpup](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Scumpup)\ **Post date:** [April 3, 2019, 4:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/would-liquid-water-from-another-planet-be-drinkable/831900/39 "2019-04-03T16:33:46Z")
> [@Czarcasm](#): > > I know all the forms of water, but when the subject is _drinking_ water, does it really need to be preceded by the word “liquid”? Ever do any Winter camping or survival training? One gathers a solid form of water and then melts it to liquid for drinking water. My guess is that you would object to the terms “drinking snow” and “potable snow” too, though. ---
**Author:** ![DrDeth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/b487fb/32.png) [@DrDeth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DrDeth)\ **Post date:** [April 3, 2019, 5:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/would-liquid-water-from-another-planet-be-drinkable/831900/40 "2019-04-03T17:09:47Z")
> [@Czarcasm](#): > > “Liquid water”? Solid water= ice (many types of water Ice, also) You have likely consumed solid water. Gaseous water= steam. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/would-liquid-water-from-another-planet-be-drinkable/831900.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/would-liquid-water-from-another-planet-be-drinkable/831900.md?page=3)