空间用燃料电池是美航宇局(NASA)专门为载人航天器而研究开发的。它曾在双子星座及阿波罗宇宙飞船、天空实验室、航天飞机这些载人航天器上应用过。它的优点是质量轻、体积小、无污染,且副产物为水,因此可用它作为饮用水的来源,这对于今后建设的自由号国际空间站和月球基地等空间基地,无疑是十分诱人的。燃料电池用的是将氢与氧送入发电装置,经化合后在其电极上发电的原理。例如最近研究成功获得实用化的“磷酸型”燃料电池,它是把 Space fuel cells are developed by NASA specifically for manned spacecraft. It has been used on such manned spacecraft as Gemini and Apollo spacecraft, sky labs, and space shuttles. Its advantages are light weight, small volume, non-polluting, and water as a byproduct, so it can be used as a source of drinking water, which undoubtedly is very attractive for the future construction of space bases such as the ISS and the Moon Base . Fuel cells are used to hydrogen and oxygen into the power plant, after combining the principle of power generation in their electrodes. For example, recent research succeeded in obtaining a practical “phosphoric acid” fuel cell, which is to be used