WEST LAFAYETTE, Ind. (WLFI) — During this week's Herrick Conferences at Purdue University we caught up with a visitor who had a very special project.

He and his team proved you can use a refrigerator in space.

Leon Brendel is one of the people who worked with NASA at the Purdue University Herrick Lab to see if an oil-free compressor could work in zero gravity.

That compressor — when used in a refrigerator — could potentially allow astronauts on a year-long trip to Mars to have fresh food for the duration of their journey.

NASA wondered whether the tubes used in fridges normally would allow liquid to get in and drown the compressor in zero gravity. So, Purdue researchers built this spinning fridge and took it on a parabolic flight to test it in zero and hypo gravity.

"Even with relatively normal components, components that you do use here on earth,  you can avoid this drowning of the compressor," Brendel, who is now a research scientist in Switzerland, said. "It doesn't just happen because the airplane goes into microgravity period." 

Although the experiment is done the fridge still sits in the Herrick Lab in case it can be used to help in other research for space travel. 

The fridge built at Purdue only has one small compartment that can keep food cold for experimental purposes.

A fridge for a trip to Mars with two or three astronauts would need to hold up to 5 tons of food.

"On a spacecraft energy can only come from solar panels," Brendel told News 18. "Solar panels have a weight, and the more solar panels you need, the worse. Because you want a space craft that's as light as possible. So, coming back to the refrigerator, you want one that's as efficient as possible. And the refrigerators that are currently used in space, those are very reliable, no question, but very inefficient."

This project took about three years and cost about $300,000. 

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