ON THE CUTTING EDGE: BYOB?
NASA is having problems with the newly installed $250 million system that’s supposed to recycle urine and other wastewater into purified drinking water for astronauts while they live aboard the International Space Station, reports Reuters:
The system shut down twice during initial attempts on Thursday and Friday to begin the distillation process on precollected samples of urine. …
The U.S. space agency needs the system to be running perfectly for 90 days before expanding the station's crew.
The shuttle arrived on Sunday and is scheduled to leave the outpost on Thursday. NASA wants the shuttle to bring home samples from the station's water purifier for analysis and may keep the ship and its crew at the station an extra day if needed.
"The No. 1 priority is to return the water sample," said Endeavour commander Chris Ferguson. "If we have to stay the extra day to do that we certainly will."
Residents of the station will need to recycle their urine and other wastewater because the space shuttles, which produce water as a byproduct of their electrical systems, will no longer fly to the outpost after 2010 and it is too expensive to haul as much water as the crew will need on unmanned cargo ships.
Station commander Mike Fincke says he “fully expected” the glitches because “no matter how well we plan on the ground or test on the ground, you really need to test-fly it.” Until they iron out the bugs, Tang anyone?
BTW: The International Space Station turned 10 years old on November 20th.
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