Water Recycler Installed On ISS
Posted on: Thursday, 20 November 2008, 08:05 CST
On Wednesday, astronauts installed a water recycling system and two new bedrooms aboard the International Space Station.
The installations are part of a final effort to finish the $100 billion ISS before NASA retires the space shuttle in 2010.
Over the last decade, the shuttle fleet has provided construction, delivery, and repair services for the ISS. Above all else, the shuttle has provided nearly all the water needed to support the three crew members aboard the space station.
NASA and its 16 partnering nations plan to increase the ISS’s crew size from three to six next year. The move will make water recycling important.
The new water recycling system turns urine, condensation from the air, and wastewater into drinkable water.
The plans for renovations and upgrades during shuttle Endeavour’s 11-day stay are nearly a day ahead of schedule.
On Thursday, NASA plans to run the first samples of urine through the newly installed system. A gallon of processed wastewater will return to Earth with the shuttle to be analyzed by NASA.
NASA wants the system to be operating for 90 days before crewmembers are cleared to drink the processed water.
On Wednesday, the astronauts installed two sleeping compartments in the ISS’s Harmony node. Two more compartments will be delivered on upcoming shuttle flights in July 2009 and February 2010.
Spacewalkers Stephen Bowen, Shane Kimbrough, and Heidemarie Stefanyshyn-Piper prepared for the second of four spacewalks scheduled during Endeavour’s stay at the ISS.
Bowen and Stefanyshyn-Piper completed the first walk on Tuesday, despite watching a bag of their tools float off into space.
"That definitely was not the high point of the EVA (extravehicular activity) or spacewalk," Stefanyshyn-Piper said. "It was very disheartening to watch it float away."
According to NASA, the bag was filled with $100,000 worth of equipment needed to repair a solar wing panel joint.
Stefanyshyn-Piper used tools from Bowen’s bag to complete Tuesday’s work.
Endeavour’s 15-day mission began last Friday and will continue until the shuttle returns to Kennedy Space Center on November 29.
NASA has nine more missions planned before the shuttles are retired on September 30, 2010.
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Image Caption: Interior view of the Leonardo Multi-Purpose Logistics Module attached to the Earth-facing port of the International Space Station's Harmony node. Leonardo was moved from Space Shuttle Endeavour's cargo bay and linked to the station on Nov. 17, carrying two water recovery systems racks for recycling urine into potable water, a second toilet system, new gallery components, two new food warmers, a food refrigerator, an experiment freezer, combustion science experiment rack, two separate sleeping quarters and a resistance exercise device (aRED) that allows station crewmembers to perform a variety of exercises. (NASA)
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Source: redOrbit Staff & Wire Reports
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