Astronauts install urine to water recycler

[peejay 327]

Astronauts install water recycler

Crew may not need to extend mission after all

By MARK CARREAU

2008 Houston Chronicle

Nov. 20, 2008, 12:40AM

Shuttle Endeavour's astronauts on Wednesday furnished the international space station with a $250 million water recycler as they surged ahead of schedule to expand the orbital outpost.

The recycler, designed to turn urine, wash water and other wastes into drinking water, may be activated later today for a trial run. But NASA won't let the astronauts drink from it until samples are tested for purity back on Earth.

Since docking with the station on Sunday, Endeavour's seven astronauts have exceeded expectations.

The astronauts have teamed with the station's three permanent residents to equip the orbiting facility with enough equipment to double its accommodations — a toilet, a kitchen, two small bedrooms, exercise equipment and the water system — all one day ahead of schedule.

Three astronauts have lived aboard the station, in six-month tours, for the past eight years.

"It's great work." Ginger Kerrick, the space station's lead flight director, said from Houston's Mission Control. "The crew got way ahead."

The internal work is going so well that mission managers may no longer need to extend Endeavour's flight as they had planned, Kerrick said.

The length of the mission will be determined by the time it takes to activate the water recycler. Samples of the recycled water could be available by the middle of next week under the accelerated work schedule.

The recycler, equal in volume to a pair of refrigerator-freezers placed side by side, has been more than a decade in development, said NASA's Robert Bagdigian.

The purity should match, if not exceed, the quality produced by a municipal water-treatment facility, he said.

Water is a precious commodity aboard the space station. Using solar power, it is separated into its chemical components, oxygen for the station's breathing air and hydrogen vented into space. Water is used to rehydrate food consumed by the astronauts, as well as for drinking.

Once in operation, the recycler will reduce the amount of water ferried by the shuttle by nearly 2,000 gallons, or about 15,000 pounds, annually.

http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/front/6122150.html

[almaty 19]

hmmm..

$250 million..i had a co-worker, who drank piss..said it was the purest form of liquid.....cost nothing i assume...

[Teacher Mark 53]

Urine a lot of trouble boy!

http://www.visajourney.com/forums/index.ph...86&hl=urine