Some new high-tech gear slated for
launch this year will prepare the International Space Station (ISS) to
permanently double its current three-astronaut population.
A new toilet, a pair of astronaut
bedrooms and a handy new system that recycles
urine into pure, drinkable water are on the docket for a fall
shuttle flight to the space station, where they'll be tested before the outpost
can scale up to six-person crews next year.
"Our biggest question right now is
getting our life support systems working so we have enough for six-person
crew," said NASA astronaut Mike Fincke, who will launch to the station in October to command the Expedition
18 crew that will oversee the new equipment's installation. "Right now, we're
running kind of a water deficit and it's being supplemented by the shuttle."
The station's new Water Reclamation
System, a refrigerator-sized filtration and recycler unit, is designed to ease
that shuttle dependence and help make larger crews more self-sufficient. It is
scheduled to launch alongside the new toilet and phone booth-sized sleeping
chambers in November aboard NASA's shuttle Endeavour, which will also ferry
NASA astronaut Sandra Magnus to the station to join its Expedition 18 crew.
"By getting the crew quarters
deployed, we'll have extra bedrooms," Magnus said. The station's Russian Zvezda
service module currently contains the station's main crew quarters.
Life support from the toilet?
The water recycling system distills
urine to recover its water, then feeds it into a processor along with other
wastewater to undergo a series of steps for filtration, treatment and
purification.
Magnus told reporters last week that
she and her crewmates will test water samples from the system for purity every
four days for about three months. If all goes well, the system would help
support the station's planned shift to a six-person crew late next spring.
It can also be used to feed the
station's U.S.-built oxygen generator, which uses electrolysis to
split liquid water into breathable oxygen and waste hydrogen. Astronauts
delivered the generator in 2006 and tested it before shutting it down to await
the water recycling system's delivery.
"That water is going to be used not
just for drinking and food preparation, but also for oxygen generation," Fincke
said in the briefing last week. "And I think that's a key component of life
support because I think we're all addicted to breathing."
Recycle, reuse, repeat
Together the oxygen generator and
water recycler serve as the core of NASA's Regenerative Environmental Control
and Life Support System aboard the station.
Working together, they are expected
to reduce the amount of regular water and supplies that have to be shipped to
the space station by about 15,000 pounds (6,800 kg) each year. That would be
especially vital once NASA's main orbital workhorse, its aging three-space
shuttle fleet, retires in 2010 to make way for the smaller Orion crew capsule.
Each pound of supplies saved would
allow another pound of science experiments or other equipment to fly, Fincke
added.
"Recycling will be an essential
part of daily life for future astronauts, whether on board the space station or
living on the moon," NASA's space station program manager Mike Suffredini
has said. "Delivering this hardware is an important step in achieving the
station's full potential, allowing for additional crew members and more
scientific research."
New space potty
The water recycler will be plugged
into the brand new toilet, which is actually a Russian-built commode that NASA bought for $19 million to be installed in the station's
U.S. segment.
A similar toilet has been in
operation in the station's Russian Zvezda service module for the last seven
years. When it broke down earlier this summer, NASA and Russia sent replacement
parts up during a June space shuttle mission to repair it.
"The engineer and scientist in me
say, 'Yeah, it's no problem. It's probably purer water than most of what we
drink or ever have drunk before,'" Fincke said with a laugh. "On the other
hand, it's still kind of funny to know where that water's been. It's a good
thing we're a close crew."
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