Astronauts aboard
NASA's shuttle Endeavour were due for some much-deserved rest Sunday to take a
break from a busy flight packed with space station upgrades and water recycler
malfunctions.
Endeavour
commander Chris Ferguson and his six crewmates have nearly half the day set
aside for relaxation as they give the International Space Station the orbital
version of an extreme makeover. Their space station crewmates, meanwhile, will
try to repair the station's finicky new water recycler.
"They are
not scheduled for any activities," said Ginger Kerrick, the mission's lead
space station flight director, of the shuttle crew in a briefing late Saturday.
"It's been a long mission...they really need to take that time off."
Endeavour launched
toward the station Nov. 14 carrying a new member of the outpost's
three-person crew and equipment required to set the stage for the push to
full six-person missions to the orbiting lab next May. In addition to the water
recycler, which is working in fits and starts to process
urine into drinking water, the astronauts delivered two spare bedrooms, a
second kitchen and bathroom, an all-in-one exercise machine and a space food
fridge.
While some
of the astronauts installed that cargo and other fresh supplies, their
crewmates were working outside on three of the mission's four spacewalks to
clean and grease an ailing solar array gear. The next spacewalk is set for
Monday to wrap up that work and perform other tasks.
But today,
flight controllers hoped Endeavour's crew will take in the view of Earth and
other luxuries
of spaceflight.
"The view up
here is truly amazing," Endeavour pilot Eric Boe said Friday. "And just
getting the
chance to float around and see how large the space station is, it's an incredible
feat that's happened."
Water
recycler repair
Endeavour
mission specialist Don Pettit, who lived aboard the space station for more than
five months when it was much smaller, said before flight that he hoped to hunt
down his favorite tools and other items he left behind. But he will likely not
spend too much time at play today.
Station
commander Michael Fincke radioed Mission Control late Saturday to ask if
Pettit, a consummate tinkerer, could assist him in an attempt to repair the
station's balky water recycler.
Known as
the Water
Recovery System, the intricate system is part of the space station's $250
million attempt at a U.S. regenerative life support system. It's designed to
collect astronaut urine, wastewater and sweat from the cabin atmosphere, and
then distill it back into pure water for drinking, food preparation, oxygen
generation or other uses.
The system
must function if the space station is to begin supporting double-sized crews
next year. But a perplexing glitch with its urine processor has limited
operations to around two hours at a time.
Kerrick said
engineers believe the cause is two-fold. First, a sensor appears to be coming
into contact with a centrifuge that spins urine in the distillation process,
leading the motor driving the system to draw too much power and shut down. Then, a set to of isolators - shock absorbers to limit vibrations - may be making the glitch worse.
Fincke is
expected to spend about two hours removing the shock absorbers in an attempt to
eliminate the interference.
"We never
know what we're going to get when we first flight test a piece of aerospace
equipment," Fincke told reporters on Friday. "As a flight test engineer, I
fully expected things not to work perfectly."
Even with
the glitch, astronauts have managed to process some urine through the water
recycler along with wastewater and condensate from the atmosphere. Some samples
of the water are being tested for purity aboard the station, while others will
be returned to Earth for analysis.
NASA
engineers have planned about 90 days' worth of tests to ensure water recycled
through the system is fit for consumption.
Fincke said
Friday that NASA engineers and the joint station-shuttle crew will find a
solution to the water recycler's woes.
"Sure,
we're scratching our heads on a few things, but I'm confident that, with this
crew, there's just no way that we can fail," he said.
advertisement
