The apparently
successful fix of a solar array-rotating gear and a recycling system that turns
urine into drinkable water have set the stage for the International Space Station
to ramp up to six-astronaut crews next year, but only after a battery of tests
confirm the repairs, NASA officials said Tuesday.
Space
station program manager Mike Suffredini said the in-space repairs by station
and Endeavour shuttle astronauts to the urine
recycler and a massive starboard-side gear have put the orbiting lab on
course for next year's plan to double the size of its current three-person crews.
"I would
say we're on the right track," Suffredini said of the repairs, adding that
Endeavour's mission is capping a series of recent shuttle missions to expand
the space station. "We've made a major step towards a six-person crew with just
one flight."
Astronauts
proudly displayed a batch of the recycled water to NASA television cameras on Tuesday.
It was labeled with a sign reading "Yesterday's Coffee," a running joke among
the crew, which has said the new recycler turns "yesterday's coffee into
today's coffee."
Foundation
set for crew boost
The first
six-person crew is expected to take
up residence aboard the station in late May of next year. Those astronauts
will be greeted by a host of vital systems delivered
aboard Endeavour.
Commanded
by astronaut Chris Ferguson, Endeavour's seven-astronaut crew arrived at the
space station last week carrying a new crewmember, two spare bedrooms, exercise
gear, a second kitchen and bathroom along with the recycling system for urine
and wastewater.
Also aboard
were three astronauts who performed a four-spacewalk
overhaul the 10-foot (3-meter) wide gear by replacing bearings, greasing up
its metal ring and cleaning metal shavings from its delicate
mechanism. The gear is one of two designed to rotate the space station's
wing-like solar arrays so they always face the sun and maximize power, but it
hasn't worked properly in over a year.
Suffredini
said the fixes by Endeavour's crew appear to have done the trick. Flight
controllers rotated the repaired gear for three hours early Tuesday as the
space station orbited Earth twice. But weeks of more tests will determine the full measure of the repair, Suffredini said.
So, too,
with the urine recycler, which astronauts spent days repairing after a series
of start-up glitches late last week. The high-tech wastewater system is designed to collect astronaut
urine, sweat and other condensate and filter it through a seven-step process back
into potable water. The end result is fresh water for drinking, food
preparation, bathing and oxygen generation.
The ability
to recycle urine and wastewater aboard the station is vital to support larger
crews since it reduces the amount of potable water delivered to the orbiting lab
aboard visiting spacecraft. That saved space, about the equivalent of about 743
gallons (2,850 liters) per year, frees up room for other cargo and supplies.
NASA
extended the Endeavour crew's mission by a day to allow the extra work, which
included removing small vibration dampeners and adding braces to bolt a centrifuge
down more securely. The repair appeared to be a success, with the recycler processing urine as designed for more than five hours Tuesday.
Endeavour will return six quart-size (1-liter) samples of the recycled water for
analysis. Engineers expect to spend three months testing the system before
clearing the water for astronaut consumption.
"You have to remember that this is serial number 001 for one
our brand new technologies which we're testing out here on space station," said
Endeavour astronaut Don Pettit. "So you can expect to have a few hiccups."
NASA is
providing live coverage of Endeavour's STS-126 mission on NASA TV. Click here for SPACE.com's
mission coverage and NASA TV feed.
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