 It's amazing what you can recycle in a closed system isn't it.
"Water-recycling technology has not been installed on the ISS because the shuttle visits the ISS regularly. The shuttle creates water during flight because it uses fuel cells that "burn" hydrogen and oxygen to produce electricity.
Fuel cells are a very cool technology that's just starting to reach the point where it's feasible to think about having one in the basement to provide clean and reliable electricity for your house without an electricity network. They have been used on the shuttle for nearly 20 years.
Anyhow, as a result, when the shuttle docks it has bags and bags of pure water. This is water is de-ionised and taken to the ISS, where it is stored in great big balloons. I think there can be several tons of water in the station at any given time. As a result, the ISS isn't yet as aggressive about recycling urine as Mir was.
I think the plan calls for urine recycling to come on stream at a future date, when the crew will be expanded and the shuttle visits might not bring enough water. Also, if we are going to get to Mars and beyond, we need to be able to recycle 100% of the food and water, which means both solid and liquid waste, and the ISS may well get to test drive some of those systems in the future. " - Mark ShuttleworthAnd it might have just gone out with the sh-t and that was 2002. Labels: International Space Station, recycling, Space Shuttle, water power |
