William Atkins
Wednesday, 12 November 2008 19:16
Science -
Space
Page 1 of 3
The STS-126 mission to the International Space Station is preparing to launch on Friday, November 14, 2008 with a Water Recovery System that will recycle every last ounce of water onboard the Station including urine. So, you want to be an astronaut? Have a urine cocktail. Cheers! To your health!
The space shuttle
Endeavour is poised to lift-off at 7:55 p.m. Eastern Standard Time (EST) on November 14, 2008, or 12:55 a.m. GMT Saturday, November 15, 2008.
Its
STS-126 crew consists of commander Christopher Ferguson, pilot Eric A. Boe, and mission specialists Donald Pettit, Stephen G. Bowen, Heidemarie Stefanyshyn-Piper, and Robert S. Kimbrough.
The NASA mission will also transport ISS Expedition 18 flight engineer Sandra Magnus for her three-month stay on the Station. The mission will return Gregory Chamitoff, who is the current flight engineer for the Expedition 18 crew.
Besides delivering the new Water Recovery System (WRS) to the ISS, the crew is also targeted to service the Solar Alpha Rotary Joints (SARJs) and repair a problem in the starboard SARJ.
The WRS is kinda like a sewage treatment plant in space because it is designed to treat and recycle all of the water used on the International Space Station.
It will recover water recovered from washing, left over from fuel cells, exhaled breath from humans, evaporated from human perspiration, and, of course, from urine.
Page two discusses the process of the WRS, along with the cost of bringing water up to the Space Station.
