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ISS Gets New Recycling Gear, Ready For Larger Crew

Posted by CmdrTaco on Thu Aug 07, 2008 09:16 AM
from the yay-for-august dept.
NASA Space
TnGoastiiaiu submitted a space.com story that expands on coverage we've had earlier about improvements being made to the ISS to increase crew capacity. He writes "ISS gets new recycling gear that transforms human waste to drinking water. Some of the water will be used to get Oxygene, too. This way it will soon be possible to host more crew members. " Also, someone needs to smack the webmaster over there for putting a background texture behind the text. It's pretty unreadable along the left hand side of the screen.
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Submission: ISS gets new recycling gear by TnGoastiiaiu (1340283)
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  • Waste hydrogen? (Score:3, Funny)

    by clang_jangle (975789) * on Thursday August 07 2008, @09:17AM (#24509629)

    Also, someone needs to smack the webmaster over there for putting a background texture behind the text. It's pretty unreadable along the left hand side of the screen.

    Looks just fine in Safari and Firefox, both on OS X... Sounds like someone needs to check their settings/browser choice before setting off to "smack" anyone. :)
    As for trasforming human waste (just urine, according TFA) into drinking water, well, I'm just mighty glad I didn't choose to become an astronaut. I did wonder about this part, though:

    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.

    Waste hydrogen? I would have expected them to have some use for that.

    • I'm not sure they have no use for waste hydrogen. Still, it may be that actually processing that hydrogen is (at the moment) prohibitive.
      We're looking here at having a stable installation, designed for imponderability, that's easily operated, lightweight, is shock-resistant, doesn't take much space and a bunch of other things.

      If they start using the technology, I'm sure they'll come up with something efficient for the extra hydrogen though ...

      • Re: (Score:3, Informative)

        by ivan256 (17499)

        Generally, that hydrogen will require oxygen(e) to be useful, and they're splitting the oxygen off for other uses already.

        • Generally, that hydrogen will require oxygen(e) to be useful, and they're splitting the oxygen off for other uses already.

          Exactly - To use hydrogen, you typically either compress it or burn it. Compressing it is a lot of trouble and burning it is the exact opposite of extracting breathable oxygene* (a major goal).

          * Oxygene - Just like regular oxygen, but now with more electrolytes!

      • Re:Waste hydrogen? (Score:5, Informative)

        by sunking2 (521698) on Thursday August 07 2008, @10:33AM (#24510719)
        Booked for ones of the last shuttle launches is the Sabatier unit. This takes CO2 from the scrubbers and H from the OGA and produces H2O and methane. The H2O is then fed back into the OGA, methane is dumped. Though not needed for the ISS to function, it's a testbed for a WPA -> OGA -> SAB process which through normal water intake by the astros would allow for >=80% of the oxygen needed for a Mars trip. Or so we hope. Until then the H is useless as just about anything you'd want it for requires O2 and it's rather dangerous to keep around. The OGA has been up there for a year or so. Every few months when a progress brings some bags of water we go through a week of activations. This was actually the big reason that they had to fix the solar arrays last year. The OGA needs a decent amount of power and typically runs only during day time. About 60 out of every 90 minutes.

        • Re: (Score:3, Interesting)

          by gnick (1211984)

          I believe that Still Suits were the original goal. Unfortunately, NASA ran into some copyright / prior art issues with Frank Herbert's estate and they had to resort to drinking reprocessed pee.

          Also, there are already a few posts (including FP) that include some "Eww, yuck" content. Pretty much all of us are drinking reprocessed pee to some degree. NASA's just getting efficient about it. Accept it - It's OK. Everything used to be something else. Even you.

            • Unfortunately, NASA ran into some copyright / prior art issues with Frank Herbert's estate and they had to resort to drinking reprocessed pee.

              Wouldn't that last run afoul of a certain Kevin Costner property [imdb.com] as well?

              I wish you hadn't brought that up - It wouldn't have been an issue.

              There are a lot of people who have read Dune (or at least watched the mini-series [imdb.com] or had the movie [imdb.com] seared into their brains). But not even Costner sat through Waterworld - Since even the stage-hands and producers had blocked that movie out of their memories, nobody would have ever sued over the reprocessed pee scene.

              Thanks a lot for cluing them in...

    • The page looks fine on IE too.

      ...Not that I use Internet Explorer or anything!

    • Re:Waste hydrogen? (Score:5, Informative)

      by mrvan (973822) on Thursday August 07 2008, @09:33AM (#24509889)

      Waste hydrogen? I would have expected them to have some use for that.

      The obvious thing to do with hydrogen is to use it as fuel. But think about it: burning it would undo the electrolysis by consuming all the oxygen generated, so unless they are looking for a way to convert electricity into a chemical fuel, it isn't very useful...

      if oxygen is scarcer than energy, burning stuff isn't a sensible thing to do

      • Re:Waste hydrogen? (Score:5, Interesting)

        by LunaticTippy (872397) on Thursday August 07 2008, @09:47AM (#24510087)
        You could still use it as fuel. Pressurize it using solar power and use it as an unburned positioning jet. If you're throwing it away anyway, you could get some use from it.

      • Re: (Score:2, Interesting)

        by JesseMcDonald (536341)

        The hydrogen could be used as "fuel" (reaction mass) in an ion- or plasma-style engine. No oxygen required, just lots of electricity.

      • Re:Waste hydrogen? (Score:5, Insightful)

        by Jeff1946 (944062) on Thursday August 07 2008, @11:00AM (#24511071) Journal
        Best use is react with CO2 to form methane and water. Methane can be expelled thru resitojets (believe that is the right name) (electrically heated nozzles) to generate minor trust.
    • I'm not sure what Taco did wrong, but the page looks fine to me [tinypic.com].

    • Re browsers: Just checked it (using XP) on I.E.7, Firefox, Safari and Opera and it rendered OK.
      Guess someone's browser is not set right. You're not using something awful like I.E 5 or 6 are you? NOTHING works on them.
      Try here [savethedevelopers.com] for something better.

    • He's probably running NoScript. You have to allow scripts from space.com for it to show up properly.

      • Exactly. But still, anyone using javascript for element alignment needs some smacking upside a head or two. Plus there is javascript from over ten different sources on that page. That's sad and scary. There should be a firefox extension that rates the trust worthiness of a site based upon things like the number of javascript sources, and the types of functions used. Feel free to tell me if such an extension exists and suggest other reasons for the smacking of heads.

    • Re:Waste hydrogen? (Score:5, Funny)

      by hardburn (141468) <hardburn@nospAm.wumpus-cave.net> on Thursday August 07 2008, @10:14AM (#24510467)

      I think it's enormously ironic that CmdrTaco can criticize anyone for website design.

      • Re: (Score:3, Interesting)

        by megaditto (982598)

        It depends how they treat it. For instance, most filters and some ion exchange membranes out there cannot remove small virus particles from solutions.

        I for one wouldn't enjoy the thought of drinking a glass of someone's HIV, herpes, or cancer viruses, even though they would probably be harmless at that point.

        I am not even going to mention all the homeopathy, alternative medicine, and other considerations that might come into play if they turn out to be true.

  • The real question is... (Score:5, Funny)

    by ivan256 (17499) on Thursday August 07 2008, @09:17AM (#24509631)

    Are they bringing any freeze-dried potatoe?

  • Yummie! (Score:5, Funny)

    by SanderDJ (1004445) on Thursday August 07 2008, @09:18AM (#24509649)
    * Transform human waste to drinking water
    * ???
    * Profit!

  • Water into code? (Score:5, Funny)

    by Thelasko (1196535) on Thursday August 07 2008, @09:19AM (#24509659) Journal

    Some of the water will be used to get Oxygene [wikipedia.org]

  • Oxygene (Score:5, Funny)

    by hcdejong (561314) <acme AT xmsnet DOT nl> on Thursday August 07 2008, @09:20AM (#24509681)

    Jean-Michel Jarre songs are made of water? Who knew?

  • I always thought... (Score:5, Interesting)

    by Thelasko (1196535) on Thursday August 07 2008, @09:25AM (#24509761) Journal
    the number of crew members aboard the ISS was limited by the size of the escape vehicle. [wikipedia.org]

    • Re: (Score:3, Interesting)

      by Ngarrang (1023425)

      the number of crew members aboard the ISS was limited by the size of the escape vehicle. [wikipedia.org]

      As did I. To wit, I figured they could just attached a second escape vehicle? But, aside from having to escape, the current system is limited in how much waste it can process, so limiting the number of active crew.

    • Re:I always thought... (Score:4, Informative)

      by RetiredMidn (441788) on Thursday August 07 2008, @09:43AM (#24510023) Homepage
      IIRC, they now have enough docking ports to park a second Soyuz.

      • Re:I always thought... (Score:5, Interesting)

        by richdun (672214) on Thursday August 07 2008, @09:54AM (#24510205)
        Yes, a second Soyuz is the key for escape (that's why capacity will be 6, instead of the original 7 I think that could fit in the X-38). But they've also been limited by sleeping arrangements, which the new Node 3 will provide, along with having all the labs up and running. While the station might have supported 6 crew members on just the Russian and US sections, things would have been very cramped without the EU and Japanese labs around to help pay for things... er... I mean... give them all things to do.

  • Webmaster? (Score:5, Insightful)

    by Swizec (978239) on Thursday August 07 2008, @09:28AM (#24509811) Homepage

    Also, someone needs to smack the webmaster over there for putting a background texture behind the text. It's pretty unreadable along the left hand side of the screen.

    Correct me if I'm wrong, but didn't webmasters die along with the 90's?

    • I used to use the Read Easily [mozilla.org] Firefox extension, that adds a toolbar button and a hotkey (Ctrl-Z) to toggle styles on and off. Perfect for tiny fonts, bad colors, etc.

      Now, Vimperator [mozdev.org] rendered many smaller extensions obsolete, I mapped the \ key to do it, with :map \ :invnum<CR>

  • You think that's air your breathing...comrade?

  • Drinking re-cycled urine...are they taking the piss?

  • It looks fine to me. I use Iceweasel 3.0 (Debianized rebranded version of Firefox 3.0 and current Iceweasel version in Lenny).

    • I'm guessing the person who actually needs to be smacked is taco for using some weird browser that doesn't render the page like any of the mainstream browsers...

  • Also, someone needs to smack the webmaster over there for putting a background texture behind the text. It's pretty unreadable along the left hand side of the screen.

    Either they've fixed it already, or it works fine in Firefox 3 and IE 7, for me.

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