CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. (AP) -
The International Space Station is about to get all the comforts of a modern,
high-end, "green" home: a fancy recycling water filter, a new fridge,
extra bedrooms, workout equipment and the essential half-bath.
Later this week, space
shuttle Endeavour's
seven astronauts will carry up all the frills for more luxurious space
station living - and a larger household. Liftoff is set for Friday night.
It will be a home makeover
in the extreme. The space station will go from a three-bedroom, one-bath house
with kitchenette to a five-bedroom, two-bath house with two kitchenettes and
the latest gizmos NASA has to offer.
To be more precise,
astronauts will be installing an extra toilet, more sleeping compartments with
individual thermostats and laptop hookups, and an exercise machine capable of
some 30 routines.
They also will be
delivering the essentials of NASA's first attempt at a closed-loop
environmental system in orbit, where almost everything gets recycled.
Already, the power on the space station is generated from solar panels.
Most significant is the
water recovery system - it will turn urine and condensation into fresh drinking
water. The system is essential if NASA is to increase the size of the space
station crew from three to six. That switch is supposed to occur by the middle
of next year.
Endeavour's commander,
Christopher Ferguson, considers the water system the single most important
piece of equipment that he's delivering. He said the benefits go way beyond the
space station - think of all the deep-space exploration made possible once
crews are freed of lugging water.
"This is really it,
and it has no parallel. I would challenge you to find any other system on the
Earth that recycles
urine into drinkable water. It's such a repulsive concept that nobody would
even broach it.
"But that day will
come on this planet, too, where we're going to need to have these technologies
in place, and this is just a great way to get started."
Would he drink the stuff?
"Are you crazy? I
would never try that," Ferguson joked. "No, no, no, no, actually, you
know what? If they offered me a sample, I would do it."
Astronaut Donald Pettit, a
former space station resident who will help hook up the system, looks at it as
one big coffee machine.
"It's going to take
yesterday's coffee and make it into today's coffee," Pettit said.
Hot coffee is no problem in
orbit, it's the cold drinks that are scarce.
The existing space station
galley provides hot or warm water - but not cold. The same with food - hot or
warm, but nothing cold. Fresh food like apples or onions that go up on Russian
supply ships or NASA's shuttles has to be gobbled up quickly. The lone
refrigerator is restricted to science experiments. So the astronauts are quite
excited about getting a second refrigerator with the new kitchenette. It will
keep drinks cold and food fresh.
"It seems kind of
trivial, but six months of lukewarm orange juice can kind of bum you out,"
said astronaut Sandra Magnus, who will fly up on Endeavour and move in for 3½
months.
NASA does not expect to get
the water generation system up and running before spring. That's how long it
will take to check everything and make sure the recycled water is safe to
drink. Until then, the space station crew will continue to use water delivered
by the shuttle and unmanned Russian supply ships.
Before Endeavour leaves,
urine already collected by space station residents will be flushed through the
system and undergo distillation, so recycled water samples can be returned to
Earth for analysis. Additional samples will be brought back by another shuttle
in February to make absolutely certain the system is working properly.
If everything goes well,
the space station will open its doors to six full-time residents next May or
June.
The jump in crew size
is especially important for the Canadian, European and Japanese astronauts who
have been waiting years to live aboard the space station.
"Imagine for a moment
that we have an International Space Station in orbit that we've invested in and
we don't have any U.S. crews on board. That's what the partners live with
today," said Mike Suffredini, NASA's space station program manager.
Besides providing patriotic
public relations, the larger, more diverse crew will boost the amount time
spent on scientific research from 10 hours a week - the average now - to 35
hours a week, Suffredini said. Most of the crew's time is now devoted to
upkeep, and the maintenance chores will grow as the 10-year-old space station
ages, he noted.
While gussying up the inside
of the space station, Endeavour's astronauts will tackle a greasy, grimy job on
the outside. Three of the crew will take turns cleaning and lubricating a
jammed solar-wing rotating joint; it's clogged with metal shavings from
grinding parts and hasn't worked right for more than a year.
advertisement
