NASA plans to begin repairs this afternoon on a failed space station bathroom that recycles urine into drinking water. Some spare parts are aboard the station.
A troubleshooting committee of engineers decided to replace parts of the toilet after more than a gallon of pre-treat water flooded the water separator pump in one of two space station bathrooms.
"For the time being we've deactivated it," Brian Smith, International Space Station flight director, said.
The station crew will use the second toilet in the Russian part of the station. Shuttle Endeavour's crew will use the bathroom on the shuttle.
The broken $15 million system recycles urine into drinking water. It was delivered by Endeavour on STS-126 last year. Before installation of the second toilet, the station's other bathroom broke in May 2008 due to a failed pump. After astronauts used bags for a few days, Discovery arrived with a replacement pump.
Space station astronaut Frank De Winne dismantled part of the system Sunday. Engineers believe some of the pre-treatment liquid got into part of the system where it should not be. De Winne opened the cabinet and felt certain mechanisms, which were not overheated.
Engineers could not tell whether the vacuum toilet has malfunctioned, been overused or improperly used. NASA engineers expect to have the problem solved before it becomes critical.
"We're not ready to say this is a long-term problem," Smith said.
Also Sunday, a cargo carrier weighing 8,700 pounds was transferred to the space station rail car on the truss. Spacewalkers Dave Wolf and Tom Marshburn will move three of the nine pieces of spare equipment on the carrier to the station structure Monday.
Astronauts also worked to repair a piece of exercise equipment Sunday. Exercise is crucial in weightlessness to maintain muscle mass and prevent bone loss.
2 comments:
Going back to this foam situation with the external tank for just a second and I'm by no means an engineer or anything nor do I pretend to be, but this time around, could this have been a product of being outside in the florida ocean side elements for what almost 4 months?? And being rolled out to launch pad 39b and around to launch pad 39a and tanking what 7 times??
Just go to the bathroom outside...
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