Experts claim they expected troubles to occur

Nov 22, 2008 11:24 GMT  ·  By

A part of the expensive urine and sweat recycling device installed aboard the International Space Station, namely the one involved in purifying the astronaut's urine and convert it into potable water, failed, announced the flight controllers yesterday. Ground control technicians are assessing the possibility of extending the current mission of the seven astronauts for 24 more hours in order to perform troubleshooting procedures related to the device.

While attempting to insert commands in order for the $250 million Urine Processor Assembly to start processing urine on late Thursday, a false alarm sound started and unsettled the astronauts. Another attempt performed yesterday managed to resume the system's activity, but it still shut down unexpectedly after only two hours. Experts believe the glitch could be caused by a sensor or by a vital centrifugal engine involved in the first stages of the recycling process.

 

"Right now, folks are still looking at the data. They're really still investigating and determining forward steps," shared Courtenay McMillan, the station's flight director, quoted by LiveScience. "We are hoping that we can try again today just to get some more time with the system before the end of the mission," he added.

 

But the specialists announced that such problems were expected to occur, given the nature and complexity of the instruments involved. Flight director Ginger Kerrick explains, "These are growing pains we expected to see. These are very complicated pieces of equipment with a very complicated software system to control them, and this is the first time they are all being put together in space. So it takes a while to learn lessons from that".

 

If all goes well, the recycling system will help reducing the quantity of water carried to the ISS by American, Russian and eventually European and Japanese spacecraft by as much as 15,000 pounds (nearly 7 tons), by recovering about 93% of the wastewater. The resulting water could then be used for food preparation, drinking or bathing purposes, as well as, with the aid of an oxygen-generating device, for obtaining more fresh air.