International Space Station gets a true window on the world
The International Space Station is sporting a new feature today: a control station with an external window. Less glamorously, crew members have also repaired their urine recycling system.
With the call-out fee for a glazier not viable in this era of NASA budgetary restraint, astronauts Bob Behnken and Nick Patrick spent a six-hour spacewalk installing the new module “Tranquility”. It’s designed to increase the internal space in the station and offers a panoramic view on, well, pretty much everything.
Meanwhile colleagues worked on fixing a urine recycling system which provides much of the drinking water for the crew, thus reducing the amount of liquid which needs to be taken by visitors. The system simply boils the urine to make it drinkable (along with sweat and condensation), but with no gravity it requires a centrifuge to help separate the liquid. NASA believes the problem was down to a blockage caused by excessive calcium in the astronaut’s urine.
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