"John Doe" wrote in message ...
Jeff Findley wrote:
I agree with your point, but you keep asserting that the US could do
better
on its first try than the Russians have done with a series of Elektron
units
that have actually been flown in zero gravity. That's a completely
baseless
assertion.

One must, however, consider the *possibility* that with all its
experiences,
Russia never bothered to change the design of the unit to prevent
problems,
having decided it is simpler to just fix them as they arise in space. In
such
a theoretical scenario, it is therefore possible for the USA to use that
acquired knowledge and design its new system that turns out to be more
reliable than the russian one.

Assuming that the information is available to the US and that Russia
is not holding the necessary data from the ISS from NASA. On
Mir it was Russia's station and their program so they could do what
they wished. ISS is supposed to be a cooperative program.

Not sure whether NASA recognizes this either or what the
Congressional limits are on information interchange.


This assumes that the design of the US O2 generator would not have been
cast
in stone prior to ISS being crewed and feedback on design flaws of
Elektron
being returned to NASA via US crewmembers.

The thing is that we just don't know. But we do know that systems that
handle
liquids and especally those with bubbles are very different in space than
on
earth. And unless the system is built in transparent aluminium, it is also
very hard for the crew members to actually see what happens inside to
cause
the problem.

In the long term I believe the ISS should be used to test new and improved
hardware not saddled with the immediate operational requirement of providing
breathing oxygen to the station.

Mike Walsh