DISCOVERY HOME SAFE! Crew ****ed!

"Discovery brought back four to five liters of recycled water that had
been the astronauts' urine and sweat. The water was produced after
Discovery delivered a new processor that fixed the recycling machine.

NASA officials said a future mission will include making edible
Salisbury steak from astronauts' feces, another step toward sustaining
people on flights to Mars and beyond."

----------------------------
"Discovery Makes Safe Return"

"Space Station Gets Final Solar Wings, Is Up to Full Power"

Associated Press
Sunday, March 29, 2009; A06


CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla., March 28 -- The space shuttle Discovery and its
crew of seven returned to Earth on Saturday, successfully wrapping up
a construction mission at the international space station.

Discovery's 13-day flight -- which ended just as a new Russian-
launched crew was settling into the space station -- was highlighted
by the installation and unfurling of the station's last pair of solar
wings. The $300 million addition brought the orbiting outpost up to
full power, a vital part of NASA's plan to double the space station
population and boost the amount of science research in a few months.

NASA conducted a heat shield test during Discovery's reentry. A new
type of tile with a slight bump was attached beneath the shuttle's
left wing to disrupt the hypersonic airflow. Engineers measured the
extra heat generated on downstream tiles, and the area looked to be
fairly clean afterward, officials said.

Discovery brought back four to five liters of recycled water that had
been the astronauts' urine and sweat. The water was produced after
Discovery delivered a new processor that fixed the recycling machine.

NASA hopes to have the water samples tested within a month. If the
toxicology results are good, the three space station residents will
start drinking the recycled water.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn...52.html?sub=AR

"Jennifer Fitzgerald" wrote in message
...
"Discovery brought back four to five liters of recycled water that had
been the astronauts' urine and sweat. The water was produced after
Discovery delivered a new processor that fixed the recycling machine.

True.

NASA officials said a future mission will include making edible
Salisbury steak from astronauts' feces, another step toward sustaining
people on flights to Mars and beyond."

False.

Why does "recycled urine" freak everyone out? There is no "unrecycled
water" on the earth. It's all been *somewhere* gross at one time or
another. Some people are so juvenile...

Jeff
--
"Many things that were acceptable in 1958 are no longer acceptable today.
My own standards have changed too." -- Freeman Dyson

Jeff Findley wrote:

Why does "recycled urine" freak everyone out?

We are wired to keep safe distance from our bodies' digestive/blood
cleaning output.


There is no "unrecycled
water" on the earth.

The proportion of urine to the total amount of water (oceans, lakes)
which generates clouds and rain (natural distillation) is very low. The
porportion of urine used to make drinking water on the station is quite
high. (it is mixed with water extracted from cabin humidity so it isn't
100% urine).

There is a natural repulsion to drinking urine. One has to use logic to
overcome that repulsion and be convinced the liquid was treated and is
really water.

What worries me a bit is that the process doesn't appear to be
foolproof. The fact that the first batch of treated urine, when analysed
back on earth showed to be "good, but not good enough for drinking" is
worrysome. If the process isn't 100% foolproof, will they have to test
each batch of water produced ?

"John Doe" wrote in message
...
There is a natural repulsion to drinking urine. One has to use logic to
overcome that repulsion and be convinced the liquid was treated and is
really water.

Agreed. I suppose I find it worrisome that so many people have the
reasoning skills to overcome this sort of natural repulsion.

As another example, farmers routinely spread fertilizer on their fields to
increase yields. Bat guano used to be a very popular fertilizer. To this
day, a manure spreader is not an uncommon piece of equipment to find on a
farm. I wonder how many people would freak out if NASA proposed using human
feces as fertilizer for plants grown in a greenhouse on the moon or Mars?

What worries me a bit is that the process doesn't appear to be
foolproof. The fact that the first batch of treated urine, when analysed
back on earth showed to be "good, but not good enough for drinking" is
worrysome. If the process isn't 100% foolproof, will they have to test
each batch of water produced ?

This is surely the first time that this particular set of equipment has been
used for this purpose in a microgravity environment. There is bound to be a
learning curve. This is *exactly* the sort of experiment which should be
done on ISS. I wish them luck with this new equipment.

Jeff
--
"Many things that were acceptable in 1958 are no longer acceptable today.
My own standards have changed too." -- Freeman Dyson