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Palomar

Member

From: USA

Registered: 2002-05-30

Posts: 9,734

Re: Everything but the water

*From space.com's "Astronotes" (column format, updated frequently...must copy and paste). 

Did not know this.  Russian water is tastier.  Hmmmm.

I wonder how much water -- gallon, liter, whatever -- is deliverable at a time?  And how much storage space for it?  IMO it's not a pleasant scenario to be in a situation where you're utterly dependent upon water being delivered to you...and no other way of obtaining it. 

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ISS Astronauts, Cosmonauts Have Separate Water Supplies
PARIS -- The U.S. and Russian astronauts living on the international space station breathe the same air but do not drink the same water, according to a study performed by an Italian company involved in Europe's role in ferrying supplies to the orbital complex in the future.

Alenia Spazio of Rome is one of the companies building Europe's Automated Transfer Vehicle cargo tug, which starting in late 2005 is scheduled to bring fuel, food and other supplies -- including water - to the space station at regular intervals.

Paolo Piantella, an Alenia Spazio senior advisor, said Alenia asked a water-distribution company to analyze the water-quality specifications of the Russian Space Agency and compare them to NASA's requirements. Russians and Americans share station resources but each have their own, individual segments.

Piantella said Alenia had assumed the water requirements would be just about identical. It turned out otherwise.

"Depending on whether you are on the Russian part of the station or the U.S. side, astronauts drink different water," Piantella said July 13 during the signing ceremony in Bremen, Germany, for the delivery of six Automated Transfer Vehicles to the European Space Agency. "The U.S. water is almost completely de-mineralized. The Russians prefer certain minerals in the water, so it's tastier."
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--Cindy

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We all know [i]those[/i] Venusians: Doing their hair in shock waves, smoking electrical coronas, wearing Van Allen belts and resting their tiny elbows on a Geiger counter...

--John Sladek (The New Apocrypha)

DERF

Member

From: Kingston, Ontario

Registered: 2004-05-25

Posts: 39

Re: Everything but the water

I am really curious what sort of minerals they are. It seems more convenient to leave minerals in then extracting them. Iron men and wooden ships....

C M Edwards

Member

From: Lake Charles LA USA

Registered: 2002-04-29

Posts: 1,012

Re: Everything but the water

Actually, it's easier to just leave out the minerals rather than make filters deal with them.  Thus, the only mineral in the water from standard US life support systems is tincture of iodine.

Yuck!     No wonder the Russian water tastes better.

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"We go big, or we don't go."  - GCNRevenger