NASA halts test of space station urine recycler

Reuters ^ | March 22, 2009 | Irene Klotz

[South Hawthorne]

HOUSTON, March 22 (Reuters) - NASA called off tests of the International Space Station's urine recycler on Sunday after problems developed and revamped plans for Monday's spacewalk to fix an improperly installed cargo platform attachment.

Monday's spacewalk is the last of three planned during shuttle Discovery's mission at the space station, which is nearly completed after more than a decade of construction.

The primary goal of Discovery's flight was to deliver and install the station's last set of solar panel wings, which was accomplished on Thursday. The shuttle blasted off from the Kennedy Space Center on March 15 for a 13-day mission.

[South Hawthorne]

Happy to report my own recycling device... er, plan, is going along great.

[South Hawthorne]

Ping to your urine list.

[albie]

Worked for Kevin Costner in “Waterworld”!

[Attention Surplus Disorder]

They’ll send up Tim Geithner, his plan will work so much better.

[Darkwolf377]

The White House press gang is pretty good at recycling urine, give them a shot.

[GulfBreeze]

“Pi$$ off” they said?

[PGR88]

Pity the astronaut who first detected the thing wasn’t working properly.....

[PetroniusMaximus]

And for the Fremen in Dune.

[Constitution Day]

NASA called off tests of the International Space Station's urine recycler on Sunday after problems developed

Guess what?

Urine trouble!

[iowamark]

The test is continuing:

[dfwgator]

[Allegra]

Ping to your urine list.

JRBC has a urine list?

[evets]

Just add... urine?

[martin_fierro]

Not just anyone can ride the Space Station.

It’s a restricted urea.

[steve8714]

Maybe Rimmer couldn’t work it.

[Gatún(CraigIsaMangoTreeLawyer)]

I would rather drink gin and tonics, and I don’t like gin. Okay...the tonic...but I don’t like tonic either.

Oh well.

It certainly won’t be recycled pee though.

[dfwgator]

It does have a little wang to it.

[PC99]

My understanding is there was a minor glitch on Sunday, but that the unit has been working fine since then. But negative news always leads...

[Gatún(CraigIsaMangoTreeLawyer)]

B.S….I mean…P.S.

Why the heck are we sending all these folks up into space at my tax expense?

Have they discovered anything new in all these years?

(The answer is “no” of course. They can’t even make pee drinkable.)

[freebird5850]

Do like I do...go outside....uhhhh..eerr, I guess not.

[justsaynomore]

Hmmm, sounds like they decided to stop mid-stream

[messierhunter]

Did you bother to check for any discoveries or did you just assume?

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/15806746

Complete list of 170 discoveries and 23 reviews made possible by ISS.

Just because you don't hear about it in the mainstream media doesn't mean it doesn't exist.

[outofsalt]

If only we would recycle urine back to beer!

[SunkenCiv]

News from the planet Urinus.

[N. Theknow]

NASA called off tests of the International Space Station's urine recycler on Sunday after problems developed

Looks like a job for...are you ready for this...The Whizz Kids!

[Gatún(CraigIsaMangoTreeLawyer)]

Thank you.

“ISS maximizes today’s scientific resources and substantially increases the opportunity to obtain much longed-for answers on the effects of microgravity and long-term exposure to space.”

My personal comment is “I don’t care.” I rather our money be spent on finding cancer cures and other cures for horrible diseases here on earth.

I don’t care about “microgravity and long-term exposure to space.”

What is the percent of the population that is going to fly out into space?

Just about zero.

I’m not against space travel, but when it comes down to trying to learn turning pee into water is more than I can take and rings a bell that this whole thing is no longer about learning. It has become an expensive habit using our tax money.

[messierhunter]

My personal comment is “I don’t care.” I rather our money be spent on finding cancer cures and other cures for horrible diseases here on earth.
I don’t care about “microgravity and long-term exposure to space.”
What is the percent of the population that is going to fly out into space?
Just about zero.
I’m not against space travel

It's painfully obvious you are against space travel, personal assurances notwithstanding. Meanwhile, the space station has produced plenty of helpful discoveries and research that you can't be bothered to investigate.

Osteoperosis is a pretty horrible disease that can affect non-space travelers, but you're wishing that less research was done for them.

Robotic arms developed for the station have found use in equipment for emergency response to chemical, biological, or radiological disasters.

Zipnuts made for the station's construction sped up maintenance time in a high radiation area and reduced worker radiation during a nuclear outage at a Savannah River nuclear site.

Waste water purification techniques developed for the space station are being used in landfills to extract water from waste.

360 degree cameras developed for remote docking to the space station are being used for non-invasive surgical proceedures as well as by automobile and hotel companies.
Head mounted vision enhancements systems developed for the space station have been applied to help people with poor vision to read, shop, and watch TV.

Your response is, "I don't care," but other people do.