Along with its precious cargo were whiskey samples from Japanese beverage company Suntory where several samples were placed in pouches for a one year maturation project.
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According to a NASA statement, the crew of the worldwide Space Station’s Expedition 44 is readying the orbiting outpost for the arrival of additional crew members by moving a docked Soyuz vehicle. Iodine is a good choice as a disinfectant but it needs to also be filtered out before any of the crew members drink the water. The two sides operate separate water systems mainly because of decades-old decisions on how best to disinfect water.
In June, the unmanned SpaceX rocket exploded minutes after lift-off from Cape Canaveral, Florida, marking a major setback for the company headed by tech tycoon Elon Musk. In October, another U.S. first stage rocket exploded, while three months ago a Russian cargo ship went astray in the orbit and fell back to Earth, destroying almost 3 tons of scientific material and food supply in the process. “It tastes like bottled water”, Carter says of the water that emanates from the urine processing system, “as long as you can psychologically get past the point that it’s recycled urine and condensate that comes out of the air”. The replacements embrace spacewalking gear, an emergency respiration package, rest room wiring and elements for the water recycling system.
Condensate is the collected breath and sweat of the crew, shower runoff, and urine from animals onboard the station. Epsom salts are added to improve its taste.
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Even though we might have different ideas on drinking urine, at least in space we can ignore worldwide tensions and share and share alike.
