DAISY: Nothing is off limits, when it comes to NASA getting
the most out of all of it's resources...
In fact, even a bit of perspiration is turned into
inspiration by some of NASA's best and brightest.
NASA's version of Sweat Equity is next... on Real World.
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DAISY: Life on the international space station
is a bit of a miracle. In the upper atmosphere, where the
shuttle orbits, many of the elements needed for human
survival don't exist.
So NASA has come up with some very creative ways to ensure
not only survival, but comfort as well.
And they do it with something called Environmental Control
and Life Suppport Systems or ECLSS.
MONSI ROMAN: Basically ECLSS encompasses any system that
will help you live comfortably without thinking.
DAISY: Monsi Roman is the Project Manager for
Exploration Life Support.
MONSI: Basically clean air, clean water, temperatures,
humidities that are comfortable, anything that will
allow you to survive, in an area, and work comfortably.
DAISY: ECLSS takes care of the air, removing CO2 and other
chemicals that are harmful to astronauts.
It also provides oxygen. ECLSS also regulates humidity.
Humidity is moisture in the atmosphere. We calculate
relative humidity to get a sense of how much moisture is
in the air. Relative humidity is a measure of the amount of
the amount of water in the air compared with the amount of
water the air can hold at the temperature it happens to be
when you are measuring it. Relative Humidity is expressed
as a percentage and can be calculated by using this
equation. Relative Humidity equals Actual Vapor Density
divided by Saturated Vapor Density times 100.
By keeping the humidity low on the space station, ECLSS
provides a comfortable environment for astronauts,
plus keeps things like bacteria or fungus from growing on
the station in unwanted places. Now here's where it comes full
circle. The moisture that is in the air, is pulled out
landing on a cold piece of metal that causes it to
condensate, just like a dehumidifier would work in your
house. The end result is water that is then treated and made
ready to be reused, even as drinking water. In fact, ECLSS
can recycle just about any water used on the space station
and turn it into drinkable water. Since water makes up
about 60 percent of each of us,
this is a really important feature on the space station.
MONSI: Any Waste water, any water that comes out of humans
or produced by humans, doing hygiene, like brushing their
teeth, washing their hands, shower water, all that.
DAISY: Monsi and her team developed ECLSS at Marshal
Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Alabama,
in a space that was once supposed to be a module of the
space station, but is now used for testing systems
that are earmarked for ISS.
MONSI: When we're in testing, all of the hatches are closed.
We bring people in. We inject air that is very clean,
extremely clean air, that is devoid of humidity, cause we do
not want humidity from the outside. What we want to do is
collect the metabolic load, or the perspiration
and the humidity.
DAISY: All that testing led to the system that does the same
thing on the space station. And the latest addition to
ECLSS on the space station, a new water processor,
really ups the anti.
MONSI: We're really excited. That marks the first time ever,
ever, that any nation has done water recycling, including
urine, with the purpose of drinking.
We have done something that has never been done before, which
is taking all the waste waters, all of them,
clean them up and return it back to the crew.
DAISY: It greatly reduces the amount of water astronauts need
to take from the earth to the station.
In fact, about 92 percent of the water that is put out by
humans is recovered back into the system.
It's an important component in increasing the crew size on the
station from 3 to 6. It all adds up to the most productive
environment for the people who live and work on
the international space station.
MONSI: All those things, that's exactly what ECLSS does.
All those systems maintain the humans from having to worry
about their surroundings. We take care of that.
They take care of the work, and the experiments
and the other things.
DAISY: You can learn more about ECLSS, the International Space
Station and all of NASA, at www.nasa.gov.
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