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ISS Gets New Recycling Gear, Ready For Larger Crew

Posted by CmdrTaco on from the yay-for-august dept.

TnGoastiiaiu submitted a space.com story that expands on coverage we've had earlier about improvements being made to the ISS to increase crew capacity. He writes "ISS gets new recycling gear that transforms human waste to drinking water. Some of the water will be used to get Oxygene, too. This way it will soon be possible to host more crew members. " Also, someone needs to smack the webmaster over there for putting a background texture behind the text. It's pretty unreadable along the left hand side of the screen.

158 comments

  1. Waste hydrogen? by clang_jangle · · Score: 2, Funny

    Also, someone needs to smack the webmaster over there for putting a background texture behind the text. It's pretty unreadable along the left hand side of the screen.

    Looks just fine in Safari and Firefox, both on OS X... Sounds like someone needs to check their settings/browser choice before setting off to "smack" anyone. :)
    As for trasforming human waste (just urine, according TFA) into drinking water, well, I'm just mighty glad I didn't choose to become an astronaut. I did wonder about this part, though:

    It can also be used to feed the station's U.S.-built oxygen generator, which uses electrolysis to split liquid water into breathable oxygen and waste hydrogen.

    Waste hydrogen? I would have expected them to have some use for that.

    --
    Caveat Utilitor
    1. Re:Waste hydrogen? by utnapistim · · Score: 1

      I'm not sure they have no use for waste hydrogen. Still, it may be that actually processing that hydrogen is (at the moment) prohibitive.
      We're looking here at having a stable installation, designed for imponderability, that's easily operated, lightweight, is shock-resistant, doesn't take much space and a bunch of other things.

      If they start using the technology, I'm sure they'll come up with something efficient for the extra hydrogen though ...

      --
      Tie two birds together: although they have four wings, they cannot fly. (The blind man)
    2. Re:Waste hydrogen? by dontPanik · · Score: 5, Funny

      The page looks fine on IE too.

      ...Not that I use Internet Explorer or anything!

      --
      "Computers are useless. They can only give you answers." - Pablo Picasso
    3. Re:Waste hydrogen? by mrvan · · Score: 4, Informative

      Waste hydrogen? I would have expected them to have some use for that.

      The obvious thing to do with hydrogen is to use it as fuel. But think about it: burning it would undo the electrolysis by consuming all the oxygen generated, so unless they are looking for a way to convert electricity into a chemical fuel, it isn't very useful...

      if oxygen is scarcer than energy, burning stuff isn't a sensible thing to do

    4. Re:Waste hydrogen? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Interesting

      Looks fine in IE and Firefox (3) in Windows...

    5. Re:Waste hydrogen? by Gewalt · · Score: 1

      I'm not sure what Taco did wrong, but the page looks fine to me.

      --
      Modding Trolls +1 inciteful since 1999
    6. Re:Waste hydrogen? by LunaticTippy · · Score: 4, Interesting

      You could still use it as fuel. Pressurize it using solar power and use it as an unburned positioning jet. If you're throwing it away anyway, you could get some use from it.

      --
      Man, you really need that seminar!
    7. Re:Waste hydrogen? by Smivs · · Score: 1

      Re browsers: Just checked it (using XP) on I.E.7, Firefox, Safari and Opera and it rendered OK.
      Guess someone's browser is not set right. You're not using something awful like I.E 5 or 6 are you? NOTHING works on them.
      Try here for something better.

      --
      Smivs on the intertubes!
    8. Re:Waste hydrogen? by bitty · · Score: 1

      He's probably running NoScript. You have to allow scripts from space.com for it to show up properly.

    9. Re:Waste hydrogen? by JesseMcDonald · · Score: 2, Interesting

      The hydrogen could be used as "fuel" (reaction mass) in an ion- or plasma-style engine. No oxygen required, just lots of electricity.

      --
      "The state is that great fiction by which everyone tries to live at the expense of everyone else." - Bastiat
    10. Re:Waste hydrogen? by xanadu-xtroot.com · · Score: 1


      Konqueror also renders it fine. (KDE 3.5.9)

      --
      I'm not a prophet or a stone-age man,
      I'm just a mortal with potential of a super man.
    11. Re:Waste hydrogen? by LMacG · · Score: 1

      Akshully, it looks fine in IE6 on XP pro. (I'm at work, I don't have a choice!!!!)

      --
      Slightly disreputable, albeit gregarious
    12. Re:Waste hydrogen? by Bill,+Shooter+of+Bul · · Score: 1

      Exactly. But still, anyone using javascript for element alignment needs some smacking upside a head or two. Plus there is javascript from over ten different sources on that page. That's sad and scary. There should be a firefox extension that rates the trust worthiness of a site based upon things like the number of javascript sources, and the types of functions used. Feel free to tell me if such an extension exists and suggest other reasons for the smacking of heads.

      --
      Well.. maybe. Or Maybe not. But Definitely not sort of.
    13. Re:Waste hydrogen? by ivan256 · · Score: 2, Informative

      Generally, that hydrogen will require oxygen(e) to be useful, and they're splitting the oxygen off for other uses already.

    14. Re:Waste hydrogen? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      It displays fine in Firefox 3.0.1 with NoScript enabled.

    15. Re:Waste hydrogen? by hardburn · · Score: 5, Funny

      I think it's enormously ironic that CmdrTaco can criticize anyone for website design.

      --
      Not a typewriter
    16. Re:Waste hydrogen? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Right, so you jettison the waste to create thrust :-)

    17. Re:Waste hydrogen? by Orange+Crush · · Score: 1

      Hydrogen's fairly useless without a powerful compressor able to pressurize it and stuff it into tanks. Besides, we're not talking about lots and lots of hydrogen. Water is something like 89% oxygen by weight. It's actually a pretty convenient source of lots of breathable oxygen without fussing with compressed tanks as long as you have plenty of power to crack it with.

    18. Re:Waste hydrogen? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Funny

      One of my uncle is able to float a good 2 inches above the toilet when he jettison his waste.

    19. Re:Waste hydrogen? by cayenne8 · · Score: 1
      For the recycling of waste water...why not just put everyone in "Still Suits"....

      I hear those work great on Dune....

      --
      Light travels faster than sound. This is why some people appear bright until you hear them speak.........
    20. Re:Waste hydrogen? by sunking2 · · Score: 4, Informative

      Booked for ones of the last shuttle launches is the Sabatier unit. This takes CO2 from the scrubbers and H from the OGA and produces H2O and methane. The H2O is then fed back into the OGA, methane is dumped. Though not needed for the ISS to function, it's a testbed for a WPA -> OGA -> SAB process which through normal water intake by the astros would allow for >=80% of the oxygen needed for a Mars trip. Or so we hope. Until then the H is useless as just about anything you'd want it for requires O2 and it's rather dangerous to keep around. The OGA has been up there for a year or so. Every few months when a progress brings some bags of water we go through a week of activations. This was actually the big reason that they had to fix the solar arrays last year. The OGA needs a decent amount of power and typically runs only during day time. About 60 out of every 90 minutes.

    21. Re:Waste hydrogen? by gnick · · Score: 2, Funny

      Generally, that hydrogen will require oxygen(e) to be useful, and they're splitting the oxygen off for other uses already.

      Exactly - To use hydrogen, you typically either compress it or burn it. Compressing it is a lot of trouble and burning it is the exact opposite of extracting breathable oxygene* (a major goal).

      * Oxygene - Just like regular oxygen, but now with more electrolytes!

      --
      He's getting rather old, but he's a good mouse.
    22. Re:Waste hydrogen? by Hal_Porter · · Score: 1

      By the way some of my co workers smell I assume they already wear stillsuits.

      --
      echo -e 'global _start\n _start:\n mov eax, 2\n int 80h\n jmp _start' > a.asm; nasm a.asm -f elf; ld a.o -o a;
    23. Re:Waste hydrogen? by Hal_Porter · · Score: 1

      It works fine on Opera 9.50 on Windows Vista Ultimate.

      Yeah, I went there.

      --
      echo -e 'global _start\n _start:\n mov eax, 2\n int 80h\n jmp _start' > a.asm; nasm a.asm -f elf; ld a.o -o a;
    24. Re:Waste hydrogen? by freddy_dreddy · · Score: 1

      What about yesterday's news of a Hydrogen plasma drive ?

      You poop, you breath, you accelerate

      --
      "Violence is the last refuge of the competent, and, generally, the first refuge of the incompetent" - Thing_1
    25. Re:Waste hydrogen? by gnick · · Score: 2, Interesting

      I believe that Still Suits were the original goal. Unfortunately, NASA ran into some copyright / prior art issues with Frank Herbert's estate and they had to resort to drinking reprocessed pee.

      Also, there are already a few posts (including FP) that include some "Eww, yuck" content. Pretty much all of us are drinking reprocessed pee to some degree. NASA's just getting efficient about it. Accept it - It's OK. Everything used to be something else. Even you.

      --
      He's getting rather old, but he's a good mouse.
    26. Re:Waste hydrogen? by gnick · · Score: 1

      Akshully...
      --
      Slightly disreputable, albeit gregarious

      I think that your spell-checker is making fun of you by granting you that sig but missing Akshully != Actually. ;-)

      --
      He's getting rather old, but he's a good mouse.
    27. Re:Waste hydrogen? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Also, someone needs to smack the webmaster over there for putting a background texture behind the text. It's pretty unreadable along the left hand side of the screen.

      Looks just fine in Safari and Firefox, both on OS X... Sounds like someone needs to check their settings/browser choice before setting off to "smack" anyone. :)

      Here as well, both with IE7 and FF3

    28. Re:Waste hydrogen? by clang_jangle · · Score: 1, Offtopic

      Indeed. Although I do think he does a great job with the functional aspects, I usually view /. with the following style sheet. It helps me avoid that ginormous "white out" headache:

      @charset "UTF-8";
      /*
      Name: user2.css
      Version: 1.01
      Author: me
      Description: a css for tired li'l eyes...

      */

      * {
      background: Black !important;
      color: #BF5FFF !important;
      }

      input, textarea, select {
      background: Black !important;
      color: #912CEE !important;
      }

      button, input[type="file"], input[type="submit"], input[type="button"], input[type="reset"] {
      background: Black !important;
      color: #912CEE !important;
      }

      a[href] {text-decoration: none !important; background: Black !important;
      color: #7F9A65 !important;}
      #a[href] img {border: thin solid #7171C6 !important;}

      @media print {
      * {
      background: White !important;
      color: Black !important;
      }
      }

      --
      Caveat Utilitor
    29. Re:Waste hydrogen? by geekoid · · Score: 1

      Jeez, they may do that with your drinking water right now.

      The process is excellent. treated urine is perfectly safe to drink, and you can't tell it from any other water becasue after the treatment it IS water.

      I agree with the hydrogen statement. Seems like they could be testing fuel cells, or hydrogen generators.

      --
      The Kruger Dunning explains most post on /. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dunning%E2%80%93Kruger_effect
    30. Re:Waste hydrogen? by Jeff1946 · · Score: 4, Insightful

      Best use is react with CO2 to form methane and water. Methane can be expelled thru resitojets (believe that is the right name) (electrically heated nozzles) to generate minor trust.

    31. Re:Waste hydrogen? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Insightful

      >Waste hydrogen? I would have expected them to have some use for that.

      Probably not. It's not like there is any hydrogen shortage in the universe.

      However, oxygen is another story. It's a bit of a necessity on the space station. Call us decadant, but some of us can't preform our duties properly without it.

      Given that, do you really want to have a potentially oxygen-nabbing cylinder of hydrogen just sitting around the station?

    32. Re:Waste hydrogen? by UncleTogie · · Score: 1

      Unfortunately, NASA ran into some copyright / prior art issues with Frank Herbert's estate and they had to resort to drinking reprocessed pee.

      Wouldn't that last run afoul of a certain Kevin Costner property as well?

      --
      Don't tell me to get a life. I'm a gamer; I have LOTS of lives!
    33. Re:Waste hydrogen? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      And they would do what with the hydrogen exactly? Burning it uses *oxygen* after all. That's kind of the point.

    34. Re:Waste hydrogen? by megaditto · · Score: 2, Interesting

      It depends how they treat it. For instance, most filters and some ion exchange membranes out there cannot remove small virus particles from solutions.

      I for one wouldn't enjoy the thought of drinking a glass of someone's HIV, herpes, or cancer viruses, even though they would probably be harmless at that point.

      I am not even going to mention all the homeopathy, alternative medicine, and other considerations that might come into play if they turn out to be true.

      --
      Obama likes poor people so much, he wants to make more of them.
    35. Re:Waste hydrogen? by gnick · · Score: 2, Funny

      Unfortunately, NASA ran into some copyright / prior art issues with Frank Herbert's estate and they had to resort to drinking reprocessed pee.

      Wouldn't that last run afoul of a certain Kevin Costner property as well?

      I wish you hadn't brought that up - It wouldn't have been an issue.

      There are a lot of people who have read Dune (or at least watched the mini-series or had the movie seared into their brains). But not even Costner sat through Waterworld - Since even the stage-hands and producers had blocked that movie out of their memories, nobody would have ever sued over the reprocessed pee scene.

      Thanks a lot for cluing them in...

      --
      He's getting rather old, but he's a good mouse.
    36. Re:Waste hydrogen? by LordHatrus · · Score: 1

      Pressurizing equipment would likely be prohibitively large and weighty for the flight up. Have you ever seen an air compressor? And then a piping system (one that can handle high pressure hydrogen, and probably while the pipes themselves expand and contract a lot due to whether they are in the sun or not at that moment) to get the hydrogen to the thrusters themselves. Then try and imagine piping a small-moleculed flamable gas all around your gazillion dollar (USD) space station. All that extra weight and space for a somewhat small supply of thrust? No. This wouldn't be enough to keep the ISS in orbit all by themselves, as the drag at their relatively low altitude requires much more significant burn times and ISPs than these tiny pressure jets could likely allow.

    37. Re:Waste hydrogen? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      If someone out there was on their ball it could probably be used to actually generate electricity in a fusion reaction.

    38. Re:Waste hydrogen? by petermgreen · · Score: 1

      Stillsuits have never struck me as the most brilliant of ideas. Sweating is how the body gets rid of heat, if you want to recycle the sweat then you need to get rid of the heat in some other way.

      But if you have another way to get rid of heat it is probablly simpler just to keep the body cool enough that it doesn't sweat much.

      Once you do that then it will mainly be breath and pee that you have to worry about.

      --
      note: i'm known as plugwash most places but i screwd up registering that here somehow in the past and now can't register
    39. Re:Waste hydrogen? by petermgreen · · Score: 1

      We haven't even got fusion to work (in the sense of actually generating power rather than being a load on the power grid) down here on earth yet. Let alone up in space.

      --
      note: i'm known as plugwash most places but i screwd up registering that here somehow in the past and now can't register
    40. Re:Waste hydrogen? by LunaticTippy · · Score: 1

      Well, they already have air compressors in space. They already have heavy duty empty tanks. They are already planning on generating this waste hydrogen. I guess they could simply vent it, but that seems like a waste.

      --
      Man, you really need that seminar!
    41. Re:Waste hydrogen? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Waste hydrogen? I would have expected them to have some use for that.

      Well you could use it to power a fuel cell AND make fresh water... but that takes oxygene (I don't know what this oxygen everyone keeps talking about is - I like my air in -ene format)... and since you originally got the hydrogen by splitting fresh water to make oxygen... nope that won't work.

      What else can you do with hydrogen? I guess reaction mass for the thrusters...

      If you had carbon, a little oxygen, and power, you could make all sorts of carbohydrates (and still be oxygen plus in your process)... but those are generally for burning, too, just you do it inside your body instead of outside...

      Fusion power might be a good guess. But we can't build a reactor here on earth much less in space (would it be so hard in space? You'd already have the super-cold temperatures, given a moderate sun shade, and perfect vacuum... two of the hard engineering problems they have to solve for any sort of particle accelerator here on earth...)

      But really, I can't think of much else hydrogen is good for that doesn't also take oxygen...

    42. Re:Waste hydrogen? by cheesybagel · · Score: 1

      Still suits? The whole station is a suit. This has been done since Salyut and Mir. The stilling is done by environmental control. Elektron oxygen generators then generate oxygen by splitting it from water.

    43. Re:Waste hydrogen? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Everything used to be something else. Even you.

      Especially YOU.

    44. Re:Waste hydrogen? by Leto-II · · Score: 1

      Stillsuits have never struck me as the most brilliant of ideas. Sweating is how the body gets rid of heat, if you want to recycle the sweat then you need to get rid of the heat in some other way.

      As a God Emperor I have some authority on this issue here.

      The stillsuits don't stop you from sweating. You still sweat when you get hot, but the sweat is then absorbed by the stillsuit and reprocessed into drinking water.

      --
      Do not anger the worm.
    45. Re:Waste hydrogen? by petermgreen · · Score: 1

      sure, which means the sweat does not evaporate into the atnosphere which means it doesn't serve it's purpose which is keeping the body cool.

      So you are going to need another system to keep the body cool.

      Once you have such a system it seems stupid to me not to just keep the body cool enough that it does not sweat significantly.

      --
      note: i'm known as plugwash most places but i screwd up registering that here somehow in the past and now can't register
    46. Re:Waste hydrogen? by Leto-II · · Score: 1

      Did I say absorbed? I didn't quite mean absorbed directly. It still evaporates. Whether it evaporates into the atmosphere or not doesn't matter so much. The evaporation process still cools the body.

      Liet-Kynes:

      The skin-contact layer's porous. Perspiration passes through it, having cooled the body ... near-normal evaporation process.

      --
      Do not anger the worm.
    47. Re:Waste hydrogen? by Fred_A · · Score: 1

      As for trasforming human waste (just urine, according TFA) into drinking water, well, I'm just mighty glad I didn't choose to become an astronaut.

      Yes, we're lucky that kind of thing doesn't happen down here in nature. We wouldn't want to drink those yucky tainted atoms.

      --

      May contain traces of nut.
      Made from the freshest electrons.
    48. Re:Waste hydrogen? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Use it as a fuel for an ion propulsion system. No O2 needed - just electricity, of which the ISS has plenty of.

    49. Re:Waste hydrogen? by GrayNimic · · Score: 1

      Waste hydrogen? I would have expected them to have some use for that.

      I believe the stated reason is that the hydrogen was deemed too dangerous to store. The risks associated exceeded the benefits gained. (note that this electrolysis-generated hydrogen is likely a very different risk profile from the ground-loaded (cryogenic) liquid hydrogen used on the space shuttle)

    50. Re:Waste hydrogen? by UncleTogie · · Score: 1

      Thanks a lot for cluing them in...

      Actually, t'were Dana Carvey who first mentioned it... while channeling Ross Perot:

      "You can't pee into a coffee filter and get Folgers crytals. It just doesn't work that way."

      --
      Don't tell me to get a life. I'm a gamer; I have LOTS of lives!
    51. Re:Waste hydrogen? by dwywit · · Score: 1
      H20 reclaimed, while the methane is dumped - just like my large colon.....

      Sounds like space farts to me...Oh, wait, in space no-one can hear you....never mind

      --
      They sentenced me to twenty years of boredom
  2. The real question is... by ivan256 · · Score: 4, Funny

    Are they bringing any freeze-dried potatoe?

    1. Re:The real question is... by Hoi+Polloi · · Score: 4, Funny

      I don't know about that, but they will get hydrogene as a byproduct.

      --
      It is by the juice of the coffee bean that thoughts acquire speed, the teeth acquire stains. The stains become a warning
  3. Yummie! by SanderDJ · · Score: 5, Funny

    * Transform human waste to drinking water
    * ???
    * Profit!

    1. Re:Yummie! by BitterOldGUy · · Score: 1

      * Transform human waste to drinking water * ??? * Profit!

      So that's why the Gnomes were collecting underpants!

    2. Re:Yummie! by yuriyg · · Score: 5, Funny

      * Transform human waste to drinking water
      * Collect spice
      * Profit!

  4. Water into code? by Thelasko · · Score: 5, Funny

    Some of the water will be used to get Oxygene

    --
    One of our competitors trademarked the term "hypothesis". From now on, we will call them "boneheaded ideas".
    1. Re:Water into code? by $RANDOMLUSER · · Score: 4, Funny

      Why not? Sometimes I turn beer into code.

      --
      No folly is more costly than the folly of intolerant idealism. - Winston Churchill
    2. Re:Water into code? by LordEd · · Score: 2, Funny

      Friends don't let friends code drunk.

    3. Re:Water into code? by camperdave · · Score: 1

      Funny, I was thinking this. I remember hearing one of the Oxygene tracks as a sound program on my Atari 600XL, back in the long ago. I don't know what they did, but it sure didn't sound like any of the other computerized music programs of the day. It sounded rich, like real instruments, and not like the flavourless tone of a simple synthethizer.

      --
      When our name is on the back of your car, we're behind you all the way!
    4. Re:Water into code? by sconeu · · Score: 4, Funny

      Or do mathematics.

      Remember, math and alcohol don't mix. Please don't drink and derive.

      --
      General Relativity: Space-time tells matter where to go; Matter tells space-time what shape to be.
    5. Re:Water into code? by $RANDOMLUSER · · Score: 1

      Friends don't let friends code drunk.

      What if they have to maintain someone else's Perl?

      --
      No folly is more costly than the folly of intolerant idealism. - Winston Churchill
    6. Re:Water into code? by csnydermvpsoft · · Score: 2, Informative

      What if they have to maintain someone else's Perl?

      Friends don't let friends code Perl, either.

    7. Re:Water into code? by Oktober+Sunset · · Score: 1

      don't be so stupid, it's obviously a mistype, they are actually turning it into some old school electronic music.

      --
      What if Tetris was invented by Nazis?
    8. Re:Water into code? by fm6 · · Score: 1

      Astonishing. The Turbo Pascal/Delphi meme just won't die, despite one commercial failure after another.

      I can understand that. I worked at Borland for 3 years, documenting the Delphi APIs, before the dysfunctional corporate culture drove me away. It really is a simpler, more powerful approach to procedural/object programming. Now I can't stand to go near it — too depressing.

    9. Re:Water into code? by clang_jangle · · Score: 0, Troll

      God, I love that album. He was using analog synths, they sound really substantial. Sadly, they also are a PITA to keep in tune a lot of times, and actually getting the cool sounds was very time-consuming. Nowadays we sometimes compromise by using digital samples of analog synth sounds. It's like a 90% solution, to my ears. But since most music gets played as a 256kb mp3 file anyway, it just isn't as important as it used to be.

      I miss the days of 2" tape and vinyl LPs sometimes. Though making music on the Mac is way less hassle, it's also a bit less magical, and it never sounds quite as good.

      --
      Caveat Utilitor
  5. Oh man by Erie+Ed · · Score: 0

    Someone quick que the quote from "dodgeball" about drinking one's own urine...

    1. Re:Oh man by smooth+wombat · · Score: 1

      Here ya go:

      Necessary? It's not necessary that I drink my own urine, but it's sterile and I like how it tastes.

      --
      We will bankrupt ourselves in the vain search for absolute security. -- Dwight D. Eisenhower
  6. Oxygene by masterz · · Score: 1

    What's Oxygene?

    1. Re:Oxygene by ettlz · · Score: 4, Funny

      It comes in a Jarre, with a slight whiff of cheese.

    2. Re:Oxygene by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      The Oxygene in a Jarre part is funny, but the rest is just insulting.

    3. Re:Oxygene by johannesg · · Score: 4, Funny

      What's Oxygene?

      It is one of the two types of Atomes that make up Watere. The other is Hydrogene.

      If you have any other questions about Chemistrye, I'll be happy to answer them for you!

    4. Re:Oxygene by tscheez · · Score: 1

      Designer label oxygen. Only the best for the astronauts.

      --
      Supplies!
    5. Re:Oxygene by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      No, weren't you reading? Human waste.

    6. Re:Oxygene by Yvan256 · · Score: 2, Funny

      No, you're thinking about iXygen.

    7. Re:Oxygene by rah1420 · · Score: 1

      Look, ytte is written in Olde. It must bee fromm befor they invented Fpelling.

      --
      Mit der Dummheit kämpfen Götter selbst vergebens.
    8. Re:Oxygene by dunnius · · Score: 1

      Perhaps the e is on the wrong end. So it should be e-oxygen, oxygen for the web.

    9. Re:Oxygene by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Maybe it's some kind of experimental gene therapy. I hear it's legal in the Pegasus galaxy. Maybe it's legal in orbit, too?

    10. Re:Oxygene by DesignPsychology · · Score: 1

      If you have any other questions about Chemistrye, I'll be happy to answer them for ye!

      There; I fixed it for ye.

    11. Re:Oxygene by kiehlster · · Score: 1

      oxy-gene is a portion of DNA bonded with oxygen to make it easier to splice off genes. Sort of like tokenizing DNA. Really easy to import into an Oxygene program like a CSV file.

    12. Re:Oxygene by flydude18 · · Score: 1

      Actually, thou hast broken it. "Ye" was only the subject form, "you" was the object before it took over everything else.

      -- 16th Century Grammar... Spanish Inquisitor.

  7. What is oxygene? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Is that the stuff that gets your clothes cleaner and takes wine out of carpet?

    1. Re:What is oxygene? by snowraver1 · · Score: 1, Funny

      No, that would be OxyCLEAN.

      --
      Copyright 2010. All rights reserved. This comment may not be copied in any way including, but not limited to caching.
  8. Oxygene by hcdejong · · Score: 4, Funny

    Jean-Michel Jarre songs are made of water? Who knew?

  9. I smacked the webmaster by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    He fell and knocked over the webserver.

    1. Re:I smacked the webmaster by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Until we see the vid on youtube, it didn't happen.

  10. I always thought... by Thelasko · · Score: 4, Interesting

    the number of crew members aboard the ISS was limited by the size of the escape vehicle.

    --
    One of our competitors trademarked the term "hypothesis". From now on, we will call them "boneheaded ideas".
    1. Re:I always thought... by Ngarrang · · Score: 2, Interesting

      the number of crew members aboard the ISS was limited by the size of the escape vehicle.

      As did I. To wit, I figured they could just attached a second escape vehicle? But, aside from having to escape, the current system is limited in how much waste it can process, so limiting the number of active crew.

      --
      Bearded Dragon
    2. Re:I always thought... by RetiredMidn · · Score: 3, Informative

      IIRC, they now have enough docking ports to park a second Soyuz.

    3. Re:I always thought... by richdun · · Score: 4, Interesting

      Yes, a second Soyuz is the key for escape (that's why capacity will be 6, instead of the original 7 I think that could fit in the X-38). But they've also been limited by sleeping arrangements, which the new Node 3 will provide, along with having all the labs up and running. While the station might have supported 6 crew members on just the Russian and US sections, things would have been very cramped without the EU and Japanese labs around to help pay for things... er... I mean... give them all things to do.

    4. Re:I always thought... by JCSoRocks · · Score: 1

      PFF. Escape vehicles? We don't need any escape vehicles! This thing is indestructible. Nothing could go wrong. In other news, the ISS has been renamed the "Titanic Space Station".

      --
      You are using English. Please learn the difference between loose and lose; they're, there, and their; your and you're.
    5. Re:I always thought... by Born2bwire · · Score: 1

      They've supplemented the crew with a number of unidentified red shirts who, for obvious reasons, do not count towards the escape vehicle quota.

  11. Webmaster? by Swizec · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Also, someone needs to smack the webmaster over there for putting a background texture behind the text. It's pretty unreadable along the left hand side of the screen.

    Correct me if I'm wrong, but didn't webmasters die along with the 90's?

    1. Re:Webmaster? by doti · · Score: 1

      I used to use the Read Easily Firefox extension, that adds a toolbar button and a hotkey (Ctrl-Z) to toggle styles on and off. Perfect for tiny fonts, bad colors, etc.

      Now, Vimperator rendered many smaller extensions obsolete, I mapped the \ key to do it, with :map \ :invnum<CR>

      --
      factor 966971: 966971
    2. Re:Webmaster? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Well, if they are dead, who's mastering the web? Or was there a web uprising?

    3. Re:Webmaster? by Kjella · · Score: 1

      Correct me if I'm wrong, but didn't webmasters die along with the 90's?

      Crappy jobs never die, they're only given fancier titles. I figure about now it's called "Chief 3xW Presence Officer" or something like that. Certainly noone else understands what he's talking about without a translator...

      --
      Live today, because you never know what tomorrow brings
    4. Re:Webmaster? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Well, this specific webmaster probably did, hence the terrible design!

      I too rarely visit space.com due to the contrast headaches it seems to induce.

    5. Re:Webmaster? by Hal_Porter · · Score: 1

      I use Opera where the site works.

      --
      echo -e 'global _start\n _start:\n mov eax, 2\n int 80h\n jmp _start' > a.asm; nasm a.asm -f elf; ld a.o -o a;
    6. Re:Webmaster? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Got a position as one, so no, we're still around. Barely.

    7. Re:Webmaster? by pembo13 · · Score: 1

      No.

      --
      "Thanks for all the money you paid to us. We've used it to buy off ISO among other things" -Microsoft
    8. Re:Webmaster? by fbjon · · Score: 1

      The webmaster is whoever is responsible for the development of the page/site, Chief Web Developer, if you will. It might have changed name, like everything else, but it's still there.

      --
      True confidence comes not from realising you are as good as your peers, but that your peers are as bad as you are.
    9. Re:Webmaster? by Swizec · · Score: 1

      Actually nowadays developers develop the site, designers design what it looks like and the client takes care of the content once the developers and designers are done dealing with it.

      Who out of this group is the proverbial "webmaster"?

    10. Re:Webmaster? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Who out of this group is the proverbial "webmaster"?

      Presumably the IT monkey who has to sit in the data center and make sure all of this works as specified.

    11. Re:Webmaster? by tenco · · Score: 1

      Or maybe WCS: "Web Content Supervisor". :)

    12. Re:Webmaster? by Ginger+Unicorn · · Score: 1

      or you can press Alt-v,y,n to turn styles off. (_v_iew ->page st_y_les ->_n_o style) and Alt-v,y,b to turn them back on again.

      --
      (1.21 gigawatts) / (88 miles per hour) = 30 757 874 newtons
  12. Jean Michel Jarre by Spansh · · Score: 1

    Some of the water will be used to get Oxygene, too

    Anything which extends the reach of this classic tune is good in my books, although how they're going to accomplish it with plain old H2O is curious.

  13. Oxygene? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Funny

    Jean Michel Jarre will be most pleased!

    1. Re:Oxygene? by MyLongNickName · · Score: 4, Funny

      Thanks for being the first person to notice this and post about it.

      --
      See my journal for slashdot ID's by year. Mine created in 2005. http://slashdot.org/journal/289875/slashdot-ids-by-year
  14. Matrix in space! by AioKits · · Score: 1

    You think that's air your breathing...comrade?

    --
    "Quote me as saying I was mis-quoted." -Groucho Marx
  15. Yuk! by Smivs · · Score: 1

    Drinking re-cycled urine...are they taking the piss?

    --
    Smivs on the intertubes!
    1. Re:Yuk! by maxume · · Score: 5, Insightful

      All the water on Earth is essentially recycled urine at this point.

      --
      Nerd rage is the funniest rage.
    2. Re:Yuk! by Smivs · · Score: 2, Insightful

      All the water on Earth is essentially recycled urine at this point.

      Oh shit!

      --
      Smivs on the intertubes!
    3. Re:Yuk! by Orange+Crush · · Score: 4, Funny

      Oh shit!

      That too.

    4. Re:Yuk! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      And all the food we eat is recycled poo.

    5. Re:Yuk! by cleatsupkeep · · Score: 1

      All the water on Earth is essentially recycled urine at this point.

      I didn't think that many people peed in the pool or ocean.

    6. Re:Yuk! by tenco · · Score: 1

      I didn't think that many people peed in the pool or ocean.

      People?!

  16. The Russians already designed a simpler system by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    It did all the processing in the stomach, but they found it was only palatable to American beer drinkers.

  17. "background texture behind the text" by Britz · · Score: 1

    It looks fine to me. I use Iceweasel 3.0 (Debianized rebranded version of Firefox 3.0 and current Iceweasel version in Lenny).

    1. Re:"background texture behind the text" by truesaer · · Score: 1

      I'm guessing the person who actually needs to be smacked is taco for using some weird browser that doesn't render the page like any of the mainstream browsers...

    2. Re:"background texture behind the text" by Hal_Porter · · Score: 1

      Don't gnu mean Gnu/Iceweasel on Debian Gnu/Linux?

      --
      echo -e 'global _start\n _start:\n mov eax, 2\n int 80h\n jmp _start' > a.asm; nasm a.asm -f elf; ld a.o -o a;
  18. You mean oxygen? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    It's used to get oxygen not "Oxygene"

  19. background texture behind the text by StrawberryFrog · · Score: 1

    Also, someone needs to smack the webmaster over there for putting a background texture behind the text. It's pretty unreadable along the left hand side of the screen.

    Either they've fixed it already, or it works fine in Firefox 3 and IE 7, for me.

    --

    My Karma: ran over your Dogma
    StrawberryFrog

    1. Re:background texture behind the text by I'm+not+really+here · · Score: 1

      Simple - he's likely using no-script. Looks horrible to me without javascript turned on.

      --
      Before commenting on the Bible, please read it first
    2. Re:background texture behind the text by icegreentea · · Score: 1

      Looks fine for me. FF3 with noscript on.

    3. Re:background texture behind the text by I'm+not+really+here · · Score: 1

      I'm using Fx 3 currently. I refreshed the page, still looked horrible. Then, I closed the page, reopened it in IE... still looked horrible. Then I reopened it in Fx 3 again, and it suddenly had the white background like it should, and looked great. Don't know what that was, but good design? Nope.

      --
      Before commenting on the Bible, please read it first
  20. Background texture behind the text? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Get a real browser, CmdrTaco. That website displays fine in Safari, Firefox and Opera.

    This means you're probably using Internet Explorer, which means you're a Windows user. I'm sure other slashdoters will be happy to learn that (given the strong Linux/Apple bias of a lot of users).

  21. Flavoured water by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    with flavours ranging from the last meal you had yesterday to the last meal your partner had yesterday.

    Enhanced with probiotic bacteria that aid digestion.

  22. Building cross platform web sites is by xednieht · · Score: 1

    apparently is rocket science lol

    --

    Hope is the currency of fools
  23. Drink recycled water by kimvette · · Score: 1

    Drink recycled water. It's good for the environment, and okay for you. ;)

    heh.

    Seriously though I'll keep trusting the natural rain cycle or distillation myself, not a filtering process.

    --
    The Christian Right is Neither (Christian nor right). See: Matthew 23, Matthew 25, Ezekiel 16:48-50
  24. Oxygene? by moosehooey · · Score: 0, Redundant

    What the fuck is that?

  25. Wahoo! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Funny

    I'm sure the guys up there are thrilled about drinking their own piss!

    1. Re:Wahoo! by thedak · · Score: 1

      "Do I have to drink my own urine? No, but I do anyways, because it's sterile and I like the taste."

  26. could be too little electric power by peter303 · · Score: 1

    The bearings that rotate the left solar panels during the course of an orbit to maximize sun exposure are damaged. These bearings are similar to your CV Boot in an automobile. Without rotation power is cut by more than half. It is then not sufficient to power all the modules. They are looking at repairs, but this subsystem was really designed for repairs.

  27. Re:Recycling Gear? by Linker3000 · · Score: 1

    The way I first read the headline was much more appealing:

    "ISS gets new recycling gear, ready for lager"

    --
    AT&ROFLMAO
  28. Larger Crew? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Americans finally going to the ISS?

  29. Oxygene! by Pope · · Score: 1

    Landmark electronic music album by Jean Michel Jarre: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oxyg%C3%A8ne

    --
    It doesn't mean much now, it's built for the future.
  30. Display Issues on Site by dkh2 · · Score: 1

    I found the settings fix in Firefox 3 on XP Pro SP 2.

    I had to allow JavaScript to modify the task bar text. Then I got the intended white background for that DIV element.

    --
    My office has been taken over by iPod people.
  31. mentifex... is that you?? by toby · · Score: 1

    ^Z

    --
    you had me at #!
  32. Down the road for the H2. by WindBourne · · Score: 1

    relatively cheap reaction to run it with CO2 and H2 => CH4 + O2. Then dump the CH4. But at this time, the ISS has limits on power.

    --
    I prefer the "u" in honour as it seems to be missing these days.
  33. Re:crew limitation by Migraineman · · Score: 1

    My understanding was that the crew limitation was due to water availability. NASA never installed the recycling component of the ECLSS ... thus requiring regular Shuttle resupply flights. They've been dumping waste water overboard (filling the Progress with "trash" for deorbit.) I've always thought it was criminal that NASA wasn't making self-sufficiency a primary goal of the ISS assembly process. It was pretty clear to me that they were delaying that capability as long as possible to justify additional Shuttle flights.

  34. And of course by WindBourne · · Score: 1

    it is quite probable that another craft will come along within 2 years. But for the time being, Soyuz will have to be used.

    --
    I prefer the "u" in honour as it seems to be missing these days.
  35. MOD DOWN, NSF! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Warning: obfuscated goatse link

    1. Re:MOD DOWN, NSF! by Gewalt · · Score: 1

      Yes, I somehow morphed a goatse pic into a pic of TFA. Congratulations for being the only one smart enough to notice the previous state of the image. You're a god damn genius, I salute you.[/sarcasm] Dumbass...

      --
      Modding Trolls +1 inciteful since 1999
  36. Re:Recycling Gear? by bmoore · · Score: 1

    Well, I first read the tag 'typoinsummary' as "Typo In Space".

    I guess you never quite get what you want. I could use a good lager right now though. Have to wait until after work, sadly.

  37. Oxygene? by Oidhche · · Score: 0, Redundant

    So what's this `Oxygene' stuff? Is it in any way related to oxygen?

  38. Beware the RIAA Lawsuit by MiraclePhil · · Score: 1

    Some of the water will be used to get Oxygene, too.

    While I'm sure that the astronauts will enjoy listening to Jean Michel Jarre, they should be aware that turning water into copyrighted recordings is PIRACY and will insure a large RIAA lawsuit. I'd think that some Oxygen would be more useful anyway...

  39. SOYLENT GREEN IS PEOPLE!!! by Illbay · · Score: 1

    But in a GOOD way.

    --
    Any technology distinguishable from magic is insufficiently advanced.
  40. Mmmm lemonade... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    This lemonade sure has some kick to it!

  41. Re:8Ep... by tenco · · Score: 1

    here, please do Usenet. (...)

    I think that's why i stopped doing usenet...

  42. In space by MrKaos · · Score: 1

    no one can open a window

    --
    My ism, it's full of beliefs.
  43. Well it's definitely not an excuse by zobier · · Score: 1

    The site does work in IE but not Firefox -- piss-poor webmastership either way.

    --
    Me lost me cookie at the disco.
  44. Obscure reference by CLorox · · Score: 1

    Perhaps Carvey as Perot on Waterworld was wrong... "You can't piss into a Mr. Coffee and get Taster's Choice" .. Looks like we solved that little problem!

  45. Its cool by sdemjanenko · · Score: 1

    glad to hear the iss might get another astronaut, maybe now they will do some actual science. The display looks fine. I guess if you have a problem with a page just use opera, and if it still doesnt display correctly use opera's custom css feature to fix it.

  46. They don't do this yet? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    I recall seeing in Godfrey and Zeek a tour guide at the sewage treatment plant explaining how sewage gets transformed into a "clear, water-tasting liquid."