Timothy Birdnow

The Russians are blaming lime buildup in a water heating device for the appearance of "yellow water" at the International Space Station.

Acccording to Itar-Tass:

"Some media outlets reported earlier on Tuesday that problems had emerged with the quality of hot water and yellowish admixtures of unknown origin had been discovered in the space station’s Russian segment. Reports stated that the cosmonauts allegedly had to use water in the US segment.

As Solovyov noted, the use of water from the American segment is prescribed in this case in the flight program."

End excerpt.

In a place where urine must be recycled for drinking water, you do NOT want your water heater putting out yellow liquid.

I think the Russians may be fibbing about this; since water is recycled it does not make a lot of sense that there would be lime buildup. The water in the station is distilled, not from places where there is high mineral deposits. One has to wonder if rather the distillation units in the Russian section of the station hadn't broken down.

The Russians have replaced the "samovar" and now say it is working.

Now, if the water starts turning brown, I'd head for home, even without a Soyuz...

Posted by: Timothy Birdnow at 10:33 AM | Comments (2) | Add Comment
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