Astronauts Tackle Glitches with Space Water Recycler

From SPACE.com:

A new recycling system designed to convert astronaut urine and sweat back into drinking water aboard the International Space Station has encountered its first glitch, mission managers said late Thursday. Astronauts were stymied when they attempted to run the first batch of urine through station's new Water Recovery System to begin tests of the equipment's ability to filter and purify water from the waste, station flight director Ginger Kerrick said in a mission update. When commands were sent through the $250 million system's Urine Processor Assembly to begin filtering urine, an alarm sounded that sent station astronauts hunting for any signs of smoke or fire. But it was a false, and unexpected, alarm that was even heard via radio by spacewalkers working outside the station. "We think we have a handle on what caused the caution to annunciate," Kerrick said, but added that more engineering analysis is needed before another attempt to process urine is made. Engineers initially encountered hurdles keeping the system cool late Wednesday, but resolved that issue before Thursday's test, she added. Meanwhile, engineers hope to continue efforts to test the recycling system's ability to collect wastewater and condensed sweat from the space station's atmosphere and filter it into drinking water, Kerrick said.

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