270 points · 47 comments · 2 days ago · idlewords
mceglowski.substack.comben_w
shmeeed
RobotToaster
while a further 7,000 kilograms of treated urine were sitting in orbital storage tanks, waiting to be processed.
Is that a record for the biggest piss bottle ever made?
s0rce
golem14
Something like that during a covid like moment would suck donkey rocks.
sprinkly-dust
RobotToaster
ggm
adolph
There is a good cautionary tale here from the Space Shuttle era. That vehicle
had heat resistant tiles that had to be attached to the aluminum belly of the
orbiter. A special cloth had been certified for wiping the aluminum clean
before applying the primer that securely bonded the tiles to the metal. After
years of uneventful use, tile engineers discovered that new replacement tiles
were no longer curing properly.
A careful investigation revealed that the supplier of that special cloth had
changed the lubricant used in the machine that sews its hem. Minute amounts
of the lubricant were being deposited on the stitching, and enough of that
residue was getting on the aluminum skin to prevent the tile adhesive from
curing properly.voidUpdate
If there was any "we don't even know if this is an emergency" surprise interaction along these lines, a 3-day emergency resupply mission (or evacuation) is much, much easier than a 6-9 month trip when the planets align.