Tag Archives: water

Mission quiz: Answer 1 – Where does that water come from?

Here's the correct answer to yesterday's first question in our Mission Quiz ("Name the two European sources of the two different types of H2O that ATV transports to the ISS") courtesy of the ATV Cargo specialists:

  1. For American water, we use the Pian Della mussa source that is a lighter water with a mountain source
  2. For the Russian water, we use the Regina Margherita source that is close to Turin (Grugliasco/Collegno) and contains more natural minerals.

Here an abstract (in Italian, only):

L'acqua destinata agli astronauti è la stessa che bevono i cittadini torinesi solo che quella inviata agli americani è estratta dal Pian della Mussa e raccolta dalla centrale di Venaria, ed è quindi un'acqua montana molto leggera. Quella dei russi proviene invece da pozzi dal contenuto minerale naturale situati nei pressi di Collegno.

Details (also in Italian) via SlideShare

 

Herewith, we're delighted to present the results of judging of the submissions sent in via Twitter and the blog! (Note that our judges felt that it was important to be a fully accurate as possible in the answer...)

Congratulations to the winner, Georg Balmer, with the the first, best response:

Posted in ATV blog 15:58 15.04 by Georg Balmer

The water that ATV delivers to the ISS is delivered by the "Società Metropolinata Acque Torino", the Metropolitan Water Company of Torino, and comes from two different sources near the Italian city of Torino: spring water from "Pian della Mussa", meeting the American standards, and water with higher mineral content, as required by the Russian standard, from wells in the region of Collegno.

(more...)

Catching up with ATV

André Kuipers in ATV-3

André Kuipers in ATV-3. Credits: NASA

We're approximately half-way through the ATV-3 mission, so it's a good time to provide an update on what's been happening with Edoardo Amaldi, and what's planned in the next few months.

Overall results? Here's a quote from a recent email report to the ATV community sent by ESA's Mission Manager Massimo Cislaghi:

"ATV Edoardo Amaldi is fulfilling its mission in  an excellent manner -- and is completing all tasks inherent to its mission to the ISS."

Now, let's look at the numbers. As of 20 June, ATV has performed the following ISS servicing activities:

  • All 2200 kg of dry cargo have been transferred to the ISS (and ~592 kg of trash have been loaded)
  • 1 tank of air (~ 33 kg) has been emptied into the ISS atmosphere (the two other gas tanks containing O2 are waiting for the same operation)
  • Slightly more that the half of the potable water (~154 litres) has been transferred to the Russian ISS segment tanks
  • ATV has performed five ISS orbit reboosts and one ISS attitude control manoeuvre (to facilitate a Soyuz docking in mid-May), burning ~1450 kg of propellant
  • ISS refuelling operations performed on 19 June have allowed to transfer more than 800 kg of propellant inside the FGB "Zarya" tanks

(For details on bringing the ATV power chain back into full operation, scroll to bottom of this post.)

Massimo ended his note with: "Thanks to all of you for the contribution given to the ATV programme in general and Edoardo Amaldi in particular!"

Now, let's take a look at recent activity (click on 'Continue Reading' for full post). (more...)

ATV-3 makes first water delivery to ISS

Yesterday, 9 April, the first ATV water delivery to the ISS took place.

The crew filled three EDV (Russian water containers; 22 litres each) using a Pump Unit located in the Russian Service Module (to which ATV is docked) and connected via hoses through the ATV Water Control Panel to ATV's Water Tank No. 1.

"Sixty six of the of 280 litres available in ATV Water Tank No. 1 were successfully transferred," confirms ESA's Mike Steinkopf.

We bet tap water from the city of Turin, Italy, never tasted so good!

Nespoli performs hot-swap of faulty valve on Columbus

Nice update today in the main ESA website on the 27 February in-orbit replacement of a faulty water valve in the Columbus lab's Thermal Control System, which cools all the equipment and scientific payloads in the orbiting research module:

ESA astronaut Paolo Nespoli removes failed valve in Columbus 27 February 2011

ESA astronaut Paolo Nespoli removes failed valve in Columbus 27 February 2011

A joint effort is combining sophisticated engineering analysis on the ground with old-fashioned hands-on work in space after ESA astronaut Paolo Nespoli undertook the complex installation of a replacement water valve in ESA's Columbus science laboratory.

Full article via ESA