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from the more-than-just-a-passing-interest dept.
Ice-cream in Space! ISS gets a fridge.
The ISS is getting a new fridge. So they can keep their Tang chilled or possibly just get something that is more yummy than freeze-dried nutrients sucked thru a straw.
No rotating parts, radiation resistance and it can't blow heat out the back like a normal fridge but instead it is going to be hooked up to the existing ISS liquid cooling system.
https://www.colorado.edu/aerospace/2020/04/23/new-fridge-could-bring-real-ice-cream-space:
Officially called the Freezer Refrigerator Incubator Device for Galley and Experimentation, or FRIDGE, it is a far cry from the Amana or Frigidaire in your kitchen. Standard electronics don't fare well in space for a litany of reasons, with the fierce vibrations of launch and the higher radiation levels experienced once in orbit being primary culprits, so BioServe is designing specialized units.
[...] Compared to a regular refrigerator, FRIDGE is much smaller, roughly the size of a microwave oven, a requirement so it can fit into the pre-existing connections and rack housings aboard the space station.
[...] NASA has ordered eight FRIDGE units. Two will be used for astronaut food, and the remaining six will serve as home for active experiments that are temperature sensitive, or as storage for experiments either right before or after rocket transport to and from the ISS or aboard the station while awaiting active research.
Also covered at: engadget.
NASA's New $23 Million Space Toilet Arrives on ISS, Astronaut Shows How It Works in Video
NASA's new $23 million space toilet arrives on ISS, astronaut shows how it works in video:
A recently designed space toilet that better accommodates women has landed at the International Space Station. The new loo was packed inside a cargo ship that successfully blasted off Friday evening from NASA's Wallops Flight Facility on Wallops Island, Virginia, and arrived Monday. The astronauts will give the toilet a test run for the next few months.
[...] This new toilet is 65% smaller and almost half as light than current ISS toilets in use.
[...] The new, smaller toilet will be able to fit into the NASA Orion capsules, which will travel to the moon in future missions. In a new NASA video posted Tuesday, astronaut Chris Cassidy takes viewers on a tour of the toilet and the Waste and Hygiene Compartment (WHC) and explains more about what's it like going to the bathroom in space.
"The desire to go, the need to go, is very similar as on Earth. You just know you have to go," he says. "It doesn't feel any different because the fluid might be floating in your bladder or something. No, it's just the exact same sensation."
[...] The microgravity toilets used on the ISS use suction to keep waste from escaping during a potty break in space, but the new system has a new shape to better fit female anatomy. The toilet is also better suited to capture more waste than before.
"Cleaning up a mess is a big deal. We don't want any misses or escapes," Johnson Space Center project manager Melissa McKinley told The Guardian. "Let's just say everything floats in weightlessness."
(Score: 4, Funny) by PaperNoodle on Thursday October 08 2020, @04:28PM (1 child)
I'm Scruffy applying to be the janitor. I'll fix the terlert.
I'm on break.
B3
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday October 08 2020, @05:18PM
Don't forget to replace the cake......oh.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday October 08 2020, @04:44PM
Isn't that illegal? Next you'll be giving them lawyers...
(Score: 2) by looorg on Thursday October 08 2020, @05:11PM (1 child)
New Fridge and a new Toilet. It's like (usage of) one of them eventually leads to the other.
That said it's not very large if it's the size of a microwave oven, even tho the images makes it look a lot larger -- I guess there could be other things in the picture to such as cooling and power which they'll grab from the space station later. Still some things stored for longer might at least break the monotony of just eating freeze-dried and MRE-type meals.
(Score: 4, Funny) by fustakrakich on Thursday October 08 2020, @05:55PM
It's a combo unit. You crap into the top, and out comes a chocolate Twinkie
La politica e i criminali sono la stessa cosa..
(Score: 4, Funny) by DannyB on Thursday October 08 2020, @05:26PM
It's good for NASA to be liberal enough to recognize that genders other than male need to use the toilet in space.
Would a Dyson sphere [soylentnews.org] actually work?
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday October 08 2020, @05:40PM
The new supply shipment of bran to the iss has really lifted the crew's spirits. There have been some unforeseen air quality consequences that have forced evacuation to different parts of the station. NASA however has thoughtfully wrapped our new space toilet in soft protective packaging that has served well to deal with cleaning up the situation. Looking forward to taking some time for myself to read a service manual or two.
(Score: 3, Informative) by fakefuck39 on Thursday October 08 2020, @06:24PM
with these new appliances, they can now make what family guy refers to as a "frosty jim."
(Score: 2) by DannyB on Thursday October 08 2020, @06:58PM (1 child)
What about that air leak on the ISS?
Isn't it now considered worse than initially thought?
Will the leak help eliminate unpleasant odors?
Would a Dyson sphere [soylentnews.org] actually work?
(Score: 1) by fustakrakich on Sunday October 11 2020, @08:54PM
Well, at least they'll know where to put the new toilet...
La politica e i criminali sono la stessa cosa..
(Score: 1, Interesting) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday October 08 2020, @09:32PM
well upgrades are .. errr ... cool.
now ot, i would like to know if there's a definitive explanation to "vacuum of space"? link much appreciated!
zero-gravity is cool (*sigh again*) but it seems "space vacuum" is also .. yah .. cool but not commonly well understood?
can i imagine a pipe on earth sucked dry, thus containing a vacuum and then dropping "something" in to be a one-to-one representation of how stuff would behave if exposed to "space vacuum"?
would thus a PET bottle containing water explode if unscrewed(*) or would it instantly freeze or what?
(*) one assumes that the falling liquid water feels no surrounding atmosphere like on earth and would thus "dissipate" (-aka- explode) into "the greater vacuum"?
is there a ""tear-apart" force (**) in the vacuum of space -or- is there just "nothing"?
(**) trying to maximize entropy?
one assumes there are forces that hold stuff together (why we can't walk thru walls) and another force that crushes things together (why we don't tangentially fly off into other space if we jump/detach at the equator)?
so to one-to-one simulate zero-gravity we just fall down a tub containing nothing -but- is a artificial vacuum exactly the same as the vacuum in outer space?
*scratches head*