D. Orta et al., ANALYSIS OF WATER FROM THE SPACE-SHUTTLE AND MIR-SPACE-STATION BY IONCHROMATOGRAPHY AND CAPILLARY ELECTROPHORESIS, Journal of chromatography, 804(1-2), 1998, pp. 295-304
Citations number
17
Categorie Soggetti
Chemistry Analytical","Biochemical Research Methods
Drinking water and condensate samples collected from the US Space Shut
tle and the Russian Mir Space Station are analyzed routinely at the NA
SA-Johnson Space Center as part of an ongoing effort io verify water q
uality and monitor the environment of the spacecraft. Water quality mo
nitoring is particularly important for the Mir water supply because ap
proximately half of the water consumed is recovered fr om humidity con
densate. Drinking water on Shuttle is derived from the fuel cells. Bec
ause there is little equipment on board the spacecraft for monitoring
the water quality, samples collected by the crew are transported to Ea
rth on Shuttle or Soyuz vehicles, and analyzed exhaustively. As part o
f the test battery, anions and cations are measured by ion chromatogra
phy, and carboxylates and amines by capillary electrophoresis. Analyti
cal data from Shuttle water samples collected before and after several
missions, and Mir condensate and potable recovered water samples repr
esenting several recent missions are presented and discussed. Results
show that Shuttle water is of distilled quality, and Mir recovered wat
er contains various levels of minerals imparted during the recovery pr
ocesses as designed. Organic ions are rarely detected in potable water
samples, but were present in humidity condensate samples. (C) 1998 El
sevier Science B.V.