I do have a question for Ed. The manifest for Dragon COTS-2 lists water being shipped. Is the water transported in containers that are unloaded by hand or is there a water line that is connected and pumped out?
Thanks,
SM
Hmmm.... if I remember right, we're flying water down - not up. Neither Dragon, Cygnus, nor HTV have water tanks to carry water up hill. Unless something has changed that I'm not aware of, we don't fly water uphill in bags - too much risk for leaks. I know we're bringing a couple of bags of water down on Dragon. Part of that is proof of concept and part is to be able to do detailed analysis on the water we're making. We used to bring water samples home on shuttle all the time.
ATV and Progress are the only vehicles I know of that can bring potable water to ISS. They have large, dedicated water tanks that get drained. Progress tends to bring up the bulk of our water. Once those tanks are empty, we then fill them with urine for disposal. Good times!
We also don't have dedicated large water tanks on the US segment - all our water is stored in bags that take up a lot of storage space. With our regenerative life support system, we're not having to fly up as much water either (it's heavy!).
Long answer to your question, sorry.
