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NASA awarded Blue Origin $172 million to develop a space station for astronauts and tourists.
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The space station, called Orbital Reef, must be able to support human life.
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Recently, Blue Origin passed four milestones in proving that Orbital Reef is well on its way.
The International Space Station won’t be around forever, and NASA is pouring hundreds of millions of dollars into potential replacements.
One promising candidate is Orbital Reef – a joint venture between Jeff Bezos’ space company Blue Origin and Sierra Space.
On Wednesday, NASA reported that Orbital Reef passed four important milestones for some of its most critical technology, including a system to recycle the urine of future astronauts and tourists.
“These milestones are critical to ensuring that a commercial destination can support human life,” said Angela Hart, manager of NASA’s Low Earth Orbit Development Program, in a NASA announcement.
The milestones involved running a series of tests on the Orbital Reef regenerative system. This system will provide clean air and water for humans to breathe and drink while on the space station.
Some of the tests included the system’s ability to remove impurities from the air, recover urine for recycling, and maintain a water tank, NASA reported.
The ISS has a similar system that recycles water and oxygen from “normal human activities” as NASA puts it – or mostly breathing, sweating and peeing. That’s right, the system turns pee into drinking water.
“Before you hear about your leftover wash water and your leftover urine, remember that the water we have in the end is purer than most of the water you drink daily at home,” said the former ISS. Commander Chris Hadfield in a 2013 video.
In fact, astronauts on the ISS have been drinking each other’s crystal-clear recycled urine for about 15 years, and for good reason. It helps reduce the amount of water NASA has to send into space to keep astronauts alive, cutting launch costs and saving money.
Blue Origin’s future space station
NASA awarded $172 million to Blue Origin and Sierra Space as part of its goal to develop American-led commercial space stations in low Earth orbit that could replace the ISS after it retires.
These replacements will be a place where NASA can continue to launch its astronauts, leasing its own quarters and laboratory space. However, because the stations would be owned by commercial companies, they can also be open to space tourists.
“Think of large modules with large windows to see the Earth, our blue origin, while enjoying the weightlessness in total comfort,” says Blue Origin on its website.
NASA is giving the next generation of space stations to commercial companies because it has bigger priorities that need funding. It currently costs NASA about $3 billion a year to maintain the ISS program.
“The agency is committed to continuing to work with industry with the goal of having one or more stations in orbit to ensure competition, lower costs, and meet the demands of NASA and other customers,” Hart said in NASA statement in January.
Without the ISS, that will free up NASA’s budget to focus its efforts on establishing a permanent human presence on the moon, including a space station in lunar orbit and a base on the lunar surface, through its Artemis missions.
“Overall, we projected total costs for Artemis to reach $93 billion between 2012 and 2025,” NASA Acting Inspector General George Scott said during a government hearing in January, adding that this did not include the cost of launches, which will be approximately $4.2 billion per launch for the first four Artemis missions.
Eventually, NASA hopes to focus its budget on sending astronauts to Mars.
The ISS is already on its way out
It’s not just the money. The ISS is getting old anyway. Cracks are visible on one Russian module. Another joint is leaking air. In recent years the station has also experienced a toilet failure, a mysterious temperature change, and an oxygen-supply system breakdown.
The Biden administration is committed to keeping the ISS running through at least 2030. By then, NASA aims to have already made the transition to at least one privately owned space station. If all goes as planned, the empty and decommissioned ISS will push itself into the Earth’s atmosphere and burn up as it falls towards the ocean.
So there is still some time to spare for a trip to Orbital Reef. Ticket costs are not available, yet. For reference, a trip to ski the edge of space for a few minutes via Blue Origin’s New Shepard rocket can cost tens of thousands of dollars.
Read the original article on Business Insider
