BytTechService » News ” Home appliances for living in space: what does a space refrigerator and washing machine look like?
The International Space Station (ISS), where “space explorers” from all over the world conduct their research, has taken on board more than a dozen missions over its 20-year existence. Since each such mission lasts more than one month, the station for the astronaut becomes not just a place of work, but, albeit a temporary one, but a place of residence. It is not surprising that a person is trying to equip his life in space, to make it as comfortable as on Earth, equipping it with the necessary household appliances.
It turns out that some household devices for operation in space already exist, although they differ from those on Earth. One of them is a refrigerator. The ISS for Russian cosmonauts is provided with a refrigerator BKh-3, which is an analogue of the onboard refrigerator of the MIR orbital station dating back to the times of the USSR. The refrigerator has compartments for storing special tubes with a diet, as well as natural products. To prevent food from “floating away” when opening the refrigerator, all compartments are covered with special fabric ribbons, on which hooks are additionally attached. What is unusual is that there is no door in the refrigerator. To get to the contents, you need to open the lid.
American astronauts do not have a full-fledged refrigerator for storing food. Instead, they use freezers that provide the lowest possible temperatures for storing various crops grown directly in space. For example, the GLACIER refrigerator maintains a temperature regime from -160 °C to +4 °C, and its volume is 20 liters. It was first delivered to the station back in 2012 by the Dragon spacecraft. And it may not be a complete food refrigeration device, but for storing treats like ice cream, this is a great place.
But the washing machine for space is still under development. This became known in March this year. True, no technical details of the future washing machine have yet been disclosed. It is only known that employees of the Energia Rocket and Space Corporation named after A.I. Queen. Most likely, water obtained from human waste products, which has previously passed through the regeneration system, will be used for its operation.
But the Americans in this regard have moved much further. Nine years ago, NASA approached UMPQUA with the task of building a washer-dryer for use in space. Already 9 years later, a prototype of such an AMCILS machine was tested in a special laboratory in microgravity.
UMPQUA published a research report and a diagram of the washer-dryer itself in 2017, while arousing great interest from journalists and developers of large household appliances.
It turned out that the space washer differs from the earth not only in appearance, but also in the principle of operation. So, in the “unearthly” model, not only the drum is missing, but also the heating element. Things are placed in a special sealed compartment with water. The rotating moment is provided by an activator, which is located at the bottom of the compartment, and a special moving plunger is responsible for the stage of squeezing clothes. In the space washer, as in the microwave, a magnetron is provided. It is he who performs the function of thermal exposure, instead of the usual heating element.
The wash cycle at AMCILS includes three main steps: garment wash, first rinse and final rinse. At the same time, the washing machine can save water consumption, since its fresh portion is fed into the washing machine only for the final rinse of each batch of loaded laundry. The water from the first rinse of one batch of clothes is reused for the subsequent wash cycle of the second batch. Similarly, the water from the second rinse of one batch is used for the first rinse of the second batch of laundry.
In the meantime, space residents simply pack their dirty laundry and place it in a special transport ship, which, after descending from orbit, burns out along with the contents in the atmosphere.
In addition to individual household appliances and appliances, designers are also working on the creation of entire residential modules. The developers are sure that in them it will be much more comfortable for astronauts not only to explore space, but also to deal with their usual “earthly” concerns.