Path: utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!rutgers!usc!zaphod.mps.ohio-state.edu!rpi!jimcat
From: jimcat@itsgw.rpi.edu (Jim Kasprzak)
Newsgroups: sci.space.shuttle
Subject: Re: water dump
Message-ID: <WTK^W*&@rpi.edu>
Date: 20 Dec 90 07:09:09 GMT
References: <1990Dec19.172159.15458@focsys.uucp>
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Organization: Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, Troy NY
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Nntp-Posting-Host: hope.its.rpi.edu

In article <1990Dec19.172159.15458@focsys.uucp> jack@focsys.UUCP (Jack Houde) writes:
>This may have been answered before but...
>
>Since the beginning of manned space flight, what happens to
>the water that is dumped during flight?
>
>In the case of the Shuttle, is it close enough to Earth to
>cause it to re-enter? Else, does it become a frozen mass of
>whatever, forever stuck in orbit?
 
 I'd guess that it becomes a frozen mass of whatever that either sublimates
away to vapor, or decays in orbit to vaporize on re-entry.
>
>Or is it simply that they figure we have enough of it that
>it can be thrown away without any thought?
 
 This is indeed the case. The amount of water that goes up on any 
spaceflight is infinitesimally small compared to the amount of 
water on Earth. We're not going to run out any time soon.

-- 
 Jim Kasprzak          kasprzak@mts.rpi.edu (internet)
 RPI, Troy, NY         userfe0u@rpitsmts.bitnet
 "A spirit with a vision is a dream with a mission."  -Rush