Newsgroups: sci.space.shuttle
Path: utzoo!henry
From: henry@zoo.toronto.edu (Henry Spencer)
Subject: Re: water dump
Message-ID: <1990Dec28.081647.29807@zoo.toronto.edu>
Organization: U of Toronto Zoology
References: <1990Dec19.172159.15458@focsys.uucp>
Date: Fri, 28 Dec 90 08:16:47 GMT

In article <1990Dec19.172159.15458@focsys.uucp> jack@focsys.UUCP (Jack Houde) writes:
>Since the beginning of manned space flight, what happens to
>the water that is dumped during flight?

It fairly quickly ends up as individual molecules, through direct boiling
of liquid and sublimation of ice crystals.  At that point it becomes part
of Earth's atmosphere, and vanishes into the vast amounts of water there
already.  (Well, the water dumped by the Apollo lunar missions ended up as
part of the Sun's atmosphere, since Earth's atmosphere only goes out a few
tens of thousands of kilometers, but the same general comments apply.)

>Or is it simply that they figure we have enough of it that
>it can be thrown away without any thought?

Earth loses far more water every day by natural processes.
-- 
"The average pointer, statistically,    |Henry Spencer at U of Toronto Zoology
points somewhere in X." -Hugh Redelmeier| henry@zoo.toronto.edu   utzoo!henry