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This paper describes the design and performance characteristics of the thermal control system for the Spacelab Astro-1 payload. Dubbed the Integrated Radiator System, or IRS, the assembly is a thermal radiation system designed to maintain the temperature of payload electronics packages within a specified range, regardless of payload or orbiter orientation in space. The radiator is passive in its ability to reject heat, but active when the lower temperature limit is reached. At that point, resistance heaters are energized to maintain the radiator surface temperature within acceptable range. The performance of the radiator system during its flight aboard the Space Shuttle is reported in this paper. An earlier paper presented the thermal analysis and test data predicting the performance of the radiator system before the flight. In this paper, data collected during the flight is reported and compared to the performance predicted by analyses and tests.

The technology available for the production of high purity water in a microgravity environment is applied to a water reclamation and purification system for the Laboratory Module of Space Station Freedom. The system is required to remove a wide range of contaminants from water, and therefore a staged system, which uses a number of purification techniques in series, is necessary. The Ultrapure Water System (UPWS) design has been in development for over four years. Initial system concepts relied heavily on distillation, followed by ion exchange and adsorption. Recent efforts have focused on addressing the limitations of a distillation-based system. Substituting a combination of chemical oxidation and continuous deionization for the distillation step appears to be viable. A development test program has been formulated which would prove system feasibility, refine the design concept, and provide data for system simulation.