Vacuum Cleaners and Your Submarines - PART 2 (answers and Video)
Yesterday, M.E. had asked two questions:
Q1. What kinds of vacuum cleaners (or rechargeable 'dust buster') did your submarine use?
Answer 1: Subs never had vacuum cleaners during my service ( 70 dbs at 10 yards ), Vacuum cleaners might be available in submarine ServMarts, by now.
and,
Q2. after explaining why the International Space Station (ISS), since surrounded by the vacuum of space, should ideally never need one, Would the ISS ever need a vacuum cleaner?
Answer 2: As a matter of fact, YES. In October, 2000, Russia's unmanned PROGRESS M 1-3 cargo craft was prepared to launch with 1.6 tons of supplies for the ISS:
fuel, life-support equipment (oxygen generator, CO2 scrubber, etc.), TV equipment, spacewalk gear, an electric food warmer, personal items such as toothbrushes, toothpaste, combs, brushes, medical kits, laptop computers, pens and pencils, and numerous 'housekeeping' items including a vacuum cleaner ... probably not an Oreck, though ...
20 May 2004, ISS On-Orbit Status: CDR Padalka conducted a number of in-flight servicing tasks in the RS (Russian segment), starting out with another round of preventive maintenance of the air ventilation systems, today vacuum-cleaning the Group A fans and grilles in the Service Module (SM).
Remember discussion of the ISS as an ideal platform for a central vacuum system? It turns out the ISS has its own VS (vacuum system). YouTube:
Vacuum cleaner from space...
Labels: central vacuum space
posted by Vigilis @ 11:03 AM
2 comments
2 Comments:
While venting all your dust and debris right out of an airlock might sound attractive, it does waste perfectly good air. A vaccuum cleaner sucks up air and passes it through the HEPA filter before expelling it out the back end, so it will return the relatively clean air to the interior living spaces of the ISS, rather than shooting it out the side.
We had several wet/dry shop vacs and a couple of older residential models on the boat while I was there (the dry ones were typically used to clean up things like the confetti under the paper shredder and the chads from around the EOOW's desk after he used the three-hole punch.) If we were rigged for ultra-quiet, obviously, field day and after-watch cleanup were suspended until later, but we still used vacuums on station and while transiting.
Yuks, your reasoning parallels that of the ISS's designers. Breathing air is a precious resource to be conserved without a better purpose.
As to your SSBN vacuum experience, thank you for your interesting comments.
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