This node is fictional. Refer to Continental Class Space Battleships.
Like every other large spaceship, a Continental Class battleship circulates water in a closed cycle. Water is needed for several purposes; the most common ones are:
- Drinking water
- Ingredient in meals and beverages
- Flush fluid and carrier for various wastes
- Coolant for some low-energy equipment
The ship's water system contains about 15,000 metric tonnes of water and circulates approximately once every two days. It consists of following networks and facilities:
- Drinking-water supply network
- Service water supply network
- Wastewater return network
- Wastewater treatment plants
- Drinking-water purification plants
Like virtually all systems on the ship, the water system is split into a starboard and a port half which can operate independent from each other. Each deck has a starboard and a port water backbone consisting of high-pressure drinking-water and processing water supply pipes and a pressureless wastewater return tube. The backbones can be interconnected if and when necessary.
The wastewater flows back to the treatment plants partly because of the flush pressure, partly because of the ship's gravity; those plants are situated on the lowest deck. In case of a gravity shutdown, water nozzles inject enough service water into the tubes to make the waste move without the pull of artificial gravity.
Treatment of the wastewater is done in two very compact plants (port/starboard); the usual mechanical and biological processes clean it to the point where it is usable as service water. It is then pumped into the supply backbones under enough pressure to reach the uppermost decks even when the ship's gravity is at its maximum.
A small part of the service water (usually no more than 100 or 200 tonnes a day) is desinfected, oxygenated and filtered to drinking-water quality in separate small plants. This happens on demand, controlled by the water level in the plant's pressurised buffer tanks. The drinking-water network has pipes of a much smaller diameter than the service water network. Service water taps and drinking-water taps can be distinguished by warning signs, coloured rings around the pipes and taps (blue for drinking-water, brown for service water) and differently shaped handles.
Various control points around the ship continuously inform the ship's telemetry system about water quality, pressure and flow rates. Pumps and valves are activated automatically or by operators to keep the pressure steady; direct feedback on the water quality goes back to the processing plants. If necessary, connections between the port and starboard halves of the systems are opened or closed. Semi-autonomous robots operate inside the wastewater system to keep the pipes and tubes free.