That’s one giant leak for mankind.
The good folks at NASA have invented a system in which both astronaut urine and sweat are made into safe drinking water while up and away in the final frontier of space.
“The team acknowledges that the idea of drinking recycled urine might make some people squeamish,” according to the space agency. “But they stress that the end result is far superior to what municipal water systems produce on the ground.”
Currently being tested onboard the International Space Station, the Urine Processor Assembly (UPA) “recovers water from urine using vacuum distillation.”
From there, the system “produces water and a urine brine that still contains some reclaimable water” as it undergoes another processor to “extract” the remaining wastewater.
After more filtration, the extract becomes cleared for liftoff to be re-consumed by the crew.
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As for sweat and moisture from astronauts’ breath, a device called the Water Processor Assembly (WPA) operates in a similar fashion.
The new strategy — sure to aid deep space exploration — is saving 98% of NASA’s water goal and “is a very important step forward in the evolution of life support systems,” said Christopher Brown, a life support specialist at the Johnson Space Center.
“Let’s say you collect 100 pounds of water on the station. You lose two pounds of that and the other 98% just keeps going around and around,” he said. “Keeping that running is a pretty awesome achievement.”
After all, each crew member on board needs about a gallon of water per day for their daily routines and meals, according to NASA.
“The crew is not drinking urine; they are drinking water that has been reclaimed, filtered and cleaned such that it is cleaner than what we drink here on Earth,” said Jill Williamson, subsystem manager of the space station’s Environmental Control and Life Support System.
“We have a lot of processes in place and a lot of ground testing to provide confidence that we are producing clean, potable water.”
