Even astronaut urine is captured and processed to make it drinkable. The system that does this work is about to get an important upgrade. The ISS water recovery system is tasked with turning wastewater into potable water.
The urine-processing part of the system has been an ongoing concern. They live on the International Space Station for the better part of a year, where air, food and water are precious resources. Sometimes you take a hit for the team back. Do a little back of the tp math and the value of a single kilogram of water in space is worth almost as much as a kilogram of yellow gold here on Earth.
The punchline is astronauts need to conserve water. What is it with you guys and names? Ever since, astronauts have been drinking their own urine like Captain Redbeard Rum on Blackadder. S system. It takes all water vapor, sweat, and grey water produced and excreted by astronauts and turns it back into drinkable water. On Earth, you can clear dirty water by boiling it. Collect your steam on a cold surface, pure, pee free and ready for drinking again. The device is small, light and less likely to clog than the filters currently being used.
Heather Hansman is a Seattle-based freelancer who writes about science, the environment, tech and people, and how they all interact. Her work has appeared in Outside , Popular Science and Grist. For that to happen, astronauts will need a regenerative system that reclaims water not only from the toilet but also from the air, Meir explained.
Until then, the space station is the only in-space test spot for long-term recycling systems. There is also the lack of gravity, which would make visiting the loo a messy affair. For urine, astronauts use a funnel and hose that has a fan that pulls urine away into the water filtration system.
For fecal matter, astronauts do their business through a small hole in the toilet seat. A fan then pulls the waste into a plastic bag, which is then compacted into a removable fecal storage canister.
0コメント