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Space Explorers! Now, You Can Drink Your Own Urine
A prototype urine collection and filtration system has been created by researchers at Cornell University.
(Astronaut backpack converts urine to drinking water)
The system can collect and purify about 500 ml of urine in five minutes. The urine is first collected via a collection cup made from moulded silicone that is lined with a nylon-spandex blend before being vacuum pumped to the urine filtration system where 87% of the liquid is recycled.The purified water is then mixed with electrolytes and pumped into a drinks bag where it can be consumed.
“Astronauts currently have only one litre of water available in their in-suit drink bags,” notes Cornell’s Sofia Etlin. “This is insufficient for the planned, longer-lasting lunar spacewalks, which can last ten hours, and even up to 24 hours in an emergency.”
(Via PhysicsWorld)
Science fiction fans recall the stillsuit from Dune:
"Kynes knelt, examined the leg seals. "Urine and feces are processed in the thigh pads..."...[Paul] found his stillsuit's watertube in its clip at his neck, drew a warm swallow into his mouth, and he thought that here he truly began an Arrakeen existence--living on reclaimed moisture from his own breath and body. It was flat and tasteless water, but it soothed his throat...
Let's hope the Cornell researchers have solved the odor problem; Frank Herbert puts it this way:
"...they stink to heaven in any closed space. It's from those suits they wear -- call them 'stillsuits' -- that reclaim the body's own water..."
Thanks to @nyrath for pointing this out.
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Space Explorers! Now, You Can Drink Your Own Urine
'those suits they wear -- call them 'stillsuits' -- that reclaim the body's own water...' - Frank Herbert, 1965.
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