NASA astronauts to drink recycled urine in space

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kauzy

kauzy

Galvanizer
London, November 15 (ANI): NASA is launching a machine aboard the space shuttle Endeavour, which will recycle astronauts' urine for consumption as water.

"We did blind taste tests of the water. Nobody had any strong objections. Other than a faint taste of iodine, it is just as refreshing as any other kind of water," the Telegraph quoted NASA's Bob Bagdigian, the system's lead engineer, as saying.

"I've got some in my fridge. It tastes fine to me," he added.

The launch of the 250million-dollar wastewater recycling machine is part of NASA's 124th shuttle mission, which was launched on Friday evening from the Kennedy Space Center in Florida.

The shuttle is expected to arrive at the space station on Sunday.

Besides the water recycler, Endeavour carries two small bedrooms, the station's first refrigerator, new exercise gear, and a second lavatory.

"With six people you really do need to have a two-bathroom house. It's a lot more convenient and a lot more efficient," said Endeavour astronaut Sandra Magnus.

NASA said that it wanted to ensure that the water-recycling machine worked well before adding three more astronauts to the station's crew.

NASA researchers said that they expected to process about six gallons, or 23 litres, of water per day with the new device.

They revealed that their objective was to recover about 92 per cent of the water from the crew's urine and moisture in the air.

As to the process of recycling the wasterwater, the researchers said that they used an extensive series of purification techniques like distillation - which is somewhat tricky in microgravity - filtration, oxidation, and ionisation.

Bagdigian said that the final step, that is, the addition of iodine helped prevent microbial growth.

He said that the device could process a full day's worth of wastewater in less than 24 hours.

"Today's drinking water was yesterday's waste," he said
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Source: NASA astronauts to drink recycled urine in space - Yahoo! India News
 
Eew...
Wouldn't trust even a 250 million dollar machine !:no:
Next thing you know,the astronauts will be eating their own poop..errr...food.:tongue:
 
Soon cities will feature recycled waste in the drinking water supply - if they do not already do so.

I remember seeing an advert which touted this technology as the companies bit for a green earth. This was a couple of years back.

Here is a link a quick search dug up:

New plan to recycle waste water-Lucknow-Cities-The Times of India

The technology has been developed by a team of experts from the ennvironmental division of civil engineering department of the Indian Institute of Technology, Kanpur (IIT-K). Prof Vinod Tare, team leader in the project said that the technology uses the force of flushing water so that the excreta gets precipitated into a chamber to be used later as a fertiliser, while the water is recycled back to the system.
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The enviromentalists push such bizzare solutions and the media reports it uncritically
 
thetoxicmind said:
How so??? :S :ashamed: :rofl:
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arre it was some sort of mechanism....he pee n then rotate a lever n he got fresh water from other side thru a tap...filled it in a cup n drank it:rofl: :rofl:
 
this really isn't anything new afaik singapore has been recycling sewage for quite some time.google for new water :lol:
 
I dont think we can trust this technology in india, I some politician decides to eat money in this and gets a substandard machine, we'l be drinking our neighbours piss..:@ gross :@
 
You guys haven't seen sewage treatment plants I reckon :P

All the water you drink has some pee or poo.

Pay a visit to your regional water treatment plant if you don't believe me and you will see the disturbing reality.

Infact in my school days I was doing this project on water pollution and you just had to see the staff some places were being supplied as drinking water (and this was in the national capitol)
 
even i saw this on discovery show few years back where the host gives his own ***** and they use a portable machine and give him back the clean water and he drank it lol

the machine was supposed to be used by US armed force ......
 
..:: Free Radical ::.. said:
You guys haven't seen sewage treatment plants I reckon :P
All the water you drink has some pee or poo.
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Exactly.. :P Even if you leave that aside, there do you think all that pee from animals and men in the natural habitats going to. Its all just being recycled through a natural process. :P

kippu said:
moraji desai anyone?
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LOL, but he drank it with all the minerals intact. :rofl:
 
Its in chennai too..

TIDEL consumes 3.5 lakhs litres of make up water daily for kitchen, washing, toilet, gardening, plant operattions, etc. As a measure of water conservation, TIDEL has installed a state-of-the-art treatment plant with eco friendly / modern-membrane technology to recycle the used / sewage water with a capital investment of Rs.2 crores. The treated water is being utilized for gardening, toilet flush, etc.
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TIDEL Park
 
well this isnt new.. only that they have gotten better technology to do the same thing faster.. i remember i saw this on discovery few years back where they showed how the space stations operate and how they fulfill their need for water..
 
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