Space Station residents to drink recycled urine

The crew of STS-126, the Space Shuttle launching Friday, will be delivering to the International Space Station a wastewater regeneration system that will recycle astronauts' urine.

(Credit: NASA)

If you're the kind of person who wants to do research on the International Space Station, it appears that you may need to cross some boundaries of taste many of us wouldn't even consider.

According to a BBC News story Friday, the crew aboard the Space Shuttle Endeavour, which is scheduled to launch from the Kennedy Space Center on Friday afternoon, will be handing off to their Space Station colleagues a water regeneration system designed to, among other things, recycle urine for reuse as fresh water.

The system, which will ionize, filter, distill, and oxidize wastewater, "will make yesterday's coffee into today's coffee," one astronaut told the BBC.

The idea behind the $250 million system seems to have been to figure out a way to ensure that residents of the Space Station had a supply of fresh water. To date, the Space Station has had the luxury of getting water deliveries from newly arrived Space Shuttles. But the Shuttle program is slated for retirement after 2010, and that looks to end the program's role as, among other things, the Space Station's personal water truck.

Still, the system won't be implemented right away. First, NASA wants to be sure that it works, as designed, in a zero-gravity environment.

On Earth, astronaut testers are apparently convinced that the filtration technology works just fine.

"Some people may think it's downright disgusting," Endeavour astronaut Heidemarie Stefanyshyn-Piper told the BBC, "but if it's done correctly, you process water that's purer than what you drink here on Earth."

Some who have tried the recycled water did report a faint taste of iodine, but they didn't see that as a problem.

"Other than that, it is just as refreshing as any other kind of water," said Bob Bagdigian, who ran the system's development. "I've got some in my fridge. It tastes fine to me."

[BogusBasin]

Golden showers!

[sparticus1701]

A waste of time. Just bottle it and put an Apple sticker on it.

[kojacked]

Mmmmmm... Taste like chicken!

Or

"John, did you eat asparagus for dinner last night???"

[NewsReader_]

Tang 2.0

[Tripeclipse1277]

Now if only we can get this technology declassified for those of us who are "crazy" enough to install it in our homes.

[celticbrewer]

Max and Jinx... Friends... For-e-ver.

(Space Camp for those of you too young to know the quote)


$250M for a distillery? They should bring some corn, rye, and turbo yeast.

[mlehiste]

Jesus Christ - what has the reporting come to; it's disgusting that you do not have better news to write.

Thank you for all of the journalist jackasses for ruining the dream of becoming an astronaut for thousands of kids who hear about this story

[pigmond]

@mlhiste - troll....

[inverse137]

Dude, you're not the brightest star in the sky, are ya?

OK, this goes under that heading of "intellectually I know there is nothing wrong with this and a closed system is both possible and necessary."

However! My 8-year old emotional self says: "eww"

:)

[geiste]

If a kid is put off from being an astronaut because of this, he/she probably isn't cut out for the job anyway. From what I've heard, it requires intelligence.

[OblivionSundae]

Yes, because the water we drink every day wasnt processed from sewage and other less than pleasant sources. Water purification is only pleasant on the end the clean water comes out of.

[Perry_Clease]

Exactly! Drinking water from river sources has usually been processed several times.

[Penguinisto]

err, the tech is pretty simple (distillation) - getting it to work in zero-gravity, safety-testing it, then launching it to orbit, is not... which probably explains the expense.

IIRC the Discovery/Science Channel has had more than a few shows with segments discussing this very thing. About time someone finally got one up there...

[timber2005]

Distillation would require gravity, because the water would have to contact a heat source long enough to boil, create steam, and rise, to produce droplets.

[fokkwp]

Jeez, astronauts have been recycling their **** since the 1960's. I didn't realize they were actually shipping fresh water up to the space station - what a way to waste my tax dollars. Anyone who "poo-poos" pisswater should take a good look at what's in the groundwater (or bottled water) that gets purified for your consumption. You might wish you'd been drinking only water coming from the urinary tracts of very healthy humans instead of what you are drinking now. Think agricultural and industrial runoff into those lakes, streams, and "springs".

[gefitz]

Have you ever tasted water in the Houston Metro Area? Petroleum-laced *ss.

[ggordonliddy]

No need to clean it first! If it's yellow, let it mellow (for a few moments in your drinking cup to get a waft of that so-sweet aroma). If it's brown, wash it down with the delightful liquid in your cup. At least that's what Hussein told me. It is change I can believe in.

[Heebee Jeebies]

While this may be offensive to some it doesn't bother me in the least bit. If the population of this planet keeps going like it is this maybe one of our only sources of drinking water in a couple of decades. Besides it sounds cleaner than rain water that I see people running around sticking the tongues out to collect. With all of the pollution in the air pee doesn't sound so bad. Maybe they can install smaller systems on airplanes.

"Sir Coffee, Tea or Pee?" asks the pretty young stewardess.

Robert

[inpersonoz]

I'm amazed this hasn't been done from the start. Launching drinking water must be hugely expensive. I don't get where this is offensive though... all the water on the planet has been through some animal some time in its long history, and Londoners have been drinking recycled water for years. Remove the impurities & water is water.

[inachu]

People who live in the desert will be leaughing when they read this.
they have been doing it for thousands of years to survive.

[DrollTroll]

Shucks, we've had that stuff here in the South fer ages...its called Mountain Dew. I think in the North, its known as Dr. Pepper.

[redinkreview]

Yum! Yum! Now we can start making preps for hot and steamy peanut patties for space consumption.

[fokkwp]

Any water you drink has been just about everywhere - all water is recycled. Quite possibly through the gut of every imaginable creature. Where do you think your tap and bottled water comes from - Magical Mountain? You are drinking recycled urine/poop/arsenic solution/whale dooky . . . check out the industrial chemicals that migrate into your local water table . . . the only useful criteria is how the water checks out when it is analyzed - something that is not done for bottled water, only tap water and recycled water. Your kids would be lucky to drink what those astronauts drink, and I don't mean Tang.