Comments on: Space Station residents to drink recycled urine

NASA is testing a wastewater regeneration system that will clean astronauts' urine to make it drinkable. But will it really be "just as refreshing as any other kind of water"?

[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.