ISS Crew Gets Go Ahead to Drink Recycled Urine
NASA yesterday announced that following a report from the Water Recovery System team the crew on the ISS have been given the thumbs up to drink water that the station's new recycling system has purified.
"This has been the stuff of science fiction. Everybody's talked about recycling water in a closed loop system, but nobody's ever done it
before. Here we are today with the first round of recycled water," said Expedition 19 Commander Flight Engineer Mike Barrett.
“We're really happy for this day and for the team that put this together. This is the kind of technology that will get us to the moon and further," added Barrett toasting with fellow flight Engineer, Gennady Padalka.
"The taste is great," the AP cites Barratt as saying. As Padalka tried to catch little bubbles of recycled water floating in front of him, Barratt called the taste one "worth chasing."
While it might sound completely gross to us, the water is probably cleaner than what we drink on earth. That being said, I’d rather take my chances with Earth water than drink the purified urine of a rat. Really.
"Lab animals on the ISS breath and urinate, too, and we plan to reclaim their waste products along with the crew's. A full complement of 72 rats would equal about one human in terms of water reclamation," says Layne Carter, a water-processing specialist at the MSFC, according to a Nasa.gov.
Would you drink recycled urine? Sound off in the comments!
the water purification, as the article says, is LOT better than any bottled water company uses....
if there's such system for home use, i would use it myself....
Where you think tap water comes from? What do you think happens at waste treatment plants...water is treated, released back into the rivers, which inturn goes right back into water treatment plants right back into your tap. Bottled water is the same stuff just processed further to take back out chlorine, iodine, ect.
So no difference. Id drink it just the same.
Apparently they don't take showers much (they prefer sponge baths because showering involves wearing a breathing apparatus to avoid water up the nose/in the mouth and it's a bunch of headaches in general) but yes, they'll be using it for washing too.
for example does that technology filter out viruses, bacteria, dangerous chemicals?
if not astronauts can become sick from drinking water purified from the unrine of a sick astronaut.
You already have been.
And FYI Urine is sterile people.
uhmmm...i would think bunches of rocket scientists would have thought of killing micro-organisms during making of said filtration system...
they ARE rocket scientists, after all....
simple UV lamps or microwave would kill those things in seconds....
Now I'll know what to ask for when I'm at the bar!
Most people forget that urine is mostly water. Water is the filter of the human body. Waste that our cells produce, collectivley known as urea, ends up in our bloodstream. Our kidneys remove the urea, along with excess water, and the result is urine.
When you drink your own urine, you are putting more water back into your system, but you are also putting in the stuff your body is trying to get rid of. This is not bad for you at first, but if you drink no water, only your own urine for an extended period of time, the urea content of your urine will increase. It becomes difficult to urinate, painfull sometimes. But note, this is after drinking your own urine for days.
Its like using a dirty air filter. It works, but soon the filter will become more and more clogged with dust. Just like an air filter, the urine, which now must dispose of more and more waste in the same amount of water, becomes saturated. This is observable, as if you do drink your own urine over a few days it becomes darker in color. Similarly, the more water you drink, the lighter your urine is.
Astronauts on the Apollo 13 mission were stuck in space without power. For the last four days or so of their journey, they had run out of liquid water. They drank their own urine, which kept them from dehydration while they came home. I am not simply using the movie as the source of that info, they did in fact have to drink their own urine.
Doctors used to check for diabetes by tasting patients urine. If it was sweet it indicated high blood sugar. Luckily we have much more pleasant methods now.
The bottom line:
Urine is sterile. You can drink it. I don't know why you would want to, but it is completely safe.
Any water recycled from the air is purer than earth's spring water.
Though I can understand the logic behind this. In a same way things go with water on earth. Water from the sewer also goes to the sea, or lake, where it's been sucked up by a water purification system, that will clean the water as tap water.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Prion