Urine Recycler On Space Station Passes Tests

Astronauts on board the International Space Station (ISS) said the urine recycler is working properly. Natures been recycling water on Earth for eons, and now NASA is doing the same thing above Earth on the International Space Station.

The space shuttle Endeavour delivered two refrigerator-sized racks packed with a distiller and an assortment of filters designed to process astronauts urine and sweat into clean drinking water. The station crew depends now on water carried up aboard a space shuttle or cargo rocket. But an operational water recycler is expected to cut that need by 65 percent by producing about 6,000 pounds of potable water each year. Thats enough fresh water to allow the station to host six crew members instead of three.

The system can recycle about 93 percent of the water it receives, said Bob Bagdigian, the Environmental Control Life Support System project manager at NASAs Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Ala.

The $154 million water recycling system is slated for another test on Tuesday night. Before the crew may start using the new recycled water, further tests of the processed urine, sweat, and condensation must first be tested back on Earth to make sure the drinking water is purified and safe for drinking. They hope the crew can begin drinking the water next year.