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NASA just recycled 98% of all astronaut pee and sweat on the ISS
- xupybd 3y agoThat 2% is still a big cost. I think In-Situ Resource Utilization is what we need to make it cheap enough to do more in LEO. I know it's insane but mining water in space and sending it back to earth seems to be one of the best options. Edit: If you're down voting can you let me know why?
- prepend 3y agoI remember reading about space mining and the first target is ice to haul back to orbit for water. It was something I didn’t think about but makes sense because water is so heavy to get into orbit.
- ericbarrett 3y agoI don't think it's insane at all, you raise a good point. There's a lot of H2O out there and it's a lot less energy to get it from ~the asteroid belt to Earth orbit than from Earth ground to orbit. Obviously we're not there yet from a technology or logistics standpoint, but I'm sure it's in humanity's future.
- FreshStart 3y agoShape it into space concrete aka pykrete by adding long fibers made from silicon.
- Shawnj2 3y agoI agree, but I don’t think it makes as much sense for the time scale of the ISS since IMO by the time asteroid mining is successful, the ISS will be towards the end of its life. I think this is something that would be more worth putting in the general mission plan of an ISS successor or Gateway.
- hulitu 3y ago> That 2% is still a big cost They can use it as fertilizer.
- Widdershin 3y agoOne step closer to stillsuits
- ChuckNorris89 3y agoCan't wait for the Apple Stillsuit Pro that matches their headset, and lets you drink your iWee.
- joshuanapoli 3y agoWhere does the last 2% of the water go?
- xupybd 3y agoIt sounds like it gets stuck in solution.
- dudus 3y agoCan you be more specific?
- shagie 3y agoUnless you get the urine and sweat both down to solids, there is going to be some water in it. Granted, very, very concentrated urine and sweat (salts, urea, etc...) but it will still be in solution. Getting that last 2% of water out of the solution to leave a completely anhydrous substance gets energy expensive. Also, some things are better left in solution (ammonia for example) making them easier to move around and deal with.
- Shawnj2 3y agoIs there a reason you can’t distill/evaporate the remaining water out of the solids?
- shagie 3y agoHow much energy are you going to expend to do that - and do things like separate the ammonia from the water? It's not "it can't be done." It's a "it gets prohibitively expensive on a limited energy budget." Note that you're going to be left with things like anhydrous ammonia when you're done. That is more difficult to work with than concentrated ammonia in solution. In a sealed environment, this becomes even more of a concern.
- panick21_ 3y ago
- josh_fyi 3y agoWhat is the time period? Is that 98% per day, per month, etc? If there is a loss of 2% a day, then in a month, about half is lost.
- willcipriano 3y agoPut one gallon of urine in, get 98% of a gallon out I presume.
- gibbbms 3y ago[dead]
- panick21_ 3y agoIf you are interest in hearing from some experts on this topic: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EwMpt2ZP-qA https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EwMpt2ZP-qA
- RyanAdamas 3y ago[flagged]
- lm28469 3y agoYou already drink your recycled pee and shit, what do you think happens after you flush
- RyanAdamas 3y ago[flagged]
- nashashmi 3y agoSpace plants using urine for water plus air capture would also do the trick.