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+--- Thread: Astronauts Have a Better Way to Drink Their Own Pee (/thread-1249.html)
Astronauts Have a Better Way to Drink Their Own Pee - C C - Aug 20, 2015
http://www.popularmechanics.com/space/a16973/astronauts-new-way-to-drink-pee-iss/
Bill Gates may have recently drank water that used to be human waste, but astronauts on the ISS have been doing that for years, as their sweat and urine have been recycled back into potable water. Now that system is getting better. The European Space Agency made a deal with Aquaporin Space Alliance to use a sort of hybrid biological-nanotech system to filter the waste and turn pee and sweat into clean water.
The process uses proteins called aquaporins, which regulate the water supply in all living things. A nanofiber mesh tube lined with aquaporins lets in water, while an electrical charge filters out ions. This filters out salts and other waste chemicals, creating potable water at a lower energy cost than the system already on board on the ISS.
The first test run on the system comes in September, when ESA astronaut Andreas Morgensen joins the ISS crew. He'll filter 300 mL of waste into drinking water using this sort of cybernetic artificial kidney. This approach may be the future of treating wastewater to create clean drinking water both in space and on Earth.