NASA recycles 98% of astronauts urine, sweat in space to drinking water

WASHINGTON: The space station’s Environmental Control and Life Support System (ECLSS) recently demonstrated that it can achieve 98 per cent water restoration goal. National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) astronauts have achieved their target of 98 per cent water restoration from crew members’ urine and sweat. The American space agency last week said that it is developing life support systems that can regenerate or recycle consumables such as food, air, and water and is testing them on the International Space Station (ISS). The space station’s Environmental Control and Life Support System (ECLSS) recently demonstrated that it can achieve 98 per cent water restoration goal, NASA said.

According to NASA, ECLSS is a combination of hardware that includes a water recovery system. This system collects wastewater and sends it to the Water Processor Assembly (WPA), which produces drinkable water. One specialized component uses advanced dehumidifiers to capture moisture released into the cabin air from crew breath and sweat.

The Urine Processor Assembly (UPA), recovers water from urine using vacuum distillation. A previous technology demonstration on the space station tested improvements to the UPA’s distillation assembly. Distillation produces water and a urine brine that still contains some reclaimable water. A Brine Processor Assembly (BPA) developed to extract this remaining wastewater has been on the space station as a demonstration of its operation in microgravity. Recent assessments found that the BPA helped the system achieve the 98% water recovery goal.

The BPA takes the brine produced by the UPA and runs it through a special membrane technology, then blows warm, dry air over the brine to evaporate the water. That process creates humid air, which, just like crew breath and perspiration, is collected by the station’s water collection systems. (IANS)

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