NASA Recycles 98% of Astronaut's Urine And Sweat Into Drinkable Water, Here is How

In a remarkable achievement, astronauts at the International Space Station have managed to attain a 98% water restoration rate and it holds immense potential for future missions. This water recovery rate was achieved using a system that includes astronauts’ pee and sweat recycling into drinkable water. Each crew member aboard the ISS needs around a gallon of water each day for several purposes. The achievement was made possible using the sub-systems that are part of the Environment Control and Life Support Systems (ECLSS).

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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,” wrote the Space agency.

Another sub-system to be used was the Urine Processor Assembly (UPA). It recovers water from urine using vacuum distillation. A technology demonstration on the space station had earlier tested improvements to the UPA’s Distillation Assembly. The space agency explained, “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.”

Christopher Brown, part of the team at Johnson Space Center said, “This is a very important step forward in the evolution of life support systems. Let’s say you collect 100 pounds of water on the station. You lose two pounds of that and the other 98% just keeps going around and around. Keeping that running is a pretty awesome achievement.”

The systems in ECLSS have been tested carefully. This was done to ensure that they perform as they are supposed to and also to demonstrate that each is reliable.

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