Astronauts who go into space live in a completely different world. Of course, their daily activities are very different. To meet their basic needs, they travel non-stop from Earth, as if in a minivan. Because we can’t send another spaceshipAlternative methods are being sought.

Sometimes they can stay in space for months. Have you ever thought about what happens to all that urine? They don’t go into space… Let’s see what happens together.

The idea of ​​recycling urine to make drinking water may be sickening, but that’s exactly what NASA does.

NASA needs food, air and water from astronauts during space missions. about how to recycle He is constantly working. This way there is no need for constant supplies.

Urine of astronauts who went to space, even their sweat is recycled. To give an exact figure: 98% of these liquids are recycled.

The recycled liquid can be used as drinking water, hand washing water and toothbrush water. In short all hygiene needs They supply it with recycled urine.

So how exactly is this possible?

The process is also known as ECLSS, a hardware system that delivers clean air and water to the International Space Station.“Environmental control and life support system” It is done via.

Part of ECLSS, which produces drinking water “Water recovery system”. The system includes advanced dehumidifiers that capture the moisture created by astronauts’ breath and sweat.

The urine is pretreated and then recycled. It uses technology to distill water. However, after this distillation, some brine remains that can be reused.

This means that another ingredient plays a role in removing the remaining water from the brine, and the collected water also It is passed through a filter to break down any remaining impurities. According to NASA, the sensors pick up any bacteria, impure components.

Iodine is also added to water to prevent microbial growth (an increase in living matter due to growth, an increase in the number of cells due to cell division or budding). The result is that your fresh drinking water recycled from urine is ready…

It is said to be cleaner than the water on Earth.

ECLSS Director Williamson says: “The processing is comparable to water distribution systems on land. The crew does not drink urine; They drink water that has been reclaimed, filtered and cleaned to be cleaner than what we drink here on Earth. “We have many processes and many soil tests to provide confidence that we are producing clean, drinkable water.”

How does it sound to you? Even if you are sure it is clean enough drinking the filtered urine of yourself and your teammates Seems a bit weird, right? Yet it cannot be denied that it is a very efficient technology.

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