A new urine-filtration system in spacesuits from Cornell researchers could turn astronauts’ urine into drinking water, improving the comfort and efficiency of future missions to the Moon and Mars.

Astronauts now have to wear spacesuits during spacewalks. This is not only inconvenient and unhygienic, but also wasteful. Unlike the wastewater treatment system on the International Space Station (ISS), urine from spacewalks is not recycled.

Cornell researchers are solving that problem with a new urine collection and filtration system inspired by the “desktops” from the science fiction series Dune. Like those “desktops,” their prototype absorbs and cleans urine, turning it into drinking water.

“The design includes an external vacuum catheter leading to a combined forward and reverse osmosis unit, which provides a continuous supply of drinking water with various safety mechanisms to ensure the well-being of the astronauts,” explained Sophia Etlin, a researcher at Weill Cornell Medicine and Cornell University and first author of the study.

This new design was released recently. Frontiers in Space Technologies.