http://www.space.com/missionlaunches/090520-space-urine.html


Astronauts Drink Recycled Urine, and Celebrate
By SPACE.com Staff

posted: 20 May 2009
05:48 pm ET

Astronauts took a swig of recycled urine water to toast their successful testing of the wastewater recycling system on the International Space Station.

U.S. astronaut Michael Barratt called drinking the recycled water the stuff of science fiction, and cracked several jokes during the inauguration of the system known as ECLSS.

"We have these highly attractive labels on our water bags that essentially say 'brought to you by ECLSS,' and 'drink when real water is over 200 miles away,'" Barratt said.

Barratt appeared on NASA TV with crewmate Koichi Wakata, a Japanese astronaut, and station commander Gennady Padalka, a Russian cosmonaut. Earth crowds gathered at NASA's Johnson Space Center (JSC) in Houston and Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville.

The water recycling system cost about $250 million and will be used daily to recycle urine and wastewater back into potable water suitable for drinking, food preparation, bathing and oxygen generation. The system has been used in the station's U.S. built oxygen generator, which uses electrolysis to separate water into oxygen and hydrogen, since November.(cut)

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The cure for a fallacious argument is a better argument, not the suppression of ideas.
-- Carl Sagan



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 05/21/2009 03:05PM by Frank Furter.

I heard some people in Southern California were up in arms about the possibility of using treated wastewater that was then sent through the standard water treatment process. Some people just couldn't get over the idea that the water used to contain human waste and other contaminants. Normally treated wastewater is pumped into the ground to recharge underground aquifers, or used for non-potable uses like watering golf courses. I heard this water was going to be processed through membranes first before going through the standard treatment.

However - I can't really get too squeamish about it. The mountain river source water I drink contains runoff from all sorts of animal waste products. The storage reservoir is stocked with fish that do all sorts of things. It gets treated and that should be the end of it.

So is yellow the new green?

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PoopyheadGoatie
So is yellow the new green?

This shine a whole new light on that bottle that was marked "Pee"...(a self-contained system??)

I wonder if anyone has been there and done that.

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Old Dude

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Bee
This shine a whole new light on that bottle that was marked "Pee"...(a self-contained system??)

"Due to a mixup in urology apple juice will not be served today"
--Young Doctors in Love

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Bee

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PoopyheadGoatie
So is yellow the new green?

This shine a whole new light on that bottle that was marked "Pee"...(a self-contained system??)

I remember listening to a radio show where they claimed to do some sort of experiment with a Brita pitcher filter. They tried filtering various liquids including saltwater and a certain yellow liquid. One of the show regulars volunteered to test the results and claimed that the formerly yellow liquid didn't taste foul or anything.

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y_p_w

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Bee

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PoopyheadGoatie
So is yellow the new green?

This shine a whole new light on that bottle that was marked "Pee"...(a self-contained system??)

I remember listening to a radio show where they claimed to do some sort of experiment with a Brita pitcher filter. They tried filtering various liquids including saltwater and a certain yellow liquid. One of the show regulars volunteered to test the results and claimed that the formerly yellow liquid didn't taste foul or anything.

I can attest to that... although it certainly didn't taste like chicken!

Billy,

OK, that's way too much info for general dissemination.

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Old Dude

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Mr. Condron
Billy,

OK, that's way too much info for general dissemination

PoopyheadGoatie, you went and activated the Censors!!!






Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 05/21/2009 06:40PM by Bee.

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Bee

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Mr. Condron
Billy,

OK, that's way too much info for general dissemination

PoopyheadGoatie, you went and activated the Censors!!!

I was merrily continuing the education discussion...

I don't think filtering is the technology to clean up urine or saltwater. It seems that for $250 million they could have brought a lot of bottle water.

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The cure for a fallacious argument is a better argument, not the suppression of ideas.
-- Carl Sagan