It may seem like a strange concept at first, but actually, drinking your own urine is, in fact, good for you. It’s also the secret behind long-term space travel. Transporting water up to the International Space Station (ISS) costs around $48,000 per liter, hence why it was imperative that NASA engineers came up with an alternative solution.
Scientists came up with a way for astronauts to turn their own pee into drinking water. Since it’s installation on the ISS in 2008, as much as 85% of urine has been recycled into drinkable water that the astronauts need to survive. The way the distillery works is pretty neat and saves the agency millions of dollars per year.
As explained by NASA engineer, Jennifer Pruett, the system consists of a big centrifuge that spins. As it does, the urine is sprayed out along the back wall of the mechanism and because of its denseness, it will stick to the sides and the lighter steam as it evaporates out. It’s then “sucked through the center through the mesh onto the next part of the system.”
What comes out the other end is “good clean urine distillate”. This then gets put into a water processor where it’s filtered some more. Finally, after this process, the water is ready for the astronauts to drink. So, it may not seem like the best idea, to begin with, but if it saves your life and leaves more funds for NASA to carry out important research, then surely it’s all worth it in the end?
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