NASA achieves new milestone, recycles 98% of astronauts' urine and sweat into drinkable water in space

Astronauts on board the International Space Station (ISS) have achieved a remarkable milestone by successfully restoring 98 per cent of water, a development that holds great promise for future space missions. NASA announced that this impressive water recovery rate was attained by recycling the astronauts’ urine and sweat into potable or drinkable water. Each crew member on the ISS requires approximately one gallon of water per day for drinking, food preparation, and personal hygiene. This accomplishment was made possible through the implementation of subsystems within the Environment Control and Life Support Systems (ECLSS), which are designed to regenerate or recycle essential resources like food, air, and water for further utilisation in space. ECLSS comprises various hardware components, including a Water Recovery System responsible for collecting wastewater and directing it to the Water Processor Assembly (WPA), which produces drinkable water. According to Space.com, one specialised component of the system employs advanced dehumidifiers to capture moisture released into the cabin air from the astronauts’ breath and sweat. In parallel, another subsystem known as the Urine Processor Assembly (UPA) recovers water from urine through vacuum distillation. However, this process generates brine as a by-product, which still contains some usable water. To address this, a Brine Processor Assembly (BPA) was added to the UPA to extract the remaining wastewater. Christopher Brown, a member of the Johnson Space Center team, expressed that the addition of the BPA increased the extraction of clean water from urine from 94 per cent to 98 per cent, marking the highest achievement so far. With inputs from agencies Read all the Latest News , Trending News , Cricket News , Bollywood News , India News and Entertainment News here. Follow us on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram.