NASA's New Bag Turns Urine Into Sports Drink 182
An anonymous reader writes "NASA's Atlantis shuttle is set to launch this Friday, and its crew will be testing an innovative device that can recycle human urine into a sugary sports drink. The bag uses forward osmosis technology and features a semi-permeable membrane capable of isolating water from virtually any liquid. Recycling urine in this way has a significant effect on a ship's payload, and considering that a single pound adds $10,000 of cost, that slight weight difference can translate to serious savings."
CT: I'm at Kennedy Space Center now, tweeting as @cmdrtaco. And I think I'll stay away from the sports drink.
Stillsuit (Score:3, Interesting)
NASA has given us one of the major components required for a functioning stillsuit. Thanks, NASA!
work with sea water? (Score:4, Interesting)
Assuming it can filter out a bacterial infection in piss so will it work to make sea water drinkable?
What about drugs/hormones? (Score:5, Interesting)
With the realization that effluent from sewage plants has detectable amounts of antidepressants, estrogen (from birth control pills), and other modern drugs which may be impacting river life, I'd really like to know that this membrane stops those (as well as "virtually any liquid"). I'd hate to spend a couple of months in space and find that I now had breasts due to water-transported hormones from the women on the crew...and that they'd grown muscles and body hair due to mine.
Re:What about drugs/hormones? (Score:4, Interesting)
With the realization that effluent from sewage plants has detectable amounts of antidepressants, estrogen (from birth control pills), and other modern drugs which may be impacting river life, I'd really like to know that this membrane stops those (as well as "virtually any liquid"). I'd hate to spend a couple of months in space and find that I now had breasts due to water-transported hormones from the women on the crew...and that they'd grown muscles and body hair due to mine.
Given the antidepressants are you sure you would hate it? :-)