Over 100 years ago, Oscar Wilde said that life imitates art.
But who would have thought that science would be following the lead of popular science fiction movies?
Scientists have been discussing the science behind the technology dramatized in shows like Star Trek for years. While technology like warp speed, transporters, and tricorders may remain the stuff of fantasy, artificial intelligence and robotics are growing by leaps and bounds almost daily. Who knows, maybe one day, we’ll each have our very own “Data” to help us deal with life.
The latest Hollywood incarnations of the Dune series by Frank Herbert have grossed well over $1 billion. Much of the story takes place on the desert planet of Arrakis, where water is a precious commodity. Characters have to wear special suits, “stillsuits,” capable of capturing all the moisture released by the person wearing one to make survival possible in such harsh conditions.
Frontiers reports on a new spacesuit design inspired by the stillsuits seen in Dune. Here’s the start of the story:
Astronauts on spacewalks famously have to relieve themselves inside their spacesuits. Not only is this uncomfortable for the wearer and unhygienic, it is also wasteful, as – unlike wastewater on board the International Space Station (ISS) – the water in urine from spacewalks is not recycled.
A solution for these challenges would be full-body ‘stillsuits’ like those in the blockbuster Dune franchise, which absorbed and purified water lost through sweating and urination, and recycled it into drinkable water. Now, this sci-fi is about to become reality, with a prototype novel urine collection and filtration system for spacesuits. The design, by researchers from Cornell University, is published in Frontiers in Space Technologies.
“The design includes a vacuum-based external catheter leading to a combined forward-reverse osmosis unit, providing a continuous supply of potable water with multiple safety mechanisms to ensure astronaut wellbeing,” said Sofia Etlin, a research staff member at Weill Cornell Medicine and Cornell University, and the study’s first author.