NASA announced Wednesday that its Environmental Control and Life Support System (ECLSS) can now recycle nearly all of the wastewater generated by astronauts.
Astronauts tested the new technology aboard the International Space Station.
ECLSS includes a Water Recovery System that produces drinkable water by collecting wastewater and sending it to a Water Processor Assembly.
Special dehumidifiers are used to capture moisture from the crew’s breath and sweat, while another system recovers water from urine using a distillation process. The distillation process produces water and a urine brine, which still contains some water that can be extracted.
Officials said in a press release that for long journeys, astronauts would need to be able to recover close to 98% of the water brought along on a mission.
Scientists tested a new Brine Processor Assembly onboard the space station, which helped the system achieve the requisite 98% water recovery goal. Jill Williamson, the ECLSS water subsystems manager, said that the process could previously only recycle 93-94%.
Christopher Brown, a member of the team that manages the ISS’s life support system, highlighted the importance of the achievement.
“Let’s say you collect 100 pounds of water on the station. You lose two pounds of that and the other 98% just keeps going around and around,” said Brown in the release. “Keeping that running is a pretty awesome achievement.”
NASA officials say that this process is not only similar to water purification processes on Earth but that the process actually creates cleaner water.
“The crew is not drinking urine; they are drinking water that has been reclaimed, filtered, and cleaned such that it is cleaner than what we drink here on Earth,” said Williamson in the release. “We have a lot of processes in place and a lot of ground testing to provide confidence that we are producing clean, potable water.”
NASA officials believe this development will be instrumental in both orbital and exploratory missions.
“The regenerative ECLSS systems become ever more important as we go beyond low Earth orbit. The inability of resupply during exploration means we need to be able to reclaim all the resources the crew needs on these missions,” said Williamson, according to the release.
“The less water and oxygen we have to ship up, the more science that can be added to the launch vehicle. Reliable, robust regenerative systems mean the crew doesn’t have to worry about it and can focus on the true intent of their mission,” she continued.