This week, NASA revealed that the International Space Station’s Environmental Control and Life Support System (ECLSS) is recycling 98 percent of all water astronauts bring aboard the station…
Imagine you are chilling on the sofa watching netflix with your girl and some random girl knocks at your door and shouts: “WOW! Your filtered piss tastes so GREAT!”
…
Thats an odd way to give someone a blowjob.
Both cool and disgusting.
Most cities recycle water too. Maybe not 98 percent but a large percentage of water.
I mean, the water we drink now has been an animal or a human’s pee.
They could probably make a tidy profit selling it to internet weirdos instead.
Nice that’s a huge milestone, that way you don’t have to lug thousands of kilos of water to mars bc you waste it all, you can just keep reusing the same amount over and over
Collecting sweat? I’m imagining astronauts up there wringing out wash cloths. “Sniff. Sniff. Dammit, Buzz would you stop mopping up your crack. We all don’t wanna be drinking Eau de Taint with dinner later.” Oh, they use a dehumidifier, yah that makes more sense.
I’ve always wondered how long a tank of water of some size would last. Everyone always handwaved away all the details of energy, food, water, etc in sci fi shows, but I’ve always been interested in those aspects.
The Martian was satisfying for this reason, but I want MORE.
Watched the Expanse?
Yeah, really loved it, thought about mentioning it but left it out.
Well, they’re in space… so that makes a lot of sense.
Okay, but we’re all technically in space. So why is it weird when I drink my own piss??
We are technically in space I suppose, but the distinction is that we are close to a planet with a huge amount of fresh water nearby. If you live in a city, you can get copious water freely from a faucet almost free or charge, so yes.
The other 2% they save for special occasions
So 2% is lost how often? Every day? Every week? Every month? I don’t understand what 98% reclaimed means.
To quote the article that this post links to:
“Let’s say you collect 100 pounds of water on the station. You lose two pounds of that and the other 98 percent just keeps going around and around. Keeping that running is a pretty awesome achievement.”
This means that for any sample of liquid waste, 98% of that quantity will be converted back into water, while the remaining 2% will be discarded.
This does not answer the question. You lose two pounds of it, sure. How do you lose them?
It doesn’t say how the 2% loss occurs. I’m curious how water actually leaves the system since the ISS is obviously airtight.
So, what are they doing with the other 2%? Using it for propulsion?
Is it something weird? It’s something weird, isn’t it?
Drinking it straight, duh
D:
Gonna need to open a little wider I hear Chris Hadfield has a massive hog
That scans.
What about poop?
Here’s a general idea of what happens with feces on the ISS:
Waste Collection: The toilet on the ISS uses airflow to direct waste into the right place, given that there’s no gravity to help. When astronauts need to poop, they use a specially designed toilet with straps to hold them in place. The toilet includes a smaller hole and fan system that uses suction to pull the waste away from the body.
Waste Storage: Once the waste is collected, it’s stored in a separate sealed container. The toilet system compacts and stores solid waste. This waste is exposed to vacuum to kill bacteria and reduce odor.
Disposal: When the container is full, it is removed and stored in a special section of a cargo ship, like a SpaceX Dragon or a Northrop Grumman Cygnus, that is set to leave the ISS and reenter Earth’s atmosphere. Upon reentry, the ship and its contents (including the waste) burn up, essentially incinerating the waste.
This answer was given by ChatGPT. I do not know how true it is, but it clearly sounds like it. I hear about freeze-dry process before.
This is accurate except that the Dragon and Cygnus spacecraft do not burn up in the atmosphere. Waste is usually loaded a disposable spacecraft like the Progress which does burn up on reentry. Some is returned to earth occasionally for testing via the Dragon or Cygnus.
Yeah, it would big news if a Dragon burned up.
I assumed they meant it was ejected during reentry but on reflection that would not be worth the risk…though I do like the idea of flaming dragon poop streaming across the sky.
“drinking your own recycled piss? Sign me up”, said no aspiring astro boy
Maybe some big fans of Dune who want to know what stillsuit water tastes like.
The turds are stored in the legs! What a cool suit!
Please, tell me this wine isn’t made from your pee, because its delicious…
#theMarinerValleywayoflife
