Turning Urine into Life: The Engineering of Closed-Loop Hydration
In short: In the vacuum of space, every drop of liquid is a precious commodity. To survive long-duration missions, astronauts cannot rely on endless supplies from Earth; they must master the art of total recycling. NASA's latest engineering explores how to transform wastewater and urine into fortified drinks.
NASA scientists planned to test forward osmosis during STS-135, the final space shuttle flight, to create a method for recycling used water in microgravity. Forward osmosis aims to produce a fortified drink that provides both hydration and nutrients from various onboard sources, including wastewater and urine. This process seeks to maximize resource utility by extracting every possible nutrient from the spacecraft's waste stream. By integrating these elements into a single fortified beverage, the system addresses both hydration and nutritional requirements simultaneously.
The Bioengineering Branch Water Recovery group develops technologies like reverse osmosis, electrolysis, and biofilm mitigation to improve recovery rates and reduce consumables for long-duration missions. These engineering efforts are essential for maintaining Environmental Control and Life Support Systems during extended stays in orbit. The goal is to create more reliable systems that significantly decrease the amount of supplies needed from ground control.
Supercritical Water Oxidation (SCWO) is another method being advanced by Michael Flynn at NASA to process wastewater by oxidizing organic materials at temperatures above 374°C and pressures above 22.1 MPa. Carbon dioxide plus water are produced as safe residues when this chemical procedure decomposes intricate refuse. Engineered for modern spacecraft, this small-scale method suits highly constrained settings.
The SCWO-FPV Reactor uses a hydrothermal flame to maintain these conditions while using a subcritical "wash" stream to prevent scaling and corrosion of the reactor walls. Because water behaves unpredictably in microgravity—forming droplets, films, and vapor—NASA is developing Radiometric Level Measurement (RLM) to detect protons generated by Galactic Cosmic Radiation interacting with water molecules. Researchers are currently conducting trade studies to optimize these systems for future exploration. They are also investigating ways to include diverse organic wastes to increase the overall efficiency of the recycling cycle.
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Sources
- Summary by Intellect · source: Atlantis Astronauts Test Water Recycling
- Also: Water Recovery Systems - NASA
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