“Gravity-Defying Dilemmas: The Ingenious Solutions Astronauts Use to Conquer the Ultimate Space Challenge!”
“After [the collection bag] starts getting full, you have to put a rubber glove on and pack it down.”
Meanwhile, urine is collected much as it has been for decades: using a separate vacuum hose with male and female adaptors. However, since water is such a precious commodity and very heavy and bulky to launch into orbit, urine is not jettisoned overboard as in previous systems but rather recycled into potable drinking water via a sophisticated reclamation system called the Water Processor Assembly or WPA, which uses a series of micofilters and catalyst beds to remove and neutralize contaminants. As NASA astronaut Jessica Muir explains.:
“We recycle about 90% of all water-based liquids on the space station, including urine and sweat. What we try to do aboard the space station is mimic elements of Earth’s natural water cycle to reclaim water from the air. And when it comes to our urine on ISS, today’s coffee is tomorrow’s coffee!”
As in previous space programmes, some of the astronauts’ waste is stored and returned to earth for analysis by flight surgeons. Urine is first collected in plastic bags very similar to the Urine Collection Devices used by the Mercury, Gemini, and Apollo astronauts. Syringes are then used to extract samples, which are stored in a special compartment called the Minus Eighty Degree Laboratory Freezer for ISS (MELFI) until they can be returned to earth by a Soyuz or Dragon spacecraft.
As of this recording, solid waste is not processed to extract its moisture, though NASA is working on it. In 2021, the agency also sent a Brine Processor unit to the ISS to reclaim the remaining water that can’t be processed by the WPA. The goal is to achieve at least 98% reclamation before sending the first humans to Mars. So good news for all you Dune fans out there: real-life stillsuits may be just around the corner!
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