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Arthur T Knackerbracket has found the following story:
You may've heard that astronauts on the International Space Station recycle their own pee into drinking water, but space travelers could also one day upcycle their own urine into tools and other useful items.
Researchers from Clemson University are exploring ways that strains of yeast can be used to convert nitrogen from urine and carbon dioxide from astronauts' breath (or perhaps the atmosphere of Mars) into useful substances like nutrients or polymers. One strain of engineered yeast creates polyester polymers that could be used in 3D printers to create needed tools or parts for a long space mission.
The researchers presented their work Tuesday at the 254th National Meeting & Exposition of the American Chemical Society (ACS) in Washington.
[...] Having "a biological system that astronauts can awaken from a dormant state" and start using to produce what they need, when they need it, is the project's motivation, Blenner said.
See also: EurekAlert.
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(Score: 3, Touché) by c0lo on Sunday August 27 2017, @11:52AM (4 children)
But of course!
That carbon dioxide is waste and is not at all required by the hydroponics to renew the oxygen and replenish the nutrient supplies - it's well know astronauts feeds on polymers and have an anaerobic life.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aoFiw2jMy-0 https://soylentnews.org/~MichaelDavidCrawford
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday August 27 2017, @12:27PM (3 children)
They don't just piss into a jug and drink it, you know. The water is technologically removed from the urine, so when they go to drink the end result it's the water they're drinking, not the urine itself. It's essentially a form of distillation, done in space. It's the underlying water that they drink, with the uric impurities removed.
(Score: 2) by c0lo on Sunday August 27 2017, @01:34PM (2 children)
Right you are. Stupid me, hydroponics require only water, the algae/plants will be happy to grow using distilled water.
As such, the nitrogen from urine and the exhaled carbon dioxide can be transformed in polymers without consequences.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aoFiw2jMy-0 https://soylentnews.org/~MichaelDavidCrawford
(Score: 3, Interesting) by looorg on Sunday August 27 2017, @02:23PM (1 child)
On the other hand urine (or urea) is used as a fertilizer so perhaps it shouldn't be used only for 3d-printing material.
(Score: 2) by Phoenix666 on Monday August 28 2017, @12:34PM
It is. the bronx zoo uses urine from its bronx river parkway entrance's bathroom to fertilize its landscape ornamentals. i've been using it on my own garden and it seems to work well. In ancient times chinese mined outhouses for nightsoil for that purpose, but i'm not prepared to go that far yet, myself.
Washington DC delenda est.