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posted by Fnord666 on Thursday March 12 2020, @11:24AM   Printer-friendly
from the weee! dept.

International Space Station system that turns astronaut pee into drinking water getting 'much appreciated' boost:

Water is heavy and hard to transport into orbit, which is why the International Space Station is a champion when it comes to recycling. Even astronaut urine is captured and processed to make it drinkable. The system that does this work is about to get an important upgrade.

The ISS water recovery system is tasked with turning wastewater into potable water. The urine-processing part of the system has been an ongoing concern. Astronauts will be installing a redesigned urine distillation assembly. This piece handles the crucial step of boiling urine to kick off the purification process.

"One of the most important things we've learned in the last 12 years of the hardware's orbital operation is that the hardware is vulnerable in its steam environment," said NASA's Jennifer Pruitt in a statement on Monday.

NASA said the upgrades are focused on internal redesigns, "including a new toothed belt drive system, bearing seals, Teflon spacer and liquid level sensor." If you want to dive into the details (including the technical glitches the system has encountered), then check out this NASA paper on the upgrades (PDF link).


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  • (Score: 5, Informative) by FatPhil on Thursday March 12 2020, @02:12PM (2 children)

    by FatPhil (863) <pc-soylentNO@SPAMasdf.fi> on Thursday March 12 2020, @02:12PM (#970218) Homepage
    Sterility is an urban legend.

    Firstly, it clearly false in the case of a UTI, as the microbes living in the lower urinary tract haven't passed through the usual disinfecting path. And even then, in the absense of a UTI, it's still not true:

    Abstract Title: Urine is Not Sterile: The Urinary Microbiota of Overactive Bladder Patients
    Author Block: E. E. Hilt1, K. McKinley2, E. R. Mueller3, L. Brubaker3, P. C. Schreckenberger2, A. J. Wolfe1;
    1Dept. of Microbiol., Loyola Univ. of Chicago, Maywood, IL, 2Dept. of Pathology, Loyola Univ. of Chicago, Maywood, IL, 3Dept. of Obstetrics/Gynecology & Urology, Loyola Univ. of Chicago, Maywood, IL
    Keywords: Urinary microbiota,Overactive bladder
    Abstract: Background Contrary to dogma that urine is sterile in the absence of a clinical urinary tract infection (UTI); our research team and others have recently shown the existence of a urinary microbiota in individuals with and without lower urinary tract symptoms. With the knowledge that the lower urinary tract possesses its own unique microbiota, we are exploring potential causes for lower urinary tract syndromes, such as overactive bladder syndrome (OAB), a disorder affecting ~15% of adult women. OAB is characterized by symptoms of urinary urgency, often with frequency and urgency incontinence, nocturia and a negative urine culture. ~40-50% of OAB patients do not respond to conventional anti-muscarinic drug treatment. One possible explanation for this lack of treatment response is a dysbiotic urinary microbiota. [...]

    https://www.abstractsonline.com/Plan/ViewAbstract.aspx?sKey=7cc5632d-869d-477b-bdd2-6e4d710dfa9b&cKey=39a18326-5c79-4c87-b041-56e8d6c01b50&mKey=673511f0-c86b-432f-a387-058032b8500b
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  • (Score: 3, Informative) by Phoenix666 on Thursday March 12 2020, @04:52PM (1 child)

    by Phoenix666 (552) on Thursday March 12 2020, @04:52PM (#970289) Journal

    C'mon, FatPhil. It's [youtube.com] a joke, son [youtube-nocookie.com].

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