NASA has announced that astronauts on board the International Space Station (ISS) recover 98% of water from urine and sweat using the subsystems that are part of the Environment Control and Life Support Systems (ECLSS).
In a major breakthrough, astronauts on board the International Space Station (ISS) have attained a 98% water restoration rate using an advanced system that recycles astronauts’ urine and sweat into drinkable water. The development holds immense potential for future long interplanetary missions.
The breakthrough was made possible using the subsystems that are part of the Environment Control and Life Support Systems (ECLSS), which is aimed at recycling consumables such as food, air and water for further use in space. Life support systems ideally need to recover close to 98% of the water that crew members bring along at the start of a long journey, Nasa said. This is because each crew member aboard ISS needs around a gallon of water each day for drinking, food preparation and hygiene usage. The space station’s ECLSS recently demonstrated that it can achieve that significant goal.
Christopher Brown, who is part of the team at Johnson Space Center that manages life support systems on the ISS, said, “This is a very important step forward in the evolution of life support systems. Let’s say you launch with 100 pounds of water. You lose two pounds of that, and the other 98% just keeps going around and around. Keeping that running is a pretty awesome achievement.”
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