The new spacesuit urine filtration system by Cornell researchers recycles astronauts’ urine into drinkable water, aiming to improve comfort and efficiency on future Moon and Mars missions.
Currently, astronauts must relieve themselves inside their spacesuits during spacewalks. This is not only uncomfortable and unhygienic, but also wasteful. Unlike the wastewater management system on the International Space Station (ISS), the water from urine during spacewalks is not recycled.
Researchers at Cornell are addressing this issue with a novel urine collection and filtration system inspired by the ‘stillsuits’ from the sci-fi franchise Dune. Like these ‘stillsuits’, their prototype absorbs and purifies urine, and recycles it into drinking water.
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