In the science fiction franchise «Dune» The characters, who live in the desert on the arid planet of Arrakis, recycle their body moisture using specially designed suits. Inspired by such fantasies, a new spacesuit prototype turns astronauts' urine into drinking water, researchers report in the journal Frontiers in Space Technology. This sounds like a real technological breakthrough that will allow people to be much more autonomous in space. Just to what extent is this use of everything that is at hand ethical and will people be ready to drink what comes out of the body, even after special treatment.
Working in space will now be easier. Image: Rambler
Contents
- 1 How astronauts dress
- 2 How astronauts drink/h2>Current suit designs also include an internal hydration bag, or IDB, that holds less than a liter of water. Astronauts sometimes undertake eight- or 12-hour spacewalks, which often involve enormous physical exertion, Etlin said. On future NASA Artemis missions to the Moon, explorers will likely spend as much or more time on the lunar surface, she said, although the current plan is for them to carry ICBMs of the same size. You provide more comfort for astronauts! Image: Zen Etlin and her colleagues designed and created a new type of underwear with a urine collection cup that fits over an astronaut's private parts. The urine is sent to a filtration system that first removes the salt water from the urine and then uses a pump to extract the salt from that water. The filtered water is enriched with electrolytes and sent to the water supply system. Don't forget about our Zen, where there is a lot of interesting and educational things!
- 3 What will power the recycling system in the spacesuit?
- 4 Where on Earth can space technology be used
How do astronauts dress
< p>Currently, while in space, astronauts wear what is called maximum absorbency clothing, which is essentially a multi-layer diaper containing a super-absorbent polymer. Such clothing is known to be uncomfortable, leak, and cause urinary tract infections.
I was a fan of the «Dune» series. for as long as I can remember/Creating a real costume has always been my dream — says Sophia Etlin, a space medicine and policy researcher at Cornell University.
How astronauts drink/h2>
Current spacesuit designs also includea drinking bag inside it , or IDB, which holds less than a liter of water. Astronauts sometimes undertake eight- or 12-hour spacewalks, which often involve enormous physical exertion, Etlin said. On future NASA Artemis missions to the Moon, explorers will likely spend as much or more time on the lunar surface, she said, although the current plan is for them to carry ICBMs of the same size.
Give us more comfort for astronauts! Image: Zen
Etlin and her colleagues designed and created a new type of underwear with a urine collection cup that is worn over the astronaut's private parts. The urine is sent to a filtration system that first removes the salt water from the urine and then uses a pump to extract the salt from that water. Filtered water is enriched with electrolytes and sent to the water supply system.
Don't forget about our Zen, where there is a lot of interesting and educational stuff!
What will the recycling system be powered by? spacesuit
Fictional suit from Dune is powered by body movement, but in the new design, astronautswill have to carry a 20.5-volt batterywith them. The entire system, including pumps, sensors and display screen, weighs about 8 kilograms and can purify half a liter of water in five minutes. Overall, this is a good result and such processing can be called really fast.
Sweat, which the fictional costumes also collect, would be easier to filter than urine, Ethlin said. But she and her colleagues decided to focus on one product for their first prototype. As the researcher herself said: “One step — one action.” That is, technology must be developed gradually. And collecting sweat is much more difficult.
Yura, you were not ready for this. Image: DVK Media
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Where on Earth you can use space technology
The team hopes to furthertest their system during simulated missions to the Moon and Marshere on Earth, and eventually during actual spacewalks.
It would be simply amazing for us. I believe this technology will bring a lot of benefits — says Júlio Resende of the Federal University of Rio Grande do Norte in Natal, Brazil, who runs Habitat Marte — Mars mission in Brazil.
Resende sees other potential applications for such a system on Earth, for example, it could be used for firefighters fighting forest fires or for hikers on long trails. Again, the question remains how willing people will be to take advantage of this. Especially on our planet, and not beyond its borders. But it’s still good that such technology has appeared and it works. At a minimum, such a portable liquid converter is already being tested.