Urine to Water( An idea to reuse the water when you'r using a toilete. Near the toilet would be a water-canister, that stors more-and-more water from urine whenever a player goes to take a pee. After a while enough, water is stored in that tank to be drained by a water can, and added to the base main-water tank. Only a part of the water you drink is recovered, becouse of the human-body ewapotranspiration and destilation process limits )
NASA has been working on a recycling system to transform urine and other liquid wastes into water that can be used in space for drinking, food preparation and washing. Agency officials say the water from the system will be cleaner than U.S. tap water. Not only does this help manage wastes on board the station, but its also a cost-saving measure. Water is heavy and launching it on board the shuttle or Progress re-supply ship is expensive.
The Water Recovery System recycles liquid wastes — which can consist of urine, sweat, or leftover water used for bathing or food preparation — by filtering it through a series of chemical processes and filters, making it safe to drink. Urine, for example, first passes through a distillation process to separate the liquid phase from the gaseous phase, after which it is mixed with other water waste and is treated with the help of a water processor.
After removing the remnant gaseous and solid phases, the liquid is filtered for additional purification and undergoes a high-temperature catalytic reaction, in order to destroy unwanted organic contaminants.
The system is scheduled to be brought to the ISS on the STS-126 mission, planned to launch this fall.
“Recycling will be an essential part of daily life for future astronauts, whether on board the space station or living on the Moon. Delivering this hardware is an important step in achieving the station’s full potential, allowing for additional crew members and more scientific research”, said NASA’s station program manager, Mike Suffredini.
Recycling will reduce the amount of consumables needed on board the space station by as much as 6,800 kilograms per year.
Link:
http://www.universetoday.com/14330/ultimate-recycling-on-the-iss-urine-to-water/The
Water Recovery System (also called
WRS) was succesfouly instaled on ISS in Nov 2008.
Don Pettit, who is on his second space mission, said that before now, with regular drinking and urination, astronauts in orbit basically used their water once and threw it away. But that isn't practical for long-term living in space, where a limited amount of water can be transported at a time.
"Water is a precious commodity when you leave Earth," he said. "Here on Earth we just take new water and use it, then let nature recycle it for us, and we have to learn to do that."
Pettit said this system is unique to the space station.
"You don't do that on submarines, you don't do it in Antarctica, and you don't do it in the Arctic. There is no scientific frontier environment where people basically recycle their own urine," she said.
If successful, the WRS system will be crucial to some of the long-term missions NASA is planning for the future.
"This is the most significant event of this mission, because without this technology we won't be able to go back to the moon, or support life on a three-year journey to Mars," said LeRoy Cain, the mission management chairman for this mission.
Link:
http://abcnews.go.com/Technology/Space/story?id=6288785&page=1 The main part of the WRS is the biorector which needs 72 h of preparations before it could be used.
Link:
http://lsda.jsc.nasa.gov/scripts/hardware/hardw.cfm?hardware_id=1091
