NASA Upgrades ISS System That Turns Urine Into Drinking Water

International Space Station (Photo Credit: NASA)

The International Space Station urine distillation system is getting an upgrade.

NASA this week delivered enhanced life-support hardware to the floating laboratory—including a redesigned water recovery device to better handle the boiling of urea during purification.

Astronauts living and working aboard the ISS subside on filtered liquid made from colleagues’ sweat, exhaled breath, and piss. As much as 80 percent of water on the space station is recycled.

Recovered liquid must meet stringent purity standards before it can be used to support crew, spacewalk, or payload activities.

The process is fairly straightforward: Wastewater is sent through a series of filtering materials and chemical reactions for purification, checked by electrical sensors in the systems, and sent to a storage tank.

Unacceptable water gets reprocessed until it satisfies the criteria.

The @Space_Station's water recovery system, which recycles condensation, sweat — and urine — is getting a much-appreciated upgrade >> https://t.co/7eLCEOOHeC pic.twitter.com/vz1Az9R9nS

— NASA Marshall (@NASA_Marshall) March 10, 2020

Weak points in the urine processor assembly, however, have been an ongoing concern for the long-term reliability of the hardware.

“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,” according to Jennifer Pruitt, Environmental Control and Life Support System (ECLSS) urine processor assembly project manager.

“We took those lessons learned and upgraded our urine distillation assembly to create a more reliable system equipped to travel to the Moon, Mars, and beyond,” she said in a statement.

An upgraded version includes a new toothed belt drive system, bearing seals, Teflon spacer, and liquid level sensor (whatever those are)—all of which aid in controlling the hardware’s steam and fluid environment to provide the cleanest-possible water.

“Improving the efficiency and reliability of the current system will diminish the need for an excess of spare parts on board,” Pruitt explained. “With less maintenance required, the crew can focus on the science at hand.”

The hardware, completed two months ahead of schedule, was shipped Monday aboard SpaceX’s 20th resupply mission.

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