Astronauts on future NASA missions may drink recycled urine from their spacesuits, thanks to a novel waste management approach from Cornell University researchers. They unveiled a prototype filtration system that turns wastewater into potable water within five minutes.
Inspired by the ‘stillsuits’ from the sci-fi series Dune, the spacesuit could be used in NASA’s Artemis program, aiming to return humans to the Moon. Currently, astronauts use uncomfortable, unhygienic adult diapers. The new system uses osmosis to filter urine, transforming it into drinkable water.
“The design includes a vacuum-based external catheter leading to a combined forward-reverse osmosis unit, providing a continuous supply of potable water with multiple safety mechanisms to ensure astronaut wellbeing,” said Sofia Etlin, a research staff member at Weill Cornell Medicine and Cornell University.
Astronauts now have only one liter of water in their in-suit drink bags, which is insufficient for lunar spacewalks lasting up to ten hours, and even 24 hours in emergencies. The researchers plan to test the design in simulated microgravity before actual space missions.
The new spacesuit design was detailed in the journal Frontiers in Space Technology in a paper titled “Enhanced astronaut hygiene and mission efficiency: a novel approach to in-suit waste management and water recovery in spacewalks.”
