'Dune'-Inspired Spacesuit Turns Astronauts' Urine into Drinkable Water

https://www.wsj.com/science/space-astronomy/dune-stillsuit-astronaut-spacesuit-d740bf3d

by gnicholas • 2 years ago

42 41 2 years ago

One of the first exhibits in San Francisco Exploratorium is a toilet with a water fountain and a description explaining that it's from a clean water source. Knowing this, would you still drink the water from the toilet? It's such a fascinating exercise in psychology. The urine to drinkable water obviously takes this one step further.

https://www.exploratorium.edu/exhibits/a-sip-of-conflict

davidw2• 2 years ago

IDK... given how dumb people can be:

Reward: some water you can easily get elsewhere.

Risk: someone like a security guard or employee peed in it at some point because they're a jerk.

bryanlarsen2• 2 years ago

Unless it's different than the one I've used the fountain comes from the supply, not the tank. So it doesn't matter if anybody peed in it.

et-al2• 2 years ago

It's just a water fountain that happens to be mounted on a toilet bowl. They're not sourcing their own water.

The worst thing that could happen is the person in front of you spits on the outlet (like kids do in elementary school in America).

et-al2• 2 years ago

I've drank from this fountain. With a stillsuit, I think it would be more palatable because you don't have the visual connotation right in front of you unlike the Exploratorium exhibit.

SketchySeaBeast2• 2 years ago

Not the visuals, sure, but there's the question of the salt (they say it's reclaimed, I don't know where it ends up) - we probably want all those back, and the fact that it would be body temperature.

MarkSweep• 2 years ago

This is not far from a real product in Japan: a toilet with a hand washing sink on the top. Presumably the water used to wash your hands is reused flush, saving water.

https://www.snopes.com/fact-check/sink-toilet-japan/

hahahacorn2• 2 years ago

This feels reminiscent of the American Billion Dollar Space Pen vs Russian Pencil.

Silly Americans, just drink urine! - Bear Grylls, probably.

js2• 2 years ago

Urban legend.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Space_Pen#Uses_in_the_U.S._and...

https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/fact-or-fiction-n...

hahahacorn2• 2 years ago

Yes I'm aware. You'll notice my hardly coherent comment makes even less sense if you're not aware of the totality of the circumstances surrounding the pen/pencil story and the ludicrousness of Bear Grylls drinking his own urine. (Comparable to loose graphite shavings in a space station!)

This is a really cool development, but there is a certain slice of the population who have watched Bear Grylls who believe you can simply drink your own urine and it's good for you. Similar to how a certainly slice of the population truly believes the US Govt spent $1B developing a pen, while the Russians simply used a pencil.

mrguyorama• 2 years ago

The space pen was made completely privately, with completely private investment, by a pen company that saw on opportunity. They privately built a pen that would work in space, gave it to NASA for clout, and then sold to the public. They spent a few millions on it, not billions.

The Soviets bought a hundred of them a few years after. Because "Just use a pencil stupid" is incredibly stupid in fact. Lose graphite particles or scraps are a terrible thing to have in your space craft in zero gravity. They cost about $30 each in today's dollars.

preisschild• 2 years ago

Didn't the soviets use at least grease pencils? No graphite in them, just non-conductive wax.

dvh• 2 years ago

Attaching it to human makes it a moving part. Put it in a box somewhere and it will be more reliable. This is the exactly same stupid idea as solar frikin' roadways. Take that solar panel and put it next to the road.

aaronblohowiak2• 2 years ago

Above road

IggleSniggle• 2 years ago

Great idea, probably dependent upon latitude. In disconnected panels. Enough to provide sufficient light during a cloudy day. Would simultaneously decrease the amount of AC required during summer months, and maybe improve safety by reducing sunlight into the eyes of drivers (human or otherwise).

kaibee• 2 years ago

There's a number of edge-case scenarios where you want a lot of height clearance above roadways. ie: hauling a wind turbine blade or rapidly converting to an airfield.

sillywalk2• 2 years ago

Currently, astronauts just use a diaper and a 1L water bottle. This suit would seem to be an improvement.

asdff• 2 years ago

What they really need is a mop wringer and a good filter.

somenameforme3• 2 years ago

Seems like an odd solution. The problem, according to another non-paywalled article [1] is that astronauts complained about lack of liquids on long spacewalks and [glorified] diapers being annoying to wear. So this contraption which has a volume of 38cm by 23cm by 23cm was developed. I say it's weird because that's 20 liters of volume (to say nothing of the additional complexities/breakable stuff involved)! Why not simply use 10 or 20% of the volume and add more room for refreshments? And perhaps keep the idea of providing a tube, and just direct it to a diaper.

Far less complex, far less volume, far less mass, far less likely to break, far cheaper, and probably far more pleasant for the astronaut as well.

[1] https://www.theguardian.com/science/article/2024/jul/12/scie...

robxorb• 2 years ago

The ideal solution is for the astronauts to drink their own urine. Apparently this can be quite healthy - in moderation like occasional spacewalking, and it's not as if astronauts in general aren't used to all manner extreme limit-pushing.

Solarsail• 2 years ago

Don't agree -w/all this cynicism... (Did I get a programmer's joke to work?)

Your fastest open-cycle resource usage is water. If you can recycle your water, you've got much slower mass-growth per unit of time in free flight. This could make the difference between 8 hour spacewalk capabilities and 8 day spacewalks.

somenameforme3• 2 years ago

Things break. Moving things break much more frequently. In space, where any error can easily be fatal, you generally want to keep things as simple as possible to complete the task at hand. As well, when things break you want them to be as easy to repair as possible. Complexity should be avoided unless absolutely necessary, or in cases where the benefit provided is tremendous. Extremely lengthy spacewalks won't happen for numerous reasons (oxygen, battery, exhaustion, radiation, and so on) so that's not really even a desirable goal.

guhidalg• 2 years ago

Extremely lengthy spacewalks won't happen for numerous reasons (oxygen, battery, exhaustion, radiation, and so on) so that's not really even a desirable goal.

You're not thinking creatively enough. When life support fails and astronauts have to live in their suits for extended periods of time, what is the difference between an extended spacewalk and having to live in your suit for a while?

erik_seaberg• 2 years ago

Don't spacesuits mostly use water for cooling, with a supply of ice that gradually absorbs heat (from the closed loop) and sublimates into space?

saagarjha• 2 years ago

What about oxygen though

brcmthrowaway• 2 years ago

I would 100% psychosomatically taste the scent of urine in this water

rdlw• 2 years ago

They don't even have to add flavour!

banish-m42• 2 years ago

Humans can detect mercaptans down to ppb but I suspect they require a fermentation process to create.

Also, I wonder how it handles eating asparagus.

sillywalk2• 2 years ago

Ars Technica has a non-paywalled article.

https://arstechnica.com/science/2024/07/scientists-built-rea...

_3u10• 2 years ago

Bear Grylls was the first to buy one.

banish-m42• 2 years ago

Bill Gates will be the number two.

insane_dreamer• 2 years ago

also a good way to screen out astronaut candidates

'Dune'-Inspired Spacesuit Turns Astronauts' Urine into Drinkable Water

Related Stories