Straight Out of Sci-Fi: How New Spacesuits Convert Urine to Drinking Water
Space exploration presents a variety of unique challenges, with astronaut hygiene and hydration management among the most crucial. With prolonged missions and extended spacewalks becoming more common, traditional methods for handling waste and ensuring hydration may no longer suffice.
The Problem with Current Waste Management
Currently, astronauts rely on Maximum Absorbency Garments (MAGs), which are essentially advanced versions of adult diapers. These garments manage waste during spacewalks, or extravehicular activities (EVAs), which can last up to eight hours. The downside is that prolonged exposure to waste can cause medical issues such as urinary tract infections and gastrointestinal problems. This is not a suitable long-term solution, especially for upcoming missions like Artemis, which aim to put U.S. astronauts back on the Moon and possibly beyond.
Introducing a New Solution
The Mason Lab has introduced a new system that offers a revolutionary approach to in-suit waste management. This system uses an external pump to collect urine, which is then filtered using a process that combines forward osmosis (FO) and reverse osmosis (RO). The result is clean, drinkable water. Essentially, this system creates a sustainable circular water economy within the spacesuit.
How It Works: A Two-Step Filtration Process
The filtration process is energy-efficient and involves two main steps:
- Forward Osmosis (FO): This method relies on an osmotic gradient between the urine (feed solution) and a concentrated salt solution (draw solution). Water naturally moves from the urine to the draw solution through a semipermeable membrane, effectively separating the water from the impurities.
- Reverse Osmosis (RO): After FO, the diluted draw solution undergoes RO, where external pressure forces the water through another semipermeable membrane, removing remaining impurities and producing clean drinking water.
The system is remarkably efficient, aiming for an 85% urine collection rate and a 75% water recovery rate. It also consumes less than 10% of the spacesuit’s energy, ensuring it doesn’t overly burden the suit’s power supply. The resulting water meets health standards, maintaining low salt levels and effectively removing major urine solutes such as urea, uric acid, ammonia, and calcium.
Practical Implementation
The FO-RO apparatus is compact and designed to fit within a pouch mounted on the back of the Extravehicular Mobility Unit (EMU). Although it adds roughly 8 kg to the suit’s weight, the benefits in terms of hygiene and resource efficiency far outweigh this slight increase in bulk. A typical void of 100–500 mL can be processed in a maximum of five minutes, ensuring quick removal and reducing the risk of skin irritation or infection.
Real-World Testing
The system, which measures 38cm by 23cm by 23cm, will be tested by 100 volunteers in New York in the autumn for comfort and functionality. “Our system can be tested in simulated microgravity conditions, as microgravity is the primary space factor we must account for,” said Mason. “These tests will ensure the system’s functionality and safety before it is deployed in actual space missions.”
Spacesuit, designed for NASA’s Artemis program, can convert urine into drinkable water in 5 minutes
The Artemis Mission and Beyond
With NASA’s Artemis missions on the horizon, innovations like this in-suit urine filtration system are becoming essential. The Artemis III mission, scheduled for 2026, plans to land a crew on the lunar south pole, with ambitions to launch manned missions to Mars by the 2030s. While urine and sweat are already recycled on the International Space Station (ISS), the new in-suit system is a significant upgrade over the current MAGs.
“Astronauts currently have only one litre of water available in their in-suit drink bags,” explained Sofia Etlin, a researcher at Weill Cornell Medicine and co-designer of the suit. “This is insufficient for the planned longer-lasting lunar spacewalks, which can last up to 10 hours, and even up to 24 hours in an emergency.”
Tackling Hygiene Issues
The stillsuit system includes a collection cup made of moulded silicone that fits around the genitalia, with different shapes and sizes for men and women. This cup is part of an undergarment made of multiple layers of flexible fabric. It connects to a moisture-activated vacuum pump that activates when the astronaut urinates. The urine is then diverted to the filtration system, which recycles it into water with 87% efficiency.
The purified water can even be enriched with electrolytes and returned to the astronaut as an energy drink. This new system addresses critical hygiene issues and provides a sustainable solution for water supply, making it a significant leap forward in space exploration technology.
As the world prepares for future lunar missions and beyond, innovations like these will be key to ensuring the health and efficiency of astronauts, ultimately contributing to the success of space exploration endeavors.
Details of the prototype were published in the journal Frontiers in Space Technology.