Ever thought of drinking your own urine, but you don’t have any other choice if you want to survive in space.
The vision for space exploration which at times look little shaky won’t look the same with Environmental Control and Life Support Systems project (ECLSS) which is stitching its finishing touches on systems for capturing exhaled carbon dioxide and urine and turning them into breathable oxygen and drinking water. With this, we are indeed inching towards inhabiting the mars, moon and beyond.
Early space missions-Mercury, Gemini, Apollo-took with them all the water and oxygen they needed and discarded liquid and gaseous wastes into space. For long-duration missions to the Moon or Mars, it makes sense to close the loop-that is, to recycle air and wastewater instead of just discarding them. More over regeneration is far more cost-effective than resupplying the station with water and oxygen from Earth.
This one’s surely paving the way for eventual journeys to Mars and beyond.
