NASA System Turns Urine into Oxygen
July 20th, 2006 12:05 AM | by Christen da Costa | 4 Comments
Urine might be the next fuel to get NASA to Mars - well, sort of. Used for years by the Russians, Oxygen Generation Systems, or OGS, uses electrolysis to turn pee into oxygen. The addition of an OGS system to the current space shuttle should allow for a 3 crew increase, bringing crew capacity to a total of 6. The current NASA shuttle is carrying the OGS, but won’t be usable until a urine-water recovery system is added. This system will use “a vacuum-distillation system to remove the dissolved solids in urine” and presumably harness the water to add to the OGS. Right now the question isn’t ‘if’ NASA will implement these systems and reach mars, its just a question of ‘when’.
Don’t Flush It — Breathe It [Wired]
[...] @ wired via gadget review [...]
NASA will someday launce the first “Pee Wee in space, don’t look up and keep your mouth shut.
NASA is a real genious at it making things work where the least possible.keep up the gud work and soon ill be on my trip to mars with no problems
Who thinks of this kind of stuff!! Thats so amazing. I’ve heard of people using urine for house-hold cleaners and even tooth paste, but never oxygen. Go figure!