It's about damned time we all drink our own sweat!

"WASHINGTON (AP) -- How do you quench someone's thirst when there is plenty
of water, but not a drop of it is drinkable?

It's a question NASA researchers have pondered for nearly two decades, but
villagers in Iraq and tsunami victims in Asia will get a taste of their
answer as early as this fall -- before any astronaut in space does.

The Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Alabama, has been testing a
device intended for the space station that would recycle astronauts' sweat,
respiration and even urine into drinking water purer than any found in a tap.

"They just breathe and exercise, urinate into the urinal and our system
handles the rest," said Robyn Carrasquillo, chief of the environmental
control and life support division at Marshall."

http://www.cnn.com/2005/TECH/space/03/21/space.sweat.ap/index.html

Robyn was at MSFC when I was working on SSF ECLSS stuff - I'm glad she's the
division boss now but damn, Boeing was doing the same thing in the POST tests
with qual-level hardware nearly 15 years ago . . . Sad how long it takes to
actually get interesting stuff done and ready to fly.

The russians recovered cabin humidity -- both sweat and exhaled mositure --
and recovered drinkable water, decades ago on Salyut and Mir.

About half the metabolic water disposal of a human body
is through this means, the other half via urine and feces.

Herb Schaltegger wrote:

"WASHINGTON (AP) -- How do you quench someone's thirst when there is plenty
of water, but not a drop of it is drinkable?

It's a question NASA researchers have pondered for nearly two decades, but
villagers in Iraq



Yep, this is going to go over great in an Islamic country like Iraq-
your urine is unclean, so you only touch your penis with your left hand,
which is used for touching unclean things, rather than you "clean" right
hand.
And we are going to have Islamic villagers drink their own urine.
Remember how the Sepoy Mutiny got started when Indian troops heard the
rumor that the fat used to waterproof their paper rifle cartridges was
made from cow and pork grease (thereby offending both the Hindu and
Moslem troops)? The cartridges they had to bite the ends off of to pour
the powder into their rifles?
H-m-m-m...could this whole recycled urine idea cause problems?
Meanwhile, Harper's magazine and the BBC drop the other shoe in the Iraq
war oil mystery....or how the Neocons got taken to the cleaners by big oil:
http://www.maconareaonline.com/news.asp?id=10198
http://www.gregpalast.com/detail.cfm?artid=418&row=1
This is a riot; Texas oilmen used the Neocons the way Reagan used to use
the Christian Right; while his wife was at the same time consulting on
national policy with The Witch Of Endor, her astrologer/hairdresser.
Those who think the Ferengi are cunning have never met Texas oilmen.
Or to put it in the immortal words of LBJ: "Son, he just cut your dick
off with a knife that was so sharp that you didn't even feel it." :-D

Pat

In article ,
Jim Oberg wrote:
The russians recovered cabin humidity -- both sweat and exhaled mositure --
and recovered drinkable water, decades ago on Salyut and Mir.

The big trick is recycling wash water -- from dishes, clothes, and people.
That's where the bulk of the water consumption is.
--
"Think outside the box -- the box isn't our friend." | Henry Spencer
-- George Herbert |

Jim Oberg wrote:

The russians recovered cabin humidity -- both sweat and exhaled mositure --
and recovered drinkable water, decades ago on Salyut and Mir.

About half the metabolic water disposal of a human body
is through this means, the other half via urine and feces.



The Soviets also recycled used hygiene and kitchen water (for hygiene
use only), and urine had its water extracted for the production of
oxygen via electrolysis on Mir. (Space Station Handbook 6.3.2)

Pat