The brand new spacesuit urine filtration system by Cornell researchers recycles astronauts’ urine into drinkable water, aiming to enhance consolation and effectivity on future Moon and Mars missions.
Presently, astronauts should relieve themselves inside their spacesuits throughout spacewalks. This isn’t solely uncomfortable and unhygienic, but in addition wasteful. In contrast to the wastewater administration system on the Worldwide Area Station (ISS), the water from urine throughout spacewalks will not be recycled.
Researchers at Cornell are addressing this concern with a novel urine assortment and filtration system impressed by the ‘stillsuits’ from the sci-fi franchise Dune. Like these ‘stillsuits’, their prototype absorbs and purifies urine, and recycles it into ingesting water.
Sofia Etlin, a analysis employees member at Weill Cornell Drugs and Cornell College and the primary writer of the examine, defined, “The design features a vacuum-based exterior catheter that results in a mixed forward-reverse osmosis unit, offering a steady provide of potable water with a number of security mechanisms to make sure astronaut wellbeing.”
This new design was lately revealed in Frontiers in Area Applied sciences.
Future Missions and Present Challenges
In 2025 and 2026, NASA is planning for the Artemis II and III missions, the place a crew will orbit the Moon and land on its south pole, respectively. These missions are anticipated to be adopted by crewed missions to Mars by the early 2030s. Nevertheless, astronauts have lengthy complained a couple of lack of consolation and hygiene of the prevailing most absorbency garment (MAG) – the waste administration system of conventional NASA spacesuits –in use because the late Nineteen Seventies – which features like a multi-layered grownup diaper fabricated from superabsorbent polymer.
New Options for Outdated Issues
“The MAG has reportedly leaked and prompted well being points equivalent to urinary tract infections and gastrointestinal misery. Moreover, astronauts presently have just one liter of water accessible of their in-suit drink luggage. That is inadequate for the deliberate, longer-lasting lunar spacewalks, which may final ten hours, and even as much as 24 hours in an emergency,” mentioned Etlin.
Astronauts have additionally requested that the time wanted to fill and de-gas the in-suit drink luggage be decreased in future spacesuits and {that a} separate provide of non-caffeinated high-energy drinks be added.
Modern Design for Urine Assortment
With all these aims in thoughts, Etlin and colleagues have now designed a urine assortment system, together with an undergarment fabricated from a number of layers of versatile material. This connects to a group cup (with a unique form and dimension for men and women) of molded silicone, to suit across the genitalia.
The internal face of the gathering cup is lined with polyester microfiber or a nylon-spandex mix, to attract urine away from the physique and in the direction of the internal cup’s internal face, from the place it’s sucked by a vacuum pump. An RFID tag, linked to an absorbent hydrogel, reacts to moisture by activating the pump.
As soon as collected, the urine is diverted to the urine filtration system, the place it will get recycled with an effectivity of 87% via a two-step, built-in ahead and reverse osmosis filtration system. This makes use of a focus gradient to take away water from urine, plus a pump to separate water from salt. The purified water is then enriched in electrolytes and pumped into the in-suit drink bag, once more accessible for consumption. Accumulating and purifying 500ml of urine takes solely 5 minutes.
Testing and Implementation of the New System
The system, which integrates management pumps, sensors, and a liquid-crystal show display screen, is powered by a 20.5V battery with a capability of 40 amp-hours. Its whole dimension is 38 by 23 by 23 cm, with a weight of roughly eight kilograms: sufficiently compact and light-weight to be carried on the again of a spacesuit.
Now that the prototype is obtainable, the brand new design might be examined below simulated circumstances, and subsequently throughout actual spacewalks.
“Our system might be examined in simulated microgravity circumstances, as microgravity is the first area issue we should account for. These checks will make sure the system’s performance and security earlier than it’s deployed in precise area missions,” concluded Dr Christopher E Mason, a professor on the identical institute as Etlin and the examine’s lead writer.
Reference: “Enhanced astronaut hygiene and mission effectivity: a novel method to in-suit waste administration and water restoration in spacewalks” by Sofia Etlin, Luca Bielski, Julianna Rose, Karen Morales, Avery Belman, Emma Alexander, Emma Li, Richard Lin, Krishna Patel, Stephanie Rakhmonova, Claire Walter and Christopher E. Mason, 15 Could 2024, Frontiers in Area Applied sciences.
DOI: 10.3389/frspt.2024.1391200