NASA's New Bag Turns Urine Into Sports Drink

← Back to Stories (view on slashdot.org)

NASA's New Bag Turns Urine Into Sports Drink

Posted by samzenpus on Thursday July 7, 2011 @06:40AM from the I'm-afraid-that's-not-lemon-flavored-dave dept.

An anonymous reader writes "NASA's Atlantis shuttle is set to launch this Friday, and its crew will be testing an innovative device that can recycle human urine into a sugary sports drink. The bag uses forward osmosis technology and features a semi-permeable membrane capable of isolating water from virtually any liquid. Recycling urine in this way has a significant effect on a ship's payload, and considering that a single pound adds $10,000 of cost, that slight weight difference can translate to serious savings." CT: I'm at Kennedy Space Center now, tweeting as @cmdrtaco. And I think I'll stay away from the sports drink.

33 of 182 comments (clear)

Min score:

Reason:

Sort:

Having tasted many sports drinks... by Kenja · 2011-07-07 06:42 · Score: 5, Funny

I bet they could have gotten away with just a regular plastic bag.

--

"Have you ever thought about just turning off the TV, sitting down with your kids, and hitting them?"
1. Re:Having tasted many sports drinks... by edraven · 2011-07-07 06:44 · Score: 2
  
  I was going to say, doesn't Gatorade do this already?
2. Re:Having tasted many sports drinks... by Anonymous Coward · 2011-07-07 06:52 · Score: 2, Funny
  
  I haven't tasted urine, but based on the reactions of people who have, I'm guessing you haven't either.
3. Re:Having tasted many sports drinks... by tripleevenfall · 2011-07-07 09:04 · Score: 4, Funny
  
  Urine idiot.
4. Re:Having tasted many sports drinks... by cayenne8 · 2011-07-07 09:10 · Score: 2
  
  Hmm....
  I've always rather LIKED Gatorade...the original lemon-lime flavor.
  I really like it on mornings when I'm hungover....
  
  --
  Light travels faster than sound. This is why some people appear bright until you hear them speak.........
Just in time! by JudgeFurious · 2011-07-07 06:42 · Score: 4, Funny

We needed something to wash the "Turd Burger" down with!

--
Appended to the end of comments you post. 120 chars.
Just ask Bear Grylls by Reverand+Dave · 2011-07-07 06:42 · Score: 5, Funny

Piss was already a sports drink.

--
I got here through a series of tubes
1. Re:Just ask Bear Grylls by Martin+Blank · 2011-07-07 08:43 · Score: 4, Informative
  
  Drinking urine when no other source of fluid is available is better than simply dehydrating and is better than drinking sea water. However, once dehydration has set in, drinking urine only compounds the issue. The body is already trying to get rid of sodium to maintain the proper balance, and drinking the urine just adds it back into the body. This leads to even more thirst as the body craves water to balance things out again.
  This is why Les Stroud built the urine still. The water was relatively clean and safer to drink, though you get diminishing returns if that's all you have. It may provide a holdover until you can find a better source of water.
  
  --
  You can never go home again... but I guess you can shop there.
In related news:Nasa nixes asparagas from menu.... by bodland · 2011-07-07 06:44 · Score: 5, Funny

It IS in you...
Stillsuit by Anonymous Coward · 2011-07-07 06:44 · Score: 3, Interesting

NASA has given us one of the major components required for a functioning stillsuit. Thanks, NASA!
My favorite quote applies by Synn · 2011-07-07 06:45 · Score: 3, Funny

"You cannot pee into a Mr. Coffee and get Taster's Choice!"
Name it... by JoeTalbott · 2011-07-07 06:46 · Score: 4, Funny

Tang 2.0
1. Re:Name it... by Tsingi · 2011-07-07 07:15 · Score: 2
  
  Tang 2.0
  With the *NEW* *IMPROVED* flavour.
Clear as Rocky Mountain spring water by Orleron · 2011-07-07 06:46 · Score: 2

....and by removing the filter, the bag can convert urine into Coors Lite.
1. Re:Clear as Rocky Mountain spring water by Tsingi · 2011-07-07 07:16 · Score: 3, Funny
  
  ....and by removing the filter, the bag can convert urine into Coors Lite.
  Add one redneck and you have a perpetual (quasi) beer machine.
It's got electrolytes... by goldspider · 2011-07-07 06:46 · Score: 4, Funny

It has what astronauts crave!

--
"Ask not what your country can do for you." --John F. Kennedy
New Advertising Slogan by tool462 · 2011-07-07 06:47 · Score: 5, Funny

Gatorade. Was it in you?
Re:Bear Grylls says.. by ElectricTurtle · 2011-07-07 06:50 · Score: 2

Well, after all, if he were to orbit the earth in such a way that he experienced multiple sundowns every 24 hours, he would probably want a more efficient way to drink his own piss.

--
I support the Slashcott and will not be reading or commenting from 2/10/14 to 2/17/14. Beta is steaming pile of dog shit
work with sea water? by sl4shd0rk · 2011-07-07 06:52 · Score: 3, Interesting

Assuming it can filter out a bacterial infection in piss so will it work to make sea water drinkable?

--
Join the Slashcott! Feb 10 thru Feb 17!
1. Re:work with sea water? by Anonymous Coward · 2011-07-07 07:06 · Score: 2, Informative
  
  They already do this, a company named SeaPack sells one.
  Forgive me the Amazon link, but the other sites talking about it were blogs, and sites I can't get to from work.
  http://www.amazon.com/Hydration-Technology-Innovations-SeaPack-Filter/dp/B0013J2UPA
  Tekfactory
2. Re:work with sea water? by Obfuscant · 2011-07-07 07:30 · Score: 4, Informative
  
  This technology isn't new. It's being used around the world already. The company's name is Hydration Technology, not SeaPack. SeaPack is the product name for that particular version intended for maritime use.
  They provide the same kind of devices for humanitarian purposes. There is at least one version for military use, and I was able to pick up a few of the early versions through a company contact.
  Here's the direct link: http://www.htiwater.com/
What about drugs/hormones? by Anonymous Coward · 2011-07-07 06:55 · Score: 5, Interesting

With the realization that effluent from sewage plants has detectable amounts of antidepressants, estrogen (from birth control pills), and other modern drugs which may be impacting river life, I'd really like to know that this membrane stops those (as well as "virtually any liquid"). I'd hate to spend a couple of months in space and find that I now had breasts due to water-transported hormones from the women on the crew...and that they'd grown muscles and body hair due to mine.
1. Re:What about drugs/hormones? by perpenso · 2011-07-07 07:15 · Score: 3, Interesting
  
  With the realization that effluent from sewage plants has detectable amounts of antidepressants, estrogen (from birth control pills), and other modern drugs which may be impacting river life, I'd really like to know that this membrane stops those (as well as "virtually any liquid"). I'd hate to spend a couple of months in space and find that I now had breasts due to water-transported hormones from the women on the crew...and that they'd grown muscles and body hair due to mine.
  Given the antidepressants are you sure you would hate it? :-)
2. Re:What about drugs/hormones? by loimprevisto · 2011-07-07 10:18 · Score: 2
  
  Forward osmosis has been used for years and will filter out the stuff you mention. It's the same principle that a home or industrial osmotic water filter (reverse osmosis) would use, except that the pressure comes from the 'charged' liquid on one side (the stuff that makes it taste like a sports drink) instead of from the water being forced against the membrane. You can buy a system like this commercially from HTI (http://www.htiwater.com/technology/forward_osmosis/index.html). Some people like it for hiking, but from what I've heard it's more suited to emergency water production on lifeboats.
  
  --
  Much Madness is divinest Sense --
  To a discerning Eye --
  Much Sense -- the starkest Madness
So what ? by Rollgunner · 2011-07-07 06:55 · Score: 2

I don't get the "Eww" comments. You do realize that what you flush down the toilet goes to a gigantic pond where the solids settle out then the remaining liquids are pumped through filters and sent right back to your faucet, don't you?

This is just a handy portable (potable?) option to the system already in place in most North American cities.
1. Re:So what ? by Evtim · 2011-07-07 07:47 · Score: 2
  
  Let's go for the whole hog! http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Technology_of_the_Dune_universe#Stillsuit
2. Re:So what ? by PhreakOfTime · 2011-07-07 08:12 · Score: 3, Informative
  
  I have a well for my house, with a commercial reverse osmosis filtering system. So no, I don't realize that.
  Aside from that, most of the cities around me get their drinking water directly from Lake Michigan. The 'sewage' that you mention gets treated and sold as 'soil' at the local home improvement store after being mixed with sand to prevent clumping. The fluid component also gets treated and sent off to agriculture where it is used as fertilizer. Any other reclaimed water is used mainly for irrigation or industrial uses, and not drinking water.
  You only have a surface understanding of these processes, and it doesn't apply to very many actual cities, and millions of people. In actuality, there are probably only a few thousand people in the US who directly get drinking water from treated sewage like you describe.
Yes... by pelrun · 2011-07-07 07:23 · Score: 3, Funny

Twice!
1. Re:Yes... by blair1q · 2011-07-07 08:55 · Score: 2
  
  That's why they number them now.
Re:That is one beta test I am glad I am not part o by ArsonSmith · 2011-07-07 08:49 · Score: 3, Funny

taste tester: "which of these three samples taste the least like piss?"

--
Paying taxes to buy civilization is like paying a hooker to buy love.
The idea's beeen around for awhile by GPSguy · 2011-07-07 09:39 · Score: 2

If not the exact technology, the concept was first bandied about in the early days of Space Station Freedom design and development. Among other things, Space Station was supposed to lead to a Closed Environmental Life Support System that included reprocessing urine, atmospheric condensate and, well, yeah, fecal water into water of sufficient quality for drinking and even medical uses. A lot of work, by quality scientists and engineers went into this. In 1992, an experiment flew in SpaceLab on STS-47 that demonstrated taking Kennedy Space Center tap water, storing it in a closed container for 90 days, and running it through a process/apparatus called SWIS (Sterile Water for Injection System) to create water that was demonstrably "ultra-pure water for injection" per the US Pharmacopaea. Oh, and it worked, too. Making waste water into something drinkable is considerably simpler.
A poster commented on the potential for cross-transfer of large molecular weight compounds across the ultrafiltration membrane... Unlikely unless it's got holes, and they'd become obvious by the "filtration" rate.

--
Never ascribe to malice that which can adequately be explained by tenure.
"Dual Survival" is the best of this show type. by Lashat · 2011-07-07 09:48 · Score: 2

You have two hosts with different skillsets. One is a hippie, primitive skills expert, desert dwelling, bare-foot walker. The other is an ex-military, hunter, swamp/forest dwelling, boot wearer.
They tell you up front that they stage the situation, but make it entertaining and educational to watch.
As a outdoorsman/kid all my life even I have picked up some interesting tips from the show. No non-professional adventurer can go to all the places these shows take you.

--
For every benefit you receive a tax is levied. - Ralph Waldo Emerson
Re:Can we get a Nike endorsement? by Walt+Dismal · 2011-07-07 18:04 · Score: 2

I am Bear Grylls, and I am VERY angry with you people.