Recycled Pee Tastes Good in Space

If you happen to be one of the few fans of Kevin Costner's mid-nineties flick Waterworld, which I most certainly am, perhaps you recall the opening scene.  When Costner's character, who is traversing the ocean-covered earth, needs fresh water to drink, he merely pees into a contraption that immediately converts urine to water. And he drinks it. 

 At that moment, a collective, "ewwww" went up  in the theater, but make no mistake, we all thought it was pretty damn resourceful if not monster cool.

Flash forward in time and out of the movies and NASA, the only folks who can beat Hollywood in creativity, has created a urine to potable H20 system for the astronauts to use in space. Apparently, the system boils the combined urine of the crew in a large tank. The water vapor is collected and the rest is chucked out. The water vapor is mixed with water from air condensation and through a few filters. When six crew members are aboard it can make about six gallons from urine in about six hours. Astronauts said the water tasted great.

This isn't the first time NASA has used this system. It was developed for quick water purification after the 2004 Asian tsunami.

Photo courtesy of Digital Media Net