Drink Up: Astronauts Recycle Urine

At the international space station, it was one small sip for man and a giant gulp of recycled urine for mankind.

Astronauts aboard the space station celebrated a space first Thursday by drinking water that had been recycled from their urine, sweat and water that condenses from exhaled air. They said "cheers," clicked drinking bags and toasted NASA workers on the ground who were sipping their own version of recycled drinking water.

"The taste is great," U.S. astronaut Michael Barratt said. Then as Russian Gennady Padalka tried to catch little bubbles of the clear water floating in front of him, Barratt called the taste "worth chasing."

He said the water came with labels that said, "drink this when real water is over 200 miles away."

The urine recycling system is needed for astronaut outposts on the moon and Mars. It also will save the U.S. and Russian space agencies money because they won`t have to ship as much water to the station by space shuttle or cargo rockets. It`s also crucial, as the space station is about to expand from three people living on board to six.

NASA deputy space shuttle manager LeRoy Cain called the system "a huge milestone."

On the Russian side of the space station, moisture in the air -- not urine -- is turned into drinking water.

The new system takes the combined urine of the crew from the toilet and moves it to a big tank, where the water is boiled off and the vapor collected. The rest of contaminants -- the yucky brine in the urine -- is thrown away, said Marybeth Edeen, the space station`s national lab manager who was in charge of the system.

The water vapor is mixed with water from air condensation, then it goes through filters, much like those put on home taps, Edeen said.

When six crew members are aboard, it can make about 22 liters from urine in about six hours, Edeen said.

Some people may find the idea of drinking recycled urine distasteful, but it is also done on Earth with a lot longer time between urine and tap, Edeen said. In space, it takes about a week, she said.

Thursday`s urine celebration included subtle bathroom humor.

"We are happy to have this water work through the system -- we`re happy to have it work through our systems," Barratt said.

sections: Society