Shulou(Shulou.com)11/24 Report--

CTOnews.com, June 26 (Xinhua)-- the International Space Station's Environmental Control and Life support system (ECLSS) has reached a technological milestone that has been able to recycle 98 percent of the water generated by astronauts on the station, including breathing and sweating water vapor and urine, according to news released by NASA this week. This technological breakthrough is of great significance for future lunar and deep space exploration missions.

The ECLSS system consists of two parts. Part of it is to use "advanced dehumidifiers" to capture the moisture exhaled and sweated by astronauts. The other part is a subsystem called "urine treatment device", which extracts water from urine by vacuum distillation. According to NASA, the distillation process produces water and urine brine containing recyclable water. The agency recently began testing a new device that can extract the remaining water from brine. CTOnews.com noted that it was the use of this equipment that enabled NASA to achieve 98 per cent water recovery on the International Space Station, up from 93 to 94 per cent previously.

"this is a very important step in the development of the life support system," said Christopher Brown, a member of the NASA team responsible for managing the life support system on the International Space Station. "if you collect 100 pounds of water on the space station, you will only lose 2 pounds and the remaining 98% of the water will be recycled continuously. Keeping it running is a great achievement."

"this process is basically the same as some water distribution systems on Earth, except in a weightless environment." "what astronauts drink is not urine, but recycled, filtered and clean water, which is cleaner than the water we drink on Earth," said Jill Williamson, manager of NASA ECLSS water systems.

Williamson says systems like ECLSS are crucial for NASA to carry out more missions beyond Earth orbit. "the less water and oxygen we send into space, the more scientific load we can add to the launch vehicle." "A reliable and robust regeneration system means that astronauts don't have to worry about these problems and can focus on the real goals of their mission," Williamson said. "

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