Infinite Monkeys
In the Brave New World when robots are our servants and super-smart monkeys pilot shuttles to colonies orbiting the Earth, a much less exciting and glamorous innovation awaits: Turning our urine into drinking water. I don't recall seeing such a device in 2001: A Space Odyssey. It seems even this innovation eluded Kubrick's creative mind.
Astronauts living on the International Space Station soon will take recycling to new extremes: They'll get some of their drinking water from the toilet.NASA has spent decades perfecting a system to transform urine into water that can be used in space for drinking, food preparation and washing. Agency officials say the water from the system will be cleaner than U.S. tap water.
Maybe cleaner than the tap water in Los Angeles or New Jersey. But I'll take a bet that drinking water in Lawrence, Kansas, is cleaner. Taxpayers will be happy to learn that NASA scientists have spent $250 million developing a system to turn pee into Evian. They might have saved a few bucks by hanging out at college bars to collect test samples. Oh, well.
But here is one of the least shocking elements to this story:
Russia developed a similar system in the 1980s but it never flew in space because of concerns over crew squeamishness, says former station astronaut Leroy Chiao, now a space consultant. He says station crews expect hardships and aren't likely to object.
Invent a machine to turn pee into vodka? The Russkies will be selling it by the case.
Posted by Dr. Zaius at May 25, 2008 11:22 AM | TrackBack