Attaching it to human makes it a moving part. Put it in a box somewhere and it will be more reliable. This is the exactly same stupid idea as solar frikin' roadways. Take that solar panel and put it next to the road.
This feels reminiscent of the American Billion Dollar Space Pen vs Russian Pencil.
Silly Americans, just drink urine! - Bear Grylls, probably.
Don't agree -w/all this cynicism... (Did I get a programmer's joke to work?)
Your fastest open-cycle resource usage is water. If you can recycle your water, you've got much slower mass-growth per unit of time in free flight. This could make the difference between 8 hour spacewalk capabilities and 8 day spacewalks.
Bear Grylls was the first to buy one.
Seems like an odd solution. The problem, according to another non-paywalled article [1] is that astronauts complained about lack of liquids on long spacewalks and [glorified] diapers being annoying to wear. So this contraption which has a volume of 38cm by 23cm by 23cm was developed. I say it's weird because that's 20 liters of volume (to say nothing of the additional complexities/breakable stuff involved)! Why not simply use 10 or 20% of the volume and add more room for refreshments? And perhaps keep the idea of providing a tube, and just direct it to a diaper.
Far less complex, far less volume, far less mass, far less likely to break, far cheaper, and probably far more pleasant for the astronaut as well.
[1] - https://www.theguardian.com/science/article/2024/jul/12/scie...
I would 100% psychosomatically taste the scent of urine in this water
Ars Technica has a non-paywalled article.
https://arstechnica.com/science/2024/07/scientists-built-rea...
also a good way to screen out astronaut candidates
One of the first exhibits in San Francisco Exploratorium is a toilet with a water fountain and a description explaining that it's from a clean water source. Knowing this, would you still drink the water from the toilet? It's such a fascinating exercise in psychology. The urine to drinkable water obviously takes this one step further.
https://www.exploratorium.edu/exhibits/a-sip-of-conflict