Scientists unveil prototype spacesuit system that recycles urine as drinking water

Sign up for CNN’s Wonder Theory science newsletter. Now, such technology appears to be on the horizon, with scientists unveiling a prototype spacesuit system that turns urine into drinking water. “You’d think in the 21st century, astronauts would not be using diapers,” lead study author Sofia Etlin, an astrobiologist and research staff member at Weill Cornell Medical College’s Mason Lab in New York, told CNN on Friday. ‘Dune’ system To “promote astronaut wellbeing,” the researchers have designed a novel in-suit urine collection and filtration system, or “Dune” system,” Etlin said. The system would recycle urine using forward and reverse osmosis, a model used by the current wastewater management treatment system aboard the space station, to remove contaminants from the urine and filter it to drinking water.