#02: Water Recycling inside the Space Station

Dr. Ladner had a chance to talk with Layne Carter from NASA recently. During his 28 years at NASA, Mr. Carter has worked on the development, design, delivery, and operation of the ISS Water Recovery System (WRS), which includes the Water Processor Assembly (WPA) and Urine Processor Assembly (UPA). His current role is the ISS Water Subsystem Manager, for which he is responsible for the ongoing operation of the water management and WRS on ISS. In addition, he is the co-Lead for NASA’s Advanced Exploration Systems (AES) Wastewater Processing and Water Management team, which has the responsibility for developing the technologies to be used for NASA’s future manned missions. 

On this episode, you will learn,

1. How urine is recycled so astronauts can drink it. Yes, drink it.

2. How the Russians are helping with the Station’s overall water balance, and

3. How urine brittle, not to be confused with peanut brittle, was a problem NASA had to overcome.