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Being an astronaut is very physically demanding; the radiation and irregular blood circulation followed by fatigue because of the unnatural day and night cycles. Not to mention that up in space with miniscule gravity causes the muscles and bones to work less. Prolonged time in space causes those muscles to deteriorate. Astronauts up in the International Space Station (ISS) exercise daily to counter the effect using specialized equipment because lifting regular weights would not work. The sweat produced by the body will evaporate, ventilated and then turned into edible water by separating the salts.
The same thing happens with the astronaut’s urine. The more weight brought up into space, the more expensive the mission becomes and so comes the essential for efficiency. Astronauts also do not shower in space and instead use wet towels to cleanse their bodies. “Without urine recycling, water could make up 80 to 90 percent of the mass on a spaceship to get humans to Mars, Gormly says” –sciencenews.org. With the possibility of constantly recycling urine into water the cost goes down by a lot.
First, the urine goes through a forward osmosis system that uses a strong salt to suck the water out from the urine. Urea in the urine is then turned into ammonia that enters an electrochemical cell which then produces electricity for the space station. However the process does use oxygen in the process which can decrease the supply.
The recycling of urine could be problematic for Muslim astronauts in the future because urine and feces is considered Najis and according to wikipedia “cannot be cleaned”. Numerous Muslims have been in space, the latest being Sheikh Muszaphar Shukor who is also the first Malaysian. Shukor left earth in 2007 for 9 days while in the month of Ramadhan. There have been debates for where to face when praying (as the ISS is constantly in motion), or when to break fast as the ISS sees the sunset and sunrise every 92 minutes.
For the debate on urine recycling in my own opinion I think that it should be allowed. The water we drink from our taps and gallon water is no less water that earth recycles. Forward osmosis simply fastens the process of recycle. Surprisingly urine recycling doesn’t have to take place in the ISS alone but also in places with lack of clean water such as deserts, or to help with the Californian drought.
