The latest in space technology, called an osmotic bag, is not meant for the squeamish, with NASA claiming this bag-within-a-bag can actually change urine into drinking water. While this news is difficult to digest, both metaphorically and literally, this technology is already inducted in the army, with soldiers serving in barren terrain using something similar, to process dirty water, free it of all germs and contaminants, and make it safe to ingest.
NASA’s system is slightly different and is called a Forward Osmosis Bag (FOB) system, which has been specially designed keeping in mind space and shuttle constraints. What this handy little blue bag does is to convert any kind of contaminated or dirty water into, not exactly water, but a kind of liquid like substance which is safe to drink.
So how does this FOB work? Put simply, on the basic principle of forward osmosis. The bag works with a sugary solution inserted into a semi-permeable inner bag, which in turn is contained in an outer bag. When dirty fluids are injected into the outer bag, they slowly but eventually, pass through the inner bag and into the sugary solution, leaving all their pollutants behind.
Howard Levine, NASA project scientist and experiment leader, explains why this bag is an important invention, “This could be a first step toward recapturing the humidity from our sweat, from our breath, even from our urine, and recycling it and making it drinkable.” NASA has in fact being trying to master this FOB technique for a while now, with the pee-recycling machine fitted at the International Space Station causing problems as it is tapping, and in turn sapping, power from the orbital laboratory’s main supply. On the contrary NASA’s new FOB does not need any kind of a power source, as it wholly and solely depends on the inherent property of forward osmosis, present in all fluids.
While on ground this double bag FOB system takes about a good four to six hours to churn out a liter of this energy drink like water, in space it is yet to be tested. However, one of the Atlantis astronauts plans to do its trial in space using an experimental fluid, and not his own urine, toward the end of the mission. The picture gallery on the right shows Levine and engineer Monica Soler of Bionetics Corporation taking us through the various steps involved in the FOB process, in a demonstration they gave at the Kennedy Space Center.
Via: Wired
