After several days of unsuccessful tests, a device that will purify urine, giving astronauts a critical water supply, has made a successful test. The urine processing device is but a single part of the $154 million water recycling system that will allow not only urine, but sweat and condensation to be recycled as drinking water. This will be a significant gain for the astronauts as it will free up space to allow them to carry more crew members per mission (in fact, it will double the crew for the International Space Station), and allow them to stay for longer periods.
The samples of the processed urine, sweat, and condensation will obviously be tested on Earth at first, and astronauts may not be able to use the device until development is finished next year.
This is indeed excellent news for those of us who look to the stars and long for the day when we can travel them. However, one question remains here: WHO gets the job of testing that urine purifier? I mean, the fact that there was ONE successful test was a big enough deal to make headlines. So that means every other test, beforehand, was a failure. So imagine spending all day drinking glasses of processed "pee-water," just hoping that it's pure enough, only find out again and again, that it's NOT. **Vomits**
WANTED: "Pee Drinker" - Employee will test a very crucial urine purifying device. Perks: Holidays time and a half and you can tell chicks you work for NASA.
Someone needs to call Mike Rowe from Dirty Jobs.