Water for space flights

Don't ask me how I got here.

Oh. I remember.

Many amateur astronomers noticed a strange glowing plume ejected from the space shuttle Discovery a week and a half ago (8:40 PM CST, Wednesday, 9/9/09). "What could it be?" one asked. "Something venting? An OMS burn? RCS thrusters? A massive, record breaking urine dump?"

As it turns out, it was the last: a dump of urine . . . and other waste water.

But/and, from that page, I bumped into a video that describes, in detail, how NASA has designed a water recycling unit for use on extended space flights. --Not just interesting. Pretty attention-grabbing. Especially as the interviewer notes that there is a definite "ick factor" related to drinking recycled urine, sweat, bathwater, food vapors, and so forth.

Enjoy!