Atlantis crew to test textbook-sized kit that converts urine into drinking water

NASA's last space shuttle mission this Friday will carry a textbook-sized kit that can convert urine into potable water.

Soldiers already use similar technology to filter out parasites, bacteria, viruses and other contaminants from dirty fluids, including urine, but NASA's adapted baggie system has yet to prove itself in space, reports Wired News.

"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," said NASA project scientist and experiment leader Howard Levine, who made a reference to water-recycling 'stillsuits' used on a desert world in the science fiction series Dune.

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