There's never a good plumber in space when you need one

In case this one got by you, the International Space Station, where NASA money goes to die, is now equipped with a massively sophisticated system that allows the purification and re-use of all manner of fluid input, primarily urine, wastewater, and sweat. Apparently when it works, it works great. It makes perfect sense to exploit every avenue available for recycling, and it's partly too bad that such technology can't find wider use on Earth. Maybe eventually it can, and it would have an impact in arid sectors and drought-stricken areas, such as the previously-blogged about Macau. This might get important as coastal regions get more populous and put more demands on water tables that are getting more saline due to saltwater intrusion.

So here's more on this current difficulty, made more urgent due to the imminent (hopefully) launch of Atlantis on Monday:

Broken Urine Recycler May Affect Space Mission

"The space station's urine recycler is part of a larger, $250 million water conservation system that collects urine and wastewater, as well as sweat and other condensate from the spacecraft's atmosphere. That mix is then filtered through a seven-step process until it is pure enough to drink or use for food preparation, bathing, oxygen generation or any other purpose.

Station astronauts began drinking their recycled urine in May."

I wasn't counting, but there are currently six astronauts on the ISS, and the Atlantis crew will make it 12. That's only one short of the record for the number of humans in space at the same time, which was set this past March.

It's a long way from Arks in Space, but it's a start, anyway.