Grossed out yet? Then you may not want to read about the Forward Osmosis Bag.
Supergirl Getting a Suprise, from Action Comics #377. Copyright DC Comics.
The Forward Osmosis Bag (FOB) system is designed to convert dirty water into a liquid that is safe to drink using a semi-permeable membrane and a concentrated sugar solution. FOB looks at the forward osmosis membrane in a space flight environment and compares its performance against ground reference controls.
In case you’re wondering, yes “dirty water” is indeed urine. While this may seem vile and maybe a waste of money, the fact of the mater is that water reclamation, be it wastewater or greywater, is huge and these extra-planetary investigations could potentially lead to solutions that increase the amount of drinkable water on the planet.
That said, I’m not about to come over to Principal Investigator Howard Levine’s house for tea any time soon.
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