US researchers have developed a novel full-body space suit that astronauts can use during spacewalks and recycle urine into water.
Since the late 1970s, NASA spacesuits have been designed with maximum absorbency garment (MAG) — the waste management system — which functions like a multi-layered adult diaper made of superabsorbent polymer.
While astronauts on spacewalks relieve themselves inside their spacesuits, it is both uncomfortable with reports of leaks, and health issues such as urinary tract infections and gastrointestinal distress.
The new prototype of the space suit designed by researchers from Cornell University “includes a vacuum-based external catheter leading to a combined forward-reverse osmosis unit”.